Prosecutor Mark Lindquist delivered opening statements Monday in the retrial of Jaycee Fuller, 37, who is charged with the 2009 stabbing death of Tacoma taxi driver, Mohamud Ahmed.

A jury convicted Fuller in 2010. The conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeals, which decided that the trial judge erred in admitting evidence that the defendant declined to answer some of the detectives’ questions.

Ahmed was an immigrant from Somalia who came to the United States in search of a better life. In the early morning hours of March 8, 2009, he picked his last fare, Fuller, in the Sixth Avenue area of Tacoma. Police later found Ahmed dead outside of his cab, with the meter still running. Ahmed’s throat was cut and he had been stabbed in his side. At the murder scene, police found a Keg restaurant cap. Ahmed’s blood was outside the cap, and the defendant’s DNA was inside the cap.

A jury deliberated for just over two hours before finding Fuller guilty of murder in the first degree. Prosecutor Lindquist asked the Court to impose the maximum sentence, citing the defendant’s motives for the crime – hatred and greed. Judge Katherine Stolz followed Prosecutor Lindquist’s recommendation, and sentenced fuller to 28 years in prison.

Prosecutor Lindquist tried the case with former Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Grant Blinn, who is now serving as Lakewood Municipal Court Judge.

Charges are only allegations and a person is presumed innocent unless he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.