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A convicted murderer is now scheduled to stand trial next spring for a fatal shooting in Rochester last year.

31-year-old Muhidin Omar Abukar is charged with second-degree murder for his alleged participation in the death of 28-year-old Garad Roble, who was found shot to death on March 5th, 2019 along a rural southeast Rochester road just east of the Shoppes on Maine complex. A hearing on his case was held last Friday and jury selection for his trial was scheduled to begin on May 3rd. He is currently being held in the Olmsted County jail on $10 million bail.

The other man charged with the death of Roble, 24-year-old Ayub Iman, is also facing a second-degree murder charge and is being held on $1 million bail. He has yet to enter a plea to the charge and the proceedings in his case are still on hold due to the pandemic.

Olmsted County is currently in the process of creating a new courtroom capable of holding a jury trial with safe social distancing and other COVID-related modifications. Sheriff Kevin Torgerson says it will be located on the upper floor of the county's Work Release detention center on the south side of 4th Street Southwest and is scheduled to be ready for use in the early spring of next year.

Abukar was previously sent to prison in 2010 for a 2nd-degree murder conviction for his involvement in the shooting death of 32-year-old Ryan Nissalke in Rochester in 2009. In that case, he was given a 14-year prison sentence.

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