10th Somali pleads guilty to piracy in Norfolk court‏

A 10th Somali man pleaded guilty to piracy Thursday, admitting his role in the February hijacking of a yacht in the Arabian Sea that left four Americans dead.

The five remaining defendants - four Somalis and a Yemeni - in the case are expected to go to trial Nov. 29 in U.S. District Court.

Like the others who pleaded guilty before him, Mahdi Jama Mohamed will be sentenced to life in prison with the hope of getting out early because he cooperated with authorities.

Mohamed, believed to be 23 or 24, admitted that he purposely sought a pirate expedition and, when hired, he served as an armed guard on the yacht Quest over the hostages. He did not fire at the Americans, according to federal prosecutors.

The Quest's owners, Scott Underwood Adam and Jean Savage Adam of the Los Angeles area, and their friends Phyllis Patricia Macay and Robert Campbell Riggle of Seattle, were shot and killed by other pirates on the boat that day, according to court records.

Mohamed's sentencing was set for Oct. 3. The nine others pleaded guilty over the past week.