MENOMONIE, Wis. — The Minneapolis man accused in the beating death of a UW-Stout student pleaded not guilty to all charges Monday.
Cullen M. Osburn, 27, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing April 20. He faces charges of felony murder and aggravated battery in the death of Hussain Saeed Alnahdi, 24. Alnahdi died Oct. 31 after an altercation in downtown Menomonie on Oct. 30. He died from traumatic brain injury.
Osburn made an appearance Monday in Dunn County Court before Judge Rod Smeltzer and sought a reduction of a $75,000 bond. He is in custody at the Dunn County Jail on bond after being arrested Jan. 13 in the Twin Cities on a Dunn County warrant.
Defense lawyer Chris Zipko argued that Osburn contacted Dunn County law enforcement on Nov. 2.
“At no point was Mr. Osburn ever fleeing any jurisdiction,” Zipko said. “He went back to his normal life.”
Osburn did not waive extradition right away because he wanted to see what was in the criminal complaint but would waive any future extradition hearings, Zipko said.
District Attorney Andrea Nodolf argued against reducing bond.
“It is just not that easy to go to Minnesota and find the defendant and pick him up,” she said, noting he contacted authorities but then cut off contact.
Dunn County law enforcement had his home and work address and went there but could not locate him until he was picked up on a warrant by Minnesota authorities.
Smeltzer denied bond modification.
Assistant attorney general Robert Kaiser is assisting the prosecution of the case, Nodolf noted.
Zipko has said the case is one of self-defense.
Osburn, a convicted felon, was not a student at UW-Stout. He previously was convicted of domestic assault and failure to abide by an order to have no contact with the victim. The charges in Dunn County carry a penalty enhancer for the charges.
According to the criminal complaint:
Alnahdi and his roommates were drinking at their home until about 1 a.m. Oct. 30 and then decided to go to the Menomonie bars.
A witness told police he saw Alnahdi smoking a cigarette outside Toppers Pizza, 406 Main St. E., and stopped to talk to him. They were approached by Osburn, who argued with Alnahdi and yelled at the Saudi native. The witness was unsure what precipitated the confrontation.
Osburn told one witness Alnahdi grabbed the chain around Osburn’s neck, and Osburn said he may have pushed Alnahdi backward.
Another witness said Osburn struck Alnahdi twice in the face in rapid succession, what the witness called “two pieced.” Witnesses pulled Osburn off Alnahdi, and Osburn left the scene.
Police were called to the scene and found Alnahdi unconscious and bleeding from the nose and mouth. He was flown to Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, where he died Oct. 31 due to a traumatic brain injury.
Alnahdi, who came to UW-Stout from Saudi Arabia to study English as a second language, was a junior majoring in business administration.