Fairfax Co prosecutors dropped prior charges against illegal immigrant arrested for stabbing VA woman to death because homeless victims wouldn't testify

It has been revealed that an illegal immigrant charged with fatally stabbing a Virginia mother to death at a bus stop had numerous prior charges against him dropped because his victims refused to testify. 

35-year-old Abdul Jalloh, from Sierra Leone, had been arrested 30 previous times leading up to the stabbing for charges that include rape, theft, assault, and malicious wounding. The Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office told the New York Post that prosecutors were unable to pursue many of the cases because Jalloh’s victims, most of whom were homeless, refused to come forward to testify against him. 

Laura Birnbaum, chief of staff for the Fairfax County prosecutor, said, "Our office convicted the defendant of a 2023 malicious wounding charge, and we have since made every effort to hold him accountable each subsequent time that he has come in contact with the criminal justice system." She added, "Unfortunately, the defendant in this case also had a history of selecting victims with no fixed address – some of the most vulnerable members of our community."

Birnbaum said that prosecutors in several cases "were unable to move forward with prosecution because we did not have victims’ participation or presence at court hearings, and successful prosecution would have depended on victim testimony."

The Department of Homeland Security said that ICE had previously lodged a detainer against Jalloh in 2020, and that a final order of removal had been granted saying he could be deported to any country other than his home nation. He entered the country illegally in 2012. Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis called on Virginia leadership to not release Jalloh again.

"We are calling on Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger and Virginia's sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this murderer and violent career criminal from their jail without notifying ICE. This illegal alien’s murder of an innocent, beautiful American woman came less than 24 hours before Governor Spanberger’s demonization of ICE law enforcement. This heinous criminal is a perfect example of why we need cooperation from sanctuary jurisdictions and the importance of third country removals for the safety of the American people," Bis said.

Jalloh was first arrested in Virginia on assault charges in 2017, and racked up dozens of arrests in the following years. Between January 2023 and the murder of the Virginia woman, Jalloh was arrested 18 times alone. 

Jalloh has been charged with murdering 41-year-old Stephanie Minter of Fredericksburg, Virginia, at a Hybla Valley bus stop. An obituary for Minter described her as a "happy, jolly individual, filled with love and adoration for her loved ones. A beam of light in dark places."