NEWPORT BEACH, CBSLA – A Newport Beach pot dealer who is known to have escaped from Orange County jail pending trial was convicted Friday of kidnapping and torturing a pharmacist owner of the marijuana.
Hossein Naeri, 41 years old, was sentenced on Friday to two life sentences without the possibility of parole and seven years imprisonment for life. CBSLA.
Hossein Nayeri, aged 41, was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole and another seven years in prison for life after Justice Gregg Prickett of the Orange County Supreme Court rejected his request for a retrial.
Naeri, who has reviewed several defence lawyers since the lawyer representing him was first sent back to court, was convicted last August in two kidnapping-for-a-buy cases and one torture case.
According to the prosecution, Naeri and two other men broke into a house in Newport Beach, where the owner of the pharmacy was arrested on the afternoon of the second day of the attack. rented a room in October 2012. Then a trio of masked assailants kidnapped the owner of the men’s pharmacy and the hostess.
During the kidnapping, the male victim was kicked and strangled to the point of vomiting into her pants, said Brown Heather, Senior Crown Deputy Attorney. The attackers then put the two victims in a van and drove for 90 minutes into the desert, where they hit a man with a rubber hose, burned him with a burner and sprayed him with bleach, repeatedly asking him to reveal where he had buried a million dollars.
There’s no doubt that the motive in this case was money – $1 million, Brown told the jury. Actually, the victim didn’t have a million dollars.
The owner of the pharmacy said he didn’t have much money, but he was willing to take it to his marijuana clinic and give him about $34,000.
Arriving in the desert, prosecutors said Naeri and two other assailants stopped and pulled the victims off the bus – again a man cleared what Brown said he thought was gasoline. Then one of the men pulled out a kitchen knife and cut off the penis of a man who was never found.
They left the knife behind and told the female victim that if she found it, she’d be free before she died. While the men were walking, the woman could move the bandage on her knees, find the knife and open the zippers that tied her legs. She walked about a mile barefoot through the desert to the highway where she was spotted by a deputy from the Kern district and helped bring a man to the Valley of the Antelopes medical center.
Naeri, who pleaded not guilty on the stand at the trial, maintained that his railway staff, the police and the prosecution had not responded to the verdicts.
The focus here was on the first conviction, Naeri said in his pre-conviction statement to the judge. John Wayne would have been blinded by the justice of the Wild West to shoot first and ask questions later, but as I always say: God bless America.
The owner of the pharmacy says he’s still struggling with PTSD.
I never feel 100% safe, he says.
Brown said the female victim was also seriously injured.
I think it’s obvious she’ll never know the rest of the night, she said.
Orange County prosecutor Todd Spitzer said his office will continue to investigate the escape case, even though Nayeri can no longer be held in custody.
It’s quite clear to me that we don’t know what the court of appeal would do, Mr. Spitzer said. We don’t know what the legislature will do… We’re not taking any chances with Mr. Nayeri… He’s a maniac.
I hope he never sees the light, continues Spitzer. I hope he dies in prison.
Kyle Handley, a 41-year-old co-conspirator, had previously been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Co-defender Ryan Anthony Kevorkian, 41, awaiting trial.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. City News Service contributed to this report).
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