Officers found a woman with 10 stab wounds before her husband pleaded guilty to attempted murder.
FARMINGTON, Minn. — Police responding to a domestic assault call found a woman bleeding in a bedroom after her husband stabbed her in their home, a case that ended with a 20-year prison sentence.
The June 3 sentence against Mehdi Badaoui, 53, followed a chain of events that began just after 8:30 a.m. April 15, 2025. The call brought Farmington officers to a house where dispatchers had been told a woman was stabbed and could not move. More than a year later, Badaoui stood convicted of first-degree attempted murder after entering a guilty plea in Dakota County District Court.
Police were first told to treat the call as a domestic assault. When officers arrived, a witness inside the residence directed them toward a bedroom. There, according to prosecutors, they found Badaoui’s wife on her side in a pool of blood. Officers saw a series of stab wounds while trying to help her before paramedics took her to a hospital for emergency surgery. Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena later said, “I’m grateful to the Farmington Police Department and the first responders who provided life-saving aid.”
The first minutes inside the home shaped the case. Officers reported that one of the woman’s wounds required a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. Medical staff later counted 10 stab wounds. Prosecutors said the injuries were life-threatening. Police also found Badaoui in the garage with blood on his hand. A bloodied pocketknife was recovered from the kitchen counter, tying the kitchen area to the violence witnesses said they saw. The home became a scene where first aid, witness statements and evidence collection all began at once.
Witness accounts described a violent movement through the house before police arrived. A witness said she woke up to yelling and saw Badaoui stab the victim. Prosecutors said the witness reported seeing him drag the woman through the kitchen and into the bedroom where officers later found her. The probable cause account said a witness pleaded with Badaoui to stop. Instead, police wrote, he said he was going to kill the victim and go to jail. The victim also spoke to officers after the attack, saying her husband believed she had been unfaithful and attacked her because of that accusation.
The victim’s statement added earlier claims of abuse to the case. She told police that Badaoui had beaten her and threatened to stab her before. Those statements were included with the allegation that the April 15 attack followed his belief that she was cheating. Investigators also recorded Badaoui’s explanation after he was advised of his rights. He said he had put a GPS tracker in his wife’s car because he suspected infidelity. On the morning of the stabbing, he said he saw her drive to a location other than her workplace, went there and confronted her. She then drove home.
Badaoui told police the argument continued at the residence. He claimed the victim called him names and scratched his face. He then picked up a knife and began “hitting” her with it, according to the police account. He said he stabbed her three or four times. That number did not match the medical count, which found 10 wounds. Prosecutors did not publicly identify the victim by name, and public statements from the county did not include a detailed medical update after her emergency surgery. The court record focused on the charges, plea and sentence.
Two days after the attack, prosecutors announced charges. Badaoui, then 52, was charged April 17, 2025, with attempted first-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. The first-degree count accused him of premeditated attempted murder. The second-degree count accused him of attempted murder with intent but without premeditation. Judge Christopher Lehmann set bail at $1 million without conditions and $750,000 with conditions. The court also issued a domestic abuse no contact order, which barred contact while the case moved forward. His next scheduled hearing at the time was set for May 1 in Hastings.
The legal path ended without a trial. Badaoui pleaded guilty March 30, 2026, to one count of first-degree attempted murder. At sentencing on June 3, Judge Tanya O’Brien ordered him to serve 240 months in prison. Prosecutors said he would receive credit for 416 days already spent in custody. Keena said after the sentence, “Today’s sentencing reflects our commitment to victims and holding offenders accountable.” The sentence placed the case among serious domestic violence prosecutions in Dakota County, where the county attorney’s office announced both the original charges and the final sentence.
The timing of the case shows how quickly the investigation began and how long the court process continued. The attack was reported on a Tuesday morning in April 2025. Charges followed that Thursday. Badaoui remained in custody at the Dakota County Jail while the case moved through hearings. His guilty plea came almost a year later, in late March 2026. Sentencing followed in early June. By that point, prosecutors said he had already served 416 days in custody, a credit that will be applied to the 20-year term.
The public record leaves some facts unknown. Prosecutors did not state in their sentencing announcement whether the victim addressed the court or whether Badaoui made a statement at sentencing. They did not release the victim’s name, a common practice in many domestic violence cases. They did not describe the exact layout of the home, the full length of the attack or the victim’s long-term condition after surgery. The public details that were released came from the criminal complaint, police accounts, medical findings, the guilty plea and the county attorney’s statements.
After sentencing, Badaoui remained in the Dakota County Jail while awaiting transfer to the Minnesota Department of Corrections. The county case now moves from prosecution to punishment, with the prison system set to take custody under the 240-month sentence ordered June 3.
Author note: Last updated July 7, 2026.