Probation for woman who was with husband as he set fire to St. Paul high school, 2 stores during rioting

A woman was sentenced Tuesday to three years' probation for being with her husband when he set fire to a St. Paul high school and two stores during the rioting that followed George Floyd's murder, then hiding out with him in Mexico.

Mena D. Yousif, 24, of Rochester, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty to being an accessory after the fact in connection with the fires on May 28, 2020.

Yousif's husband, 36-year-old Jose A. Felan Jr., pleaded guilty to arson and was sentenced in October to 6½ years in prison. Felan's sentence includes three years of supervised release after prison. He also was ordered to pay $39,000 in restitution.

Felan was accused of setting fire to Gordon Parks High School, a Goodwill store in the 1200 block of W. University Avenue and 7 Mile Sportswear in the 500 block of W. University. Felan and Yousif were arrested by law enforcement in Mexico after the U.S. Marshals Service found them in February 2021.

Ahead of Yousif's sentencing, her attorney wrote to the court that his client should receive three years' probation, saying she "became brainwashed [by Felan] and would do as he wished as though she had no [will] of her own."

Attorney Bruce Rivers added that Yousif also "became isolated by him. … No family, no friends, no one from the outside was allowed in."

Prosecutors in their filing pushed for no more than two years' probation for Yousif, noting that she has no other criminal history and "did not assist her husband or others in damaging property."

Surveillance video showed Felan and a third defendant, Mohamed Hussein Abdi, starting a fire in the school, according to the criminal complaint against Abdi. Similar evidence was found at the Goodwill store, where Felan was seen starting a fire minutes before the school was set ablaze, the charges against Abdi read.

Abdi, 22, was sentenced in early February to five years' probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit arson. He also was ordered to pay more than $34,000 in restitution.