Their bodies were later discovered inside his cab, parked outside of an Omni hotel. Ex-wife of Texas man on trial over 'honor killings' of teen daughters In moments of extreme trauma, like being shot multiple times, people can have hallucinations, Patton said. The defense questioned why law enforcement didn't consider anyone else to be a suspect. The sisters boyfriends also joined them. Earlier this week, prosecutors played a recording of a 911 call placed by Sarah after she had been shot, but was still alive. And he controlled everything in his household. 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Cross examination is done with Patricia Owens (mom of Sarah and Amina) - who testified that when girls returned home days before their murders Yaser Said appeared happy; when Amina came back last he kissed her on the forehead and shed a tear. She said she and her two daughters returned to her husband because he was abusive and she was scared of getting hurt if they didn't. Later, Said added he heard about an accident and learned that his girls had been murdered. Said, who has pled not guilty to capital murder charges, at times turned to one of the defense team and talking even as the chilling call played. She told the jury how she married Said in 1987, when she was just 15 and he was 29. Prosecutors said Said was angry the girls were dating out of their culture and that they had recently ran away to be with their boyfriends. Speaking through an interpreter in his native Arabic, Said testified someone else is responsible for the crime, but investigators never found that person because they only pursued him. Gimenez detailed the local and global search for Said who was on the FBIs Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list before his 2020 arrest at a home in Justin. Yaser Said was convicted of capital murder Tuesday in the 2008 fatal shootings of his two teenage daughters, 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said. She gave birth to Amina, Sarah, and their brother Islam in the first three years of their marriage. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Send it to The Daily Beasthere. It is that of Patricia Said, the mother. The last time she was him was the night Yaser Said. On Christmas Day, after Mr Said went to work, Ms Owens testified that they fled to Oklahoma with their clothes in trash bags. Mother of 2 Girls Killed in Honor Killing Speaks Out Day two of testimony ended with a former crime scene investigator who wheeled in a cart full of evidence including the bullet-riddled cab seats, shell casings and projectiles found throughout the car and photographs showing a shell casing found on Aminas shoulder. Yaser Abdel Said ( Arabic: ; born January 27, 1957) is an Egyptian-American former taxi driver and convicted murderer. Patricia Owens, the mother of Amina and Sarah Said, took the stand Thursday. Dr. Brasheer Ahmed, with the Muslim Community Center in North Richland Hills, told NBC 5 in 2020, following Said's arrest, that murder was against Islamic principal. Ms Owens testified that she had been aware that her daughters had boyfriends, but that the three of them had kept it quiet for fear of reprisals. Also, Det. She took all three children and left him for months, before returning and telling the girls to recant their story. But the prosecution's questioning of law enforcement showed the evidence pointed to Said, who disappeared the night of the murders. Sarah and Amina Said deserve JUSTICE. The evening the sisters were shot, their father wanted to take just the two of them to a restaurant, she said. Read More: Movies About Abusive Relationships. Yaser Said had been a fugitive from justice since New Year's Day 2008, when he allegedly murdered his teenage daughters, Amina and Sarah. Detective Kevin Hubbard, a dispatch supervisor, and the Irving Fire Department tried to get information from the unidentified caller but couldnt. "It is wrong for the government to generalize an entire culture, criminalize an entire culture, to fit their narrative, and to fit their objective. The father told the courtroom that he only wanted to take his two daughters to dinner on New Year's Day 2008 but on the road in his taxi, he said he saw someone following them. On Friday, that phrase took center stage. Patricia Owens and 18 . According to law enforcement, he shot the girls to. He also told evidence on Sarahs body indicated she was shot at very close range. Yaser Said: Trial shares graphic details in teens' murder - WFAA Yaser Said 'honor killings' trial: Daughter in 911 call tells police His son, Islam Said, and his brother, Yassim Said, were subsequently convicted of helping him evade arrest. Said took the teens in the taxi cab to eat and talk, and refused to let her come along. On Friday, that phrase took center stage. I didnt think anything would happen, she testified. By the end of the day it was decided it would be best to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma, a bigger city close to a collage for Amina. Her chilling 911 call was played before the jury on Wednesday where she was heard saying her father shot her and that she was dying. Yaser had plans for the girls to marry in an arranged marriage. Ex-wife of Yaser Said testifies on day 3 of capital murder trial: 'I After ending up on the FBIs Most Wanted List, he was located in 2020 in Justin, Texas only 40 minutes from where the alleged murder took place. The potential key piece of evidence was admitted on day two of testimony, despite objections by the defense who previously cautioned jurors their expert will later testify that the 17-year-old victim may have been hallucinating after being shot nine times when she named her father as her shooter. Her father, she said, had made our lives a nightmare.. A week before they were killed, the girls and their mother fled their home in Lewisville and went to Oklahoma to escape Said. Patrica Owens, Yaser Said's ex-wife, testified before the jury Thursday morning and said why she fled her home with her daughters only to return days before they were killed. If convicted of capital murder, he would automatically be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Im dying, yelled a frantic woman identified as Sarah. A Texas man on trial for murdering his two daughters in honor killings because they were dating American boys was called the devil