Mehdi Badaoui pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted murder after prosecutors said his wife suffered 10 stab wounds.

HASTINGS, Minn. — A Farmington man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting he repeatedly stabbed his wife during an April 2025 attack that left her with life-threatening injuries, Dakota County prosecutors said.

The sentence gives a final court answer to a case that began with a morning domestic assault call and ended with a guilty plea to first-degree attempted murder. Mehdi Badaoui, 53, received a 240-month term June 3 in Dakota County District Court. Judge Tanya O’Brien imposed the sentence after Badaoui pleaded guilty March 30. Prosecutors said he will receive credit for 416 days already served in custody.

The attack happened April 15, 2025, inside a residence in Farmington, a Dakota County city south of St. Paul. Farmington police were called to the home at about 8:30 a.m. after dispatchers received a report of a domestic assault. Officers were told a woman inside had been stabbed and could not move. The victim, identified in court records only as Badaoui’s wife, was later found in a bedroom lying on her side in a pool of blood. Dakota County Attorney Kathy Keena said after sentencing, “This was a brutal act of domestic violence that could have resulted in a loss of life.”

Officers found Badaoui in the garage with blood on his hand, according to prosecutors and the criminal complaint. A witness inside the home led officers to the bedroom where the woman was found. While police and first responders treated her, they saw several stab wounds, including one wound that required a tourniquet to slow the bleeding. The woman was taken to a local hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery. Medical staff later reported finding 10 stab wounds. Officers also recovered a bloodied pocketknife from the kitchen counter, a detail that became part of the evidence described by prosecutors when Badaoui was first charged.

Authorities said family members inside the home gave police a clearer picture of the attack. One witness reported waking to yelling, then seeing Badaoui stab the woman. Prosecutors said the witness saw him drag his wife through the kitchen and into a bedroom. According to the probable cause affidavit described in court accounts, a witness pleaded with Badaoui to stop, but he said he was going to kill the victim and go to jail. The victim told police that Badaoui attacked her because he believed she had been unfaithful. She also told officers he had beaten her before and had threatened to stab her on more than one occasion.

Badaoui’s own statement to police added another part of the timeline. After officers advised him of his Miranda rights, he said he suspected his wife was cheating on him and placed a GPS tracking device in her car. He told police he saw her go somewhere other than work on the morning of the attack and drove to confront her. The woman then returned home, where the argument continued. Badaoui claimed she called him names and scratched his face before he picked up a knife. He told investigators he began “hitting” her with it and said he stabbed her three or four times, fewer than the 10 wounds medical staff later documented.

The criminal case first moved through court two days after the attack. On April 17, 2025, prosecutors charged Badaoui, then 52, with one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of attempted second-degree murder. The first-degree charge alleged premeditation. The second-degree count alleged intent without premeditation. Judge Christopher Lehmann set bail at $1 million without conditions or $750,000 with conditions. The court also issued a domestic abuse no contact order. At that stage, prosecutors noted that charges were allegations, not proof, and that Badaoui was presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The case changed on March 30, 2026, when Badaoui entered a guilty plea to one count of first-degree attempted murder. The plea avoided a trial and left sentencing to the court. Prosecutors later announced the 240-month prison term, equal to 20 years. The sentence was handed down by O’Brien in Hastings, the Dakota County seat. Keena said the sentencing reflected the county’s commitment to victims and to holding offenders accountable. The dismissal or resolution of any remaining count was not detailed in the county’s sentencing announcement, but the guilty plea to the first-degree attempted murder count was enough to produce the 20-year term.

The case drew attention because of the details recorded by police at the scene. It began as a domestic call before morning routines had fully passed, then turned into a major attempted murder investigation. Officers entered a home where witnesses had just watched violence unfold and where a wounded woman could not move. The evidence police reported collecting was direct and physical: blood on Badaoui’s hand, a woman bleeding in a bedroom, emergency medical findings and a pocketknife on the kitchen counter. The victim survived after emergency surgery, but prosecutors described her injuries as life-threatening. Her recovery status after sentencing was not included in the county’s public statement.

Farmington police and first responders were credited by prosecutors for providing aid after they arrived. Keena said when charges were filed in 2025 that the facts were “shocking” and that the terror the victim endured was “unthinkable.” At sentencing more than a year later, she returned to the same central point: the attack was domestic violence that could have ended in death. No public statement from Badaoui’s defense was included in the county’s sentencing release. The court record described the sentence, custody credit and transfer process, while police accounts described what happened inside the home before officers arrived.

Badaoui remained in custody at the Dakota County Jail after sentencing while awaiting transfer to the Minnesota Department of Corrections. With 416 days of jail credit applied, the prison term now moves from the county case file to state custody. The next milestone is his transfer from Dakota County to the state prison system.

Author note: Last updated July 7, 2026.