Man to face trial for deadly stabbing in central Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- It only took testimony from three people and a few hours to convince a judge there was enough evidence to send Scott Lawson to trial for the murder of Mohamed Abdillahi.

Fresno police say Lawson stabbed Abdillahi, known to friends as Mo, on November 17th last year in the parking lot of T-Mobile on Blackstone and Abby.

Action News was not allowed to show Lawson's or either of the witnesses' faces in court.

Leah McFarlane was the first to take the stand, she testified that she often hung out near the T-Mobile with a large group, that sometimes included both the suspect and victim.

She said it was known there was tension between the two.

Right before the stabbing, McFarlane said she was helping Lawson's girlfriend, Amber Dyer.

"She had said she had gotten pepper sprayed," said McFarlane.

"So you were trying to help her get the pepper spray off of her? Were you able to see some of the pepper spray on her," asked the defense.

"No, I mean, she was complaining of it hurting and her eyes were watery," said McFarlane.

McFarlane said she didn't see the initial fight between the two men, but did see Lawson stab Mo, and stayed with Mo while she called an ambulance.

"Scott ran, grabbed his bike, passed and took off,' said McFarlane. "Mo sat there yelling 'I'm dying. Help me guys. It hurts' so I ran over there to help."

Lawson's girlfriend, Dyer, claimed Mo had maced the couple just minutes before the stabbing.

As the two walked away from Mo to seek help, Dyer said another friend stopped them.

"We ran into a friend Josh and Josh told us that Mo and Boxer were looking for us and that they had a gun and they wanted to shoot us and he gave Scott his knife and he said 'here's my knife for protection'," said Dyer.

That's when she said Lawson turned around and headed back in Mo's direction.

She says she didn't see Lawson again until they returned home later.

The lead investigator in the case testified other witnesses told him a man, identified as Lawson, had chased down Mo before stabbing him and presented Snapchat video to support the account.

If convicted Lawson faces 26 years to life in prison.

Dyer also claimed Mo had also maced Lawson the week before the murder.

She was asked if she had sent a Facebook message to a friend before the stabbing saying that if Scott ran into Mo it would be bad. She said she didn't remember.

Lawson will return to court for arraignment on Monday, July 29th.

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