The Columbus Dispatch
Jordan Laird
Wednesday March 6, 2024
Shukri Hassan, right, the daughter of Imam Mohamed Hassan Adam, speaks Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at the sentencing of 24-year-old Isaiah Brown-Miller (seated at left and wearing brown) in Franklin County Common Pleas Court for kidnapping and aggravated robbery in connection with the death of her father, Imam Mohamed Hassan Adam, in 2021.
Members of Columbus' Somali and Muslim communities packed a Franklin County courtroom Tuesday for the sentencing of a man convicted of kidnapping beloved Imam Mohamed Hassan Adam in 2021 in a fatal robbery attempt.
Isaiah Brown-Miller, 24, of Columbus' North East Side, was sentenced by Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Karen Phipps to 26 to 31 years in prison for his conviction on kidnapping and aggravated robbery charges.
Brown-Miller was convicted in January by a Franklin County jury at his third trial after two other juries could not reach a unanimous verdict.
More than 300 people signed victim impact letters sent to the judge about Adam, who was the imam at Masjid Abu Hurairah mosque on the Northeast Side.
Thousands more locally and around the world have been impacted by the loss of Adam, who was a spiritual leader and helped the poor, homeless and orphaned regardless of race or religion, his friends said.
Adam's family said Brown-Miller was an accomplice to Adam's murder and is also responsible for the 48-year-old man's death.
However, Brown-Miller was not charged with murder. A different jury convicted his codefendant, 47-year-old John Wooden, of Columbus' Franklinton neighborhood, of aggravated murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and other charges in Adam's death.
"Mr. Brown-Miller participated," said Abdi Sofi, Adam's longtime friend and relative. "(Adam) was an honorable member of the community and was held hostage for so many hours and killed, and they left his body in a junkyard."
Brown-Miller intends to appeal his case. His defense attorney, Lumumba Toure McCord, said he does not believe the third jury got the verdict right.
Wooden is scheduled for sentencing on Thursday after he fired his defense attorney in January, thus delaying his sentencing.
For aggravated murder, Wooden faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Phipps will decide when he is first eligible for parole after at least 20 years.
Isaiah Brown-Miller, 24, of Columbus' North East Side, center, appeared in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday, March 5, with his attorney Lumumba Toure McCord, right. McCord said he does not believe the third jury got it right when they convicted Brown-Miller of kidnapping and aggravated robbery in connection with the 2021 death of Mohamed Hassan Adam.
Phipps said while sentencing Brown-Miller that she took into consideration that he was out on probation when he committed this crime and that his first felony charge came when he was 14 for a robbery.
After the hearing, Phipps thanked Adam's family in the courtroom.
“I’m so sorry it took this long, but hopefully you can move on and have some closure,” Phipps said.
Adam's daughter, Shukri Hassan, told The Dispatch that her family will have justice after Thursday when Wooden is sentenced.
During the hearing, Hassan said her father fled a civil war in Somalia and believed this country was safe for him and his family.
"He never could have imagined leaving a war zone, only to get murdered here in this country," Hassan said. "This crime has completely destroyed my family's sense of safety."
A deadly kidnapping
Adam was reported missing on Dec. 22, 2021, and was found fatally shot on Dec. 24, 2021 near his yellow van in an overgrown lot on Columbus' North Side.
Franklin County prosecuting attorneys said during their trials that Wooden and Brown-Miller were attempting to get money from Adam and possibly from the mosque’s funds to which the imam had access.
Adam was seen on surveillance video on the evening of Dec. 22, 2021, attempting to withdraw money from an ATM while accompanied by a man in a white mask.
There were also numerous failed transactions on Cash App, a money-transferring app, from Adam’s cellphone that night, according to prosecutors. Some transactions were for thousands of dollars.
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