1st murder trial from stabbing spree that shook Flint, Mich., begins

5/8/2012

FLINT, Mich.  — A 49-year-old man who was the last Michigan victim in a stabbing spree two years ago was willing to help anybody but probably didn’t know that a suspected serial killer was on the loose, a sister said.

Jurors will hear opening statements and testimony Tuesday in the first murder trial stemming from a string of attacks that killed or injured more than a dozen people in the Flint area in summer 2010. Elias Abuelazam is charged with the death of Arnold Minor, whose body was found in a busy street in the middle of the night.

Minor was considered the last Michigan victim, and police say his DNA was discovered in dried blood in Abuelazam’s SUV and in his luggage. Abuelazam was captured days later at the Atlanta airport while trying to flee to Israel, his native country.

Stabbing victims who survived said Abuelazam would ask for directions or help with his Chevy Blazer before jamming a knife into them.

Minor “would help anybody but he would have never walked home” if he knew more about the knife attacks, a sister, Kimberley Minor, said last week.

Abuelazam, 35, faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. His attorneys might offer an insanity defense. Abuelazam is charged with three murders and six attempted murders in the Flint area, as well as attempted murder in Toledo, Ohio. He is suspected but not charged in similar attacks in Leesburg, Va., an area where he formerly lived.

Six of 14 people stabbed here in Genesee County died.