Minn. Man Gets 18 Years For Killing Cabbie

HASTINGS (AP) - An Apple Valley man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for the stabbing death of a cab driver.

Twenty-year-old Abdirahman Abdikarim was sentenced Thursday in Dakota County District Court.

Abdikarim pleaded guilty in October to second-degree murder in the death of 41-year-old Michael Palm Jr. Palm's body was found in his cab on Aug. 1, 2009, in front of an office building in Apple Valley. He had been stabbed 30 times.

Abdikarim admitted that he broke into the cab with a screwdriver, then used it to kill the cabbie, who surprised him. He had wanted to steal a GPS unit.