Abdi Fatah Ahmed sentencing postponed in horrific crash that killed 3 people on Lombardi Avenue in Green Bay in 2020
GREEN BAY - A man convicted of driving a speeding car that broadsided another vehicle, killing three people, will wait another month to learn his sentence for three counts of second-degree reckless homicide.
Abdi Fatah Ahmed, 24, was scheduled to be sentenced Monday. He faces up to 45 years in prison for the crash that killed driver Jesse Saldana, 28, and passengers Sonia Gonzalez-Guillen, 27, and her mother, Sonia V. Gonzalez, 57. Saldana and Gonzalez-Guillen had been dating.
However, Brown County Judge John Zakowski granted a motion by Ahmed's lawyers Monday to delay sentencing so they had time to study a second pre-sentence report that they requested at the beginning of August.
Family members of the victims objected in court to this latest delay, saying more than two years have passed since their loved ones were killed.
"We want to get this (case) closed and get him beginning serving his time," said a woman, identified in court as "E.H.," who said she was the mother of one of the victims.
Zakowski, citing a crowded court schedule, rescheduled sentencing for Sept. 19. He said he sympathizes with victims' family members but that it's common for the defense to be granted a postponement if new information becomes available.
Ahmed on June 6 pleaded guilty in Brown County Circuit Court, admitting he was the driver of the 2019 Dodge Dart that broadsided a second car June 28, 2020, near the Kwik Trip on Lombardi Avenue. Computer software in Ahmed's vehicle showed the car had been traveling 104 mph one second before the crash, police have said.
The guilty plea spares the families of the victims sitting through a trial. Sonia Gonzalez's husband, Hector Guillen, had called for the maximum penalty during a court appearance a month after the crash, in part because Ahmed had run afoul of police at least four times previously because of his reckless driving.
"He should be punished to the maximum extent law allows," Guillen said during a 2020 court appearance for Ahmed.
Each conviction also comes with up to 10 years of probation.
The criminal complaint charging Ahmed in the case says he told an officer he had been driving 35 mph — the speed limit on Lombardi Avenue — and claimed Saldana had pulled in front of his Dart.
Witnesses, however, quickly contradicted that story. They told police in the criminal complaint that the crash caused the Saldana vehicle to roll four or five times before striking a tree and a light pole.
Contact Doug Schneider at (920) 431-8333, or DSchneid@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @PGDougSchneider.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Abdi Ahmed sentencing postponed in horrific 2020 crash that killed 3
