2 teens sentenced in immigrant's slaying

Iadumo Mohamed spoke quickly in a Boston courtroom yesterday, tears falling from her eyes.

"He never left the house without kissing me," Mohamed, a native Somali, said through a translator in Suffolk Superior Court. "I don't have that anymore."

Mohamed addressed the court as Suffolk Superior Judge Frank Gaziano prepared to sentence the two teenagers who confessed to killing Mohamed's son, Abdirauf Abdullahi, 19, on a South End street in 2006 in a possible case of mistaken identity.

In a plea deal opposed by the victim's family, Eloy Sierra, who was 15 years old when he fatally shot Abdullahi, and Mwase Potts, who was 16 when he helped in the killing, both pleaded guilty to reduced charges of manslaughter.

They were originally charged with first-degree murder and if convicted faced a mandatory sentence of life without parole. Instead, Sierra was sentenced to 19 to 20 years and Potts to nine to 10 years under the agreement between Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley's office and defense lawyers.

From the bench, Gaziano said Abdullahi, who had been poised to leave Boston to attend a pharmacy college on a scholarship, was "truly an innocent victim." But the judge called the sentence "reasonable and just" after reviewing the evidence against the two teenagers, who had limited or no criminal histories prior to the killing.

Before being sentenced, both apologized and asked forgiveness of Abdullahi's mother and his father, Abdigafar Abdullahi-Salah.

"I pray for him every day," Potts said of the slain teen, who had escaped from war-torn Somali with his family. "Please forgive me for my reckless acts. . . . Don't hold a grudge, because I am deeply sorry for my actions."

Sierra, a Randolph High School student at the time of the shooting, also expressed remorse. "I just want to say I am sorry," he said as he looked at the grief-stricken parents. "As far as what happened, I send my condolences . . . I hope I find a way to act better and make better choices in the future."

Speaking through a Somali interpreter, the victim's father said outside the courtroom that he did not approve of the sentence. He also said he wished Massachusetts had a death penalty because he cannot find peace as long as his son's killers remain alive.

"When someone kills somebody, the only way you can feel better or get peace of mind is when you know the other person got what he deserved and he got killed," the father said through the interpreter.

Abdullahi and a friend had left Peter's Park on Shawmut Avenue around 11:30 p.m. on June 25, 2006, when two people wearing dark, hooded sweat shirts opened fire, fatally wounding Abdullahi.

Authorities said that Abdullahi fell victim to heightened gang tensions in the South End at the time, and that the honors student was not involved in any gang activity.

"Abdirauf Abdullahi was an earnest, hardworking young man who had escaped a civil war only to die on Boston's streets," Conley said in a statement.

John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.