An illegal migrant was free to allegedly hack a 41-year-old mom to death at a Virginia bus stop despite 30 prior arrests because prosecutors in the lefty Washington, DC, suburb say they were powerless to keep him locked up.
Abdul Jalloh, 35, from Sierra Leone, had a rap sheet including on rape, assault, malicious wounding and theft charges, but prosecutors were unable to pursue many of the cases because most of his victims were homeless and refused to testify against him, the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office told The Post.
That left Jalloh on the streets on Feb. 23, when cops said he repeatedly stabbed 41-year-old mom Stephanie Minter to death at a bus stop on Richmond Highway in Fairfax County.
“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,” said Laura Birnbaum, chief of staff for the Fairfax County prosecutor.
“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.
In several cases, she said prosecutors “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.”
Fairfax County says it is not a sanctuary jurisdiction, but top Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee slammed Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano and Sheriff Stacey Kincaid for failing to cooperate with ICE on the arrest of illegal migrants.
The US Department of Homeland Security, which said it lodged an immigration retainer for Jalloh as early as 2020, slammed “Virginia’s sanctuary politicians.”
Virginia court records show that Jalloh was first arrested there on assault charges in 2017, and over the following year alone he was picked up for grand larceny, destruction of property and rape.
He was arrested on the rape rap on Oct. 23, 2018, but no details were available and the case is listed as a “nolle prosequi” — which translates to unwilling to prosecute.
Birnbaum said that case was filed under a prior prosecutor’s administration and no details are currently available — but the same designation appears on several other of Jalloh’s prior arrests.
The records show that he was arrested at least 18 times between January 2023 and last week — when he was charged with Minter’s murder — for petty larceny, trespassing, public drunkenness, assault and malicious wounding — a shooting or stabbing “with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable, or kill.”
The online records do not provide further details of the earlier cases.
What is clear is that Jalloh was a free man when he allegedly attacked Minter, with the incident caught on surveillance footage and eyewitness accounts after both got off a bus at the crime scene, police said.
DHS called on the new Democratic governor to commit to working with ICE to keep dangerous migrants off the streets.
“We are calling on Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Virginia’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this murderer and violent career criminal from jail without notifying [Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Laren Bis said in a statement.
Spanberger in January signed an executive order rescinding an earlier directive that called for Virginia law enforcement to assist the feds in civil immigration matters.
The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Post on Monday.
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