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COVINGTON 
 A taxi cab driver was convicted Friday in Kenton Circuit Court of raping a female passenger he picked up in October 2010.

Jurors recommended Mohamud Abukar, 38, of Erlanger serve 12 years in prison after finding him guilty of first-degree rape. Judge Martin Sheehan will sentence him next month. Abukar will have to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence imposed.

Investigators also suspect Abukar in the rape a second woman who hailed his cab but he hasn�t been charged in that case. Investigators can�t locate the alleged victim in the other attack.

Assistant commonwealth�s attorneys Leanne Beck and Megan Mersch presented evidence at the three-day trial that Abukar raped the woman after she hailed a cab outside of Newport on the Levee in October 2010.

The victim was celebrating a friend�s birthday with her boyfriend when the couple decided not to drive home because they were intoxicated, prosecutors said. Abukar drove the couple around Northern Kentucky for five hours until both of them fell asleep. Investigators were able to establish the length of time the couple was in the cab by tracking their mobile phone records.

The woman woke up with Abukar on top of her, prosecutors said. She fought him off, woke up her boyfriend and the pair jumped out of the cab. Abukar had driven the couple to a remote area of Erlanger.

The couple ran until they found a gas station and called 911. They were able to give a vague description of the driver but didn�t have his name. Erlanger police arrested Abukar after the boyfriend saw the cab driver a few days later at a gas station where he worked.

It took 18 months to take the case to trial, in part, because authorities were waiting for DNA testing. DNA recovered from the victim�s clothing matched Abukar�s.

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http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20120525/NEWS010704/305250088/


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