November 22-2013
The four Californians—including one Iranian-American—accused of cutting off the penis of a merchant in an effort to get his presumed wealth, were all friends almost two decades ago when they attended the same high school.
. . . leader of the band
And the Iranian-American, Hossein Nayeri, 34, was in trouble with the law in 2005 when he had an accident while drunk and killed his companion in the car, a fellow Iranian-American, Ehsan Tousi.
Last year, Nayeri tried to evade a police chase and smashed up yet another car, though he managed to run away from that accident.
The four now charged with using a blowtorch on a marijuana merchant and then cutting off his penis were all friends at Clovis West High School in the town of Clovis, California, near Fresno, the Fresno CBS station reported last week.
Nayeri was arrested last week in Prague and is now awaiting extradition to the United States. (See last week’s Iran Times, page four.)
With Nayeri back in the news, the family of the man killed in his car, Tousi, is reliving their nightmare.
Attorney Roger Bonakdar, who handled the case eight years ago, told CBS47, “The truth of it is, the more they hear about him and of these events, all it does is cause them pain.”
Bonakdar said that after Nayeri posted bail in 2006, he fled California and was not seen for three and a half years.
“He was located by authorities in Washington, D.C., and then brought back to Madera [County], at which time he pled no contest and was found guilty,” said Bonakdar.
In 2009, Nayeri spent 125 days in the Madera County Jail and was then placed on four years felony probation.
Last October, Nayeri allegedly carried out the torture crime with three of his former high school classmates. He, along with Kyle Handley, accused of dreaming up the crime, Ryan Kevorkian and his wife, Naomi Rhodus Kevorkian, reported-ly kidnapped an Orange County medical marijuana dispensary owner. They allegedly burned him with a blowtorch and whacked off his penis after the victim could not produce cash the suspects believed he had buried in the Mojave Desert. The man, whose marijuana business is legal in California, survived.
Nayeri once again fled, this time to Iran. Czech police arrested him November 7 at the request of the FBI as he was changing planes in Prague while on the way to visit family in Spain. It is not known why the Czech police arrested him. Nayeri’s name does not appear on the Interpol website in its list of wanted persons.
This has prompted speculation the Iranian police may have notified the United States when Nayeri left the country. If so, that would be a huge change. The Islamic Republic has never cooperated with the United States in any criminal matters.
If convicted in this torture case, Nayeri could earn stiffer punishment due to his criminal past.
“It would constitute a violation of probation of the Madera case and he could face additional consequences for that,” said Bonakdar.