A man accused of shooting and killing his teenage daughter in Irving in 2008 hid inside a secret room in Justin’s family home to escape arrest, according to testimony Monday from an FBI agent.
Yaser Said has been charged with the murders that led to the deaths of his daughters. Sarah, 17, and Amina Said, 18. According to prosecutors, on the night of January 1, 2008, Yasser Said shot Sarah her nine times and Amina her twice. Said was on the FBI’s 10 most wanted listbut escaped arrest for 12 years, officials said.
Some family members testify Girl was victim of ‘honour killing’ Because their father thought they had brought shame on the family. The girls are dating non-Muslims, and the girls’ mother, Patricia Owens, testified last week that Yasser Said had threatened the girls.
Monday is the fifth day of the trial in the 7th Criminal District Court in Dallas. State prosecutors called off the trial around 11 a.m. Monday.
Said is expected to testify in his defense on Monday afternoon.
You can watch the trial live here.
hidden room
The FBI was informed of Said’s whereabouts in 2017, but he disappeared again until August 2020, according to FBI testimony. The FBI knew that Said’s family lived in cities such as Euless, Bedford, Haltom City and Southlake, as FBI agents testified on Friday. I informed the authorities that I had
The FBI began surveillance of the Sayid family and tracked Sayid’s son and one of his brothers to Justin’s home, which the Sayid family had leased, FBI agent Randall White testified Monday. , an FBI agent saw a figure walking by the house. White said authorities also picked up trash bags that Said’s family had dumped on Southlake and tried to hide the contents. When officials opened the bags, they found food, cigarette butts and other trash.
On August 26, 2020, a SWAT team was set up around the house and set up a flash bang in the backyard to discourage Sayid from escaping like that. Sayid surrenders to the SWAT team and is arrested.
When agents searched the house, they found bags of concrete and evidence of a “construction project,” White said. The first set of photos showed a one-story white house. Photos of the back exterior of the house showed a covered patio, the walls of which were made of half concrete and half white grate.
Inside the house, investigators found a cutout in the wall that was hidden by a plywood plank, White said. He described this as the entrance to a “hidden room built into the house.” Inside the room, investigators found signs that someone had lived there.
In photos released in court, a TV, sofa and personal items filled a small space. The rest of the house seemed well-lived, White said, with a refrigerator stocked with food and his two bedrooms in the house containing suitcases filled with clothes and There was a bed covered with blankets. The photos showed a cluttered house with broken furniture and trash strewn about.
The agent did not say how long Said believed he had been living in the house.
national claim
Yaser Said sent several letters to a Dallas judge declaring him not guilty. According to WFAA-TV.
In one letter he wrote: But I did not murder them or plan to harm them,” the WFAA reported.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty. If convicted, Sayid will be automatically sentenced to life in prison without parole.
pleaded not guilty Tuesday, the first day of his trial testimony.
His son and brother were sentenced to prison for hiding him.
This week, defense attorneys argued that Yasser Said was targeted as a suspect because he is a Muslim, and that the evidence showed the investigation had failed. Continuing to hurl, questioning a former Irving police detective looking for other suspects in the murder.
Retired Irving Detective Joe Henning testified that the girls’ boyfriends who went to the Irving Police Department shortly after the fatal January 1, 2008 shooting were not suspects.
The defense attorney also said there were no fingerprints, weapons, bloody clothes or footprints found in the investigation.
Owens testified last week that on Christmas Day 2007, the girls and their mother ran away from the family’s home in Louisville in fear of Yehsa Said. However, she and the girls were back home by her January 1, 2008.
That night, Yasser Said told his wife that he would take the girls to dinner, but he didn’t invite her, she said. He died from multiple gunshot wounds while sitting in a cab in Said nearby.