in court Thursday by the girls mother, who detailed 15 years of abuse during their marriage. His defense said no one will testify they saw Said at the crime scene, adding police should have investigated the girls' mother or Amina's boyfriend. She said that she didnt finish the process to get the order because they went back to Mr Said. It took just 20 minutes in court for Yaser Said testifying in his own defense to tell his story claiming he was not with his daughters when they were murdered. The judge warned Said that prosecutors would be allowed to raise any issue from the trial with him but he said he wanted to talk anyway. In 1998, while living near Waco, Texas, Owens filed a report with the Hill County Sheriffs Office accusing Said of sexually abusing the two girls. Ex-wife testifies Yaser Said threatened daughters with gun before - MSN Im dying, yelled a frantic woman identified as Sarah. He told jurors he was not with the girls when they died and someone else is to blame. This is murder. She commented, That was the day I lost my whole family and my life as I knew it was gone forever. There's no such thing as an honor killing, you kill somebody there's no honor to it. In August 2020 Said was arrested in Justin and two relatives were arrested in Euless. They left all their phones behind so they couldn't be traced and finally left on December 25th after Yaser had left to go to work that night. According to Patricia, she didnt marry Yaser out of love. "I was scared," Owens responded. In late 2007, Owens and her daughters fled again to Tulsa, Okla., after the girls feared their father would kill them if he learned they had both become engaged to their boyfriends. A film made about the murders, "The Price of Honor," alleged the girls were killed by their father as an "honor killing," a cultural practice where someone is killed after bringing shame on their family. Im dying! They all headed for Kansas to Patricias aunts home. Yaser Said, who had been sought on a capital murder warrant since the slayings, was placed on the FBI's most-wanted list. Said entered a not guilty plea Tuesday and faces an automatic life sentence if convicted. Prosecutors claim Said's daughters made an outcry that he'd sexually abused them and had touched them inappropriately. The sisters had become "very scared for their lives," and the decision to leave was made after Said "put a gun to Amina's head and threatened to kill her," the prosecutor said. Both Sarah and Amina appeared at school with bruises, and at one point Amina even had a split lip. A prosecutor picked at Said's story and asked why he was on the run for 12 years if he was not guilty despite seeing media reports that he was wanted. Awful testimony in Yaser Said trial: Medical examiners explained autopsy pics; girls clothes. He said he assumed that he was the target and so he claimed he got out of the car at an Irving Transit Center where he assumed the girls would be safe. Also called to the stand Thursday was the owner of the taxi cab. She never went through with the protective order, however, because she and her daughters went back to Said. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. It took just 20 minutes in court for Yaser Said testifying in his own defense to tell his story claiming he was not with his daughters when they were murdered. They arrived back in Texas on New Years eve when the girls learned that their mother was going back home to Yaser. Prosecutors presented an email Amina reportedly sent her Lewisville teacher days before her death, confiding that her father was arranging her marriage so she and her sister were going to run away. A detective and construction worker were among the witnesses called in the trial of Yaser Said this Friday afternoon. That taxi was in line with cabs waiting for fares outside what was at the time the Omni Mandalay. Mr Said told Ms Owens to stay home while he went for a drive with the teens to talk. I left the car for them," he said. Instead, she wanted to get out of the house at the time. Liesbeth Powers/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News via AP. "Yes," Owens said. The girls' two boyfriends went with them to Tulsa, where they got an apartment. "If the FBI did their work, they would know, but they were looking for Yaser Said and they did not do what they have to do," he said. Saids three public defenders argue this was a botched police investigation fixated on a Muslim man in a post-9/11 world full of Islamophobia. Prosecutors say that Mr Said shot and killed his daughters on New Years Day in 2008. https://t.co/dxERwZ2CM6. Patrica Owens, Yaser Said's ex-wife, testified before the jury Thursday morning and said why she fled her home with her daughters only to return days before they were killed. "Initially, we were looking at the boyfriends originally, and then we focused on the defendant,"Retired detective RandallJohnson said. Owens told the jury that she was aware of. Patricia tells her daughters she had always wanted to leave their father and asked to run with them. 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. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. "That devil there," Owens said of Yaser Said, the man she . . Im dying! In a letter written to the judge overseeing the case, Said said he was not happy with his kids' "dating activity" but denied killing his daughters. Patricia made call after call to Amina begging her to come home throughout the day saying her father had forgiven her and they were all going to go out to eat but Amina again refused. Each girl, they said, had been shot multiple times. "I do not have first-hand knowledge of what an honor killing is. The server is misbehaving. Later, Said added he heard about an accident and learned that his girls had been murdered. Said spent six years on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List before he was arrested in August 2020. Hopefully, with Yaser facing the consequences of his actions, Patricia will be able to start moving on with her life. Reports suggest that shes in Arlington, Texas, having resided in several places before including Bedford and Lewisville. 'The Hunt': Dying teen names dad as killer | CNN The state wants to convict Yaser for being Muslim in 2008," said Patton. The sisters were found shot to death in a taxi parked near a hotel in Irving on New Years Day in 2008.