The trial of a Texas man who is accused of killing his two daughters in a suspected case of “honor killings” in 2008 and fleeing for the following 12 years while on the FBI’s most wanted list started on Tuesday. The man is currently facing two counts of capital murder in connection with the deaths of his daughters. Yaser Abdel Said, who is 65 years old, is now facing charges of murder with the potential for the death penalty; if convicted, he would be sentenced to life in prison without the chance of release.
Outside of the Omni hotel in Irving, the corpses of Amina, who was 18 years old, and Sarah, who was 17 years old, had several gunshot wounds. The dead were found in their father’s cab. Just a few moments before she died away, Sarah placed a call to 911 and told the operator, “Please help, my father just shot me! I’m dying, I’m dying!”
Said, an Egyptian immigrant, is charged with their murders and is suspected of doing so because he felt they were “too American.” Patricia Owens, his wife, had previously disclosed to Fox News that Said had been enraged when he realized that his daughters were seeing men who were not Muslim. She said that he had become angry when he found out that his daughters were dating non-Muslim men. Owens asserts that the man made the statement that he did not want to bring up “whores as daughters.” Following the deaths of her two daughters, she initiated the divorce process.
On New Year’s Day, Said reportedly took the ladies out with him under the guise that they were going to eat at a local restaurant in Lewisville, Texas. However, he really drove them to Irving, Texas, where he is suspected of opening fire on them as they were riding in his cab.
“this case is about a guy who is obsessed with possession and control,” the prosecutor, Lauren Black, said in court on Tuesday. “this case is about a man who is obsessed with possession and control,” she added. According to Black, “He controlled what they did, who they spoke to, who they could be friends with, who they could date, and whether or not they could date.” “And he had complete command over his home and its contents.”
According to the testimony of Amina’s boyfriend, who testified in court, when Amina unwillingly returned home on New Year’s Day after escaping to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with her mother, sister, and their boyfriends, she “knew she was going to die.” This was said by Amina’s boyfriend. According to the accounts of others who heard her dying remarks, she informed him that she would never see him again. On January 1, 2008, she returned to her residence, and later that day, she was found dead.
The deaths of Amina and Sarah were found on January 1, 2008, inside their father’s cab as it was parked in front of a hotel in Irving. The vehicle had been there since the previous day.
According to the prosecution, Amina’s father held a pistol to her head before Christmas 2007, prompting the children and their mother to flee the house they shared with him and his father. Amina’s history teacher allegedly stated in court that the 18-year-old student had written her about her intentions to leave her family and added, “He would, without any drama or uncertainty, murder us.” This information was reported by the Dallas Morning News. In addition, she requested that the instructor keep her intentions a secret until after she had already departed from her house.
However, according to Black, in yet another instance of “control” and “manipulation” on the part of Said, he convinced them to go back home by pretending to have changed. Black says this occurred when Said told them he had become a different person. She said that their father had made plans to take the two of them out to supper on the night that the sisters were murdered. Black described the two women as “two young females with a lot of energy.” “Typical young women in their teens who yearned for a typical existence.”
After relocating to Tulsa, their mother, Patricia Owens, and Sarah came to the conclusion that it would be best to celebrate New Year’s Eve with family and friends back in their previous location. Amina approached her home with trepidation.
Said sent a letter to the court who was presiding over the case, in which he voiced his disgust with his children’s “dating activities.” However, Said maintained that he was not responsible for the deaths of his daughters. Said, who was born in Egypt, was the subject of excessive police attention, and anti-Muslim prejudice may have contributed to that attention, the defense attorney Joseph Patton claimed in his opening remarks that the evidence did not support a conviction, that Said was the subject of excessive police attention, and that he was the subject of excessive police attention.
“It is inappropriate for the government to generalize and punish a whole culture just so that it might suit their narrative and achieve their goal. In 2008, the state intends to prosecute Yaser for the crime of being a Muslim “said Patton.
According to his defense, no one would testify that they saw Said at the crime site, and the police should have investigated into the girls’ mother or Amina’s boyfriend instead. He stated, “They saw Amina and Sarah for the very last time when they were still alive. Amina’s boyfriend said that he and his father saw Said and both girls in Said’s taxi soon before the shooting, and that they followed them for a short while out of concern. This took place immediately before the shooting.” Amina’s boyfriend, Edgar Ruiz, made the observation that “Her expression was one of terror; she didn’t appear like she wanted to be there.”
Said managed to evade capture after the murders and was found in the year 2020 around 50 kilometers from the location of the crime. Both his son Islam, who was 19 at the time, and his brother Yassein were found guilty of sheltering a wanted criminal. Islam was deemed to be the primary offender. Islam was given a sentence of ten years, while Yassein was given a sentence of twelve years.
After Said’s arrest, Owens gave an interview to the Dallas Morning News in which she said that her children were “kind, compassionate, clever, loved everyone, and would assist anyone.” “They were two of the most amazing kids in the world, and they did not deserve what happened to them,” the author says of the children.
It is expected that more than 58 witnesses, including the mother of the girls, local and federal detectives, and experts in Muslim culture, would be summoned to the stand to provide their testimony. The court is also letting the prosecution to brief the jury on claims that Said sexually molested his own daughters; these claims were subsequently withdrwan. However, the judge is allowing the prosecution to inform the jury of these charges.
In the instance of Said, the execution of the defendant is not an option. If found guilty of murder with the death penalty, he would get a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release.
