While police continue searching for three men who escaped a Santa Ana jail on Friday, the deputy district attorney who is handling the case against one of the men is speaking out about his alleged crimes.
“He’s diabolical,” prosecutor Heather Brown told The Orange County Register. Brown is handling the 2012 case against Hossein Nayeri on charges of kidnapping and torture.
“My first reaction was: Oh, my God, they let Hannibal Lecter out. He is sophisticated, incredibly violent and cunning.”
Nayeri is accused of participating in a 2012 attack against a Newport Beach man who operated a licensed marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana. Prosecutors allege that Nayeri and his accomplices believed that the man had hidden a large amount of money in the Mojave desert and, in their quest to find the money, kidnapped the man and a woman he was dating, drove them to the desert, and tortured the man. Via The LA Times:
Authorities said the attackers dragged the man and woman to a van and drove them to the desert, a 2 1/2-hour drive. The attackers said they believed the man had $1 million, but he told them he could get them $40,000 cash, Peters testified.
According to authorities, the attackers — who wore disguises and adopted obviously fake Latino accents — punched the man, Tasered him, burned him with a butane torch and cut off his penis. As they left, the woman told an investigator, the attackers left a knife behind and told her to count to 100 and then free herself, but not to call police.
She cut herself free and ran a mile before flagging down a Kern County sheriff’s patrol car, officials said. The pair were rushed to Antelope Valley Hospital.
Nayeri was set to go to trial on Feb. 23. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
More than 250 local, state and federal officials are searching for Nayeri – along with and fellow escapees Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong. .
Tieu, 20, is charged in a 2011 gang murder in Westminster. Duong, 43, is charged with attempted murder stemming from a shooting in November in Santa Ana. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Anyone with information is urged to call the Sheriff’s Department at 714-647-7000. Anonymous tips can also be left calling O.C. Crime Stoppers at 855-847-6227.
