Yaser Said found guilty in 2008 murder of his teenage daughters

DALLAS — Yaser Said, as soon as listed as one of essentially the most needed males in America, has been found guilty of killing his two teenage daughters.

Said’s daughters Sarah, 17, and Amina Said, 18, have been found useless in 2008, slumped in Said’s borrowed taxi because it was parked in entrance of the Omni Hotel in Irving. The women died of a number of gunshot wounds. 

Their deaths been described as so-called “honor killings” — as a result of they believed Said was upset that his daughters had been courting outdoors the Muslim religion. In her ultimate moments, Said’s youthful daughter Sarah managed to name 911 and establish her father because the shooter.

In the wake of his daughters’ loss of life, Said hid from authorities as they sought to arrest him. He eluded regulation enforcement for 12 years, and ultimately ended up on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted checklist. He was later found at a house in Justin, Texas, simply 30 miles from the place Sarah and Amina have been killed. 

Upon detaining Said in 2020, the FBI additionally arrested his son and brother on costs of harboring a fugitive. Each of these males has since been convicted and sentenced to greater than a decade in jail.

Yaser, by all accounts and even his personal, was the final individual recognized to have seen the ladies alive that day. 

“All signs always pointed to Yaser Said. Period,” prosecutor Lauren Black informed jurors throughout closing arguments. “And we have now a watch witness to the crime. sarah stated tells you who her killer is.

Black replayed Sarah’s 911 for jurors, the place she says her dad shot her. Their mom, Patricia, grew to become visibly emotional. 

“She’s screaming out from the grave,” Black stated. “He’s here. He did it.”

Black reminded  jurors in regards to the letter e-mail Amina wrote on Dec. 21, simply days her loss of life. Amina informed her trainer that she and her sister have been operating away as a result of they feared their father. 

“He has simply made our lives a nightmare,” the e-mail stated. “…I know that he will search til he finds us and he without any drama or any doubt kill us.”

At the tip of six days in the capital murder trial, jurors deliberated for about three hours earlier than returning their guilty verdict Tuesday afternoon. 

Over the course of the trial, prosecutors painted an image of Said as a jealous and indignant man who managed his daughters’ lives. They detailed the brutal nature with which his daughters have been murdered, they usually described it in graphic element. 

Said’s attorneys, in the meantime, solely known as one witness to testify: Said himself. 

Throughout his testimony, Said — aided by a translator — denied that he killed his daughters, saying that he liked them, claiming that he feared for his personal security the evening they have been killed. He stated they have been alive and properly once they left them in the taxi.

He stated he was the sufferer of a media smear marketing campaign that was all too keen to color him as a killer.

“He is asking you to suspend all common sense, all reality to believe that story,” prosecutor Brandi Mitchell informed jurors. “It was so absurd. It is insulting to the memory of Amina and Sarah Said.”

Mitchell informed jurors that Said couldn’t clarify why somebody would wish to harm him. She stated it didn’t make sense that he would depart his two women in the cab with his cellphone and his gun.

“Does that seem reasonable?” Mitchell stated. 

Throughout the trial and in closing arguments, Said’s attorneys attacked the investigation itself. They questioned, amongst different issues, why police didn’t take fingerprints from the automotive, why gunshot residue wasn’t taken from the lady’s boyfriends and why written statements weren’t taken from the boyfriends.

Said’s attorneys have implied that Sarah might have been affected by a uncommon situation that causes auditory and visible hallucinations when she made that 911 name pointing the finger at her father. 

“This is insulting to the memory of Amina and Sarah,” protection legal professional Joe Patton stated. “The police insulted their memory.”

Defense legal professional Bahranan Muse informed jurors sthat prosecutors and investigators had based mostly their case “on prejudice and ignorance.” Yaser, she stated, was a conservative father who sought to guard his daughters, not an abuser.

“Discipline does not mean you murdered your children,” Muse stated. “Your culture does not mean you murdered your children.”

After the decision, Said’s former spouse, Patricia Owens, took the stand to provide a sufferer’s act assertion.

She informed him as a result of of his actions Amina and Sarah by no means went to promenade, graduated from highschool or grew to become docs as that they had dreamed of doing.

“They were very smart intelligent and bright and did not have an enemy in the world, their father, the devil, that killed them,” she stated, holding up photos of the ladies as she spoke to him.

She informed Said that not solely had he killed his daughters, he had “brainwashed” their son who’s now in jail for serving to to cover him. 

Said grew to become visibly indignant as she spoke. The choose admonished his attorneys to maintain their shopper stop.

” You can keep those evil eyes on me as long as you want, but you will never break me down again nor will you ever be able to hurt another person,” Owens informed him.

She informed him she hopes he suffers simply the way in which their daughters did. 

“At this time, you are nothing. You are a prisoner. You are a murder and the devil,” she stated. 

Said’s former sister-in-law, Connie Moggio, who had spoke to Amina on the day she died, additionally addressed Said.

“There is no honor in killing two unarmed people. I call that being a coward,” she stated. “The only thing you did to your family was stain it with your family’s blood. Now it is your turn to get what you gave,a prison you call home.”

Prosecutors didn’t hunt down the loss of life penalty in this capital murder case; with this conviction, Said is mechanically sentenced to life in jail with out parole.