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One of the FBI’s former top 10 most-wanted suspects was convicted of capital murder on Tuesday, more than 12 years after allegedly carrying out “honor killings” against his two daughters in Texas.
Yaser Said, 65, was found guilty of capital murder in the deaths of 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said. Prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty, meaning Yaser Said receives an automatic life sentence.
Prosecutor Lauren Black said at trial that Said was “obsessed with possession and control.”
The sisters were found shot to death in a taxi parked near a hotel in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving on New Year’s Day in 2008. Jurors heard a 911 call Sarah Said made by cellphone, telling the operator that her father had shot her and that she was dying.
YASER SAID ‘HONOR KILLINGS’ TRIAL: DAUGHTER IN 911 CALL TELLS POLICE SHE’S ‘DYING’
“Help,” said a crying voice on the 911 recording, later determined by police to be that of Sarah Said. “I’m dying. Oh my God. Stop it.”
Sarah Said was shot nine times and Amina Said was shot twice.
Yaser Said allegedly invited his daughters to a meal at Denny’s before killing them.
(FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth)
A week before they were killed, the girls and their mother fled their home in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville and went to Oklahoma to escape Said. The sisters’ boyfriends also joined them.
The prosecutor said the sisters had become “very scared for their lives,” and decided to leave after their father “put a gun to Amina’s head and threatened to kill her.”
SON OF YASER SAID, FBI 10 MOST-WANTED ‘HONOR KILLINGS’ SUSPECT, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONCEALING HIM
Sarah Said and Amina Said were allegedly shot to death by their father in what prosecutors have described as “honor killings.”
(FOX 4 Dallas-Fort Worth)
The mother, Patricia Owens, who is divorced from Said, testified that he convinced her to return to Texas. She testified: “I didn’t think anything would happen.”
In a letter written to the judge, Said wrote that he was not happy with his daughters’ “dating activity” but he denied killing them.
On Monday, Said told jurors that he did not kill his daughters. He said he fled the taxi he was driving that evening because he thought they were being followed and someone wanted to kill him. He said he did not turn himself in to authorities because he feared he would not get a fair trial.
This undated file photo provided by the Irving (Texas) Police Department shows Yaser Abdel Said; at right are daughters Amina and Sarah Said.
(Irving Police Dept. via AP, File / Facebook)
In a Dec. 21, 2007, email that was brought into evidence, Amina Said told a teacher that she and her sister planned to run away. She said they didn’t want to live by the culture of their father, who was born in Egypt, nor did they want arranged marriages, as he planned. Her father, she said, had “made our lives a nightmare.”
“He will, without any drama nor doubt, kill us,” the email read.
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After the slayings, Said was sought on a capital murder warrant, and was placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list. He was finally arrested in August 2020 in Justin, about 35 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Dallas. His son, Islam Said, and his brother, Yassim Said, were subsequently convicted of helping him evade arrest.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
