COLUMBUS, Ohio — A 24-year-old man was sentenced Tuesday to at least 26 years in prison for his involvement in the December robbery and disappearance of a Columbus mosque leader who was later found dead.
A Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge sentenced Isaiah Brown-Miller to between 26 to 31 years in prison for aggravated robbery and kidnapping with mandatory post-release control for two to five years.
Brown-Miller was found guilty of both charges earlier this year. A second suspect, 47-year-old John Wooden Jr., was found guilty on Oct. 25, 2023, of aggravated murder, kidnapping and aggravated robbery in the death of Mohamed Hassan Adam in 2021.
Adam was reported missing in Dec. 22, 2021, after he never arrived to pick up his child from daycare. Investigators said Adam was last seen leaving his mosque in a yellow van that night. His body was found inside the van near a wooded area off Windsor Avenue two days later.
An autopsy report showed Adam died from multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head.
Franklin County prosecutors alleged during the trials of the two men that the defendants were trying to get money from Adam and possibly from the mosque’s funds to which the imam had access. Investigators said earlier there was no indication Adam was targeted because of his faith or because he was a member of the Somali community.
During the sentencing, the daughter of Adam, Shukri Hassan, said, "We are still missing him every single minute it affected us, I cannot describe how much we miss him. He never could have imagined leaving a warzone only to get murdered here in this country, this crime has completely destroyed my family’s sense of safety."
Wooden faces a mandatory life term in prison and at least 20 years before being eligible for parole. One of his attorneys, Paul Scarsella, alleged that the prosecution’s case against Wooden was built on assumptions and that police failed to follow all leads.
Wooden’s sentencing is being held on Thursday.
