Amir Hasan Beaudion Jr. Can Be Tried For the Murder of Pasqalina Badi in 2020

A 19-year-old Amir Hasan Beaudion Jr. could face capital punishment if found guilty of kidnapping and killing 20-year-old Pasqalina Badi from Sioux Falls in 2020, according to a judge ruling on Friday. Prosecutors believe Beaudion abducted Badi from Walmart parking lot before her body was discovered the following day along a Lincoln County ditch.

Lincoln County State’s Attorney Tom Wollman says he has yet to decide whether he will seek the death penalty in Beaudion’s case. Wollman tells the Argus Leader he plans on waiting to see what experts have to say regarding Beaudion’s mental capacity before making his decision. Meanwhile, defense has filed motions with the court seeking intellectual disability status for Beaudion, which could reach all the way up to Supreme Court level if successful.

Beaudion’s public defender has not responded to a request for comment, according to The Argus Leader, while Beaudion’s parents’ attorney stated their family remains “shocked and in disbelief,” with no evidence supporting any charges brought against their son.

At the time of Badi’s murder, Beaudion was serving probation for assaulting a Minnehaha County prison guard. According to her account, when Beaudion asked her for help filling a spray bottle he hit her on the head and choked her before asking again for assistance with filling another spray bottle he hit again and choked again before departing with her help.

Surveillance footage from a Wal-Mart where police believe Beaudion followed Badi into her vehicle has provided definitive proof that Beaudion committed the crime. In it he can be seen shouting insults at Badi before punching her several times before driving away.

Investigators suspect Beaudion, arrested Jan. 5, of being the individual responsible for abducting Badi from her car. He was charged with two crimes inside Minnehaha County Jail as well as five outside it; among these was possession of an illicit weapons made out of battery parts and cellophane and two drug offenses that included making an improvised cutting weapon out of battery parts and cellophane – as well as two drug offenses where strip searches revealed both small pencils as well as makeshift shank cutting tools.