Rochester woman gets probation for helping husband set fires
Mena Dhaya Yousif (Credit: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Rochester woman has been sentenced to three years of probation for helping her husband set fires during protests over George Floyd’s death and fleeing with him to Mexico.
A federal judge sentenced 24-year-old Mena Dhaya Yousif on Tuesday. She had pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in connection with the May 28, 2020, fires.
Her husband, 36-year-old Jose Angel Felan Jr., was sentenced in October to 6.5 years in federal prison for setting the fires, including a fire at a St. Paul high school. Yousif is visible in surveillance video standing next to him as he was starting a fire at a Goodwill store.
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Immigration authorities captured them in Mexico in February 2021. Prosecutors last month recommended Yousif serve two years on probation, noting that she has no criminal history and didn’t help her husband or anyone else damage any property. Prosecutors also pointed out that she was several months into a high-risk pregnancy when her husband started the fires.
A third defendant in the high school fire, Mohamed Hussein Abdi, was sentenced to five years’ probation almost a year ago.