November 15-2013
Four people, including one Iranian-American from California, are facing trial for torturing a businessman—burning him with a blowtorch and cutting off his penis—in an effort to steal his wealth.
The businessman survived the ordeal, so the four do not face murder charges.
The Iranian-American is Hossein Nayeri, 34, who was arrested last Thursday in the Czech Republic. He is now awaiting extradition. Nayeri fled to Iran after the torture incident and was arrested while he was changing planes while on his way from Tehran to Spain to visit his family.
It appeared the authorities were waiting for Nayeri to leave Iran to spring a trap, though they would say nothing about that. However, it was only after Nayeri’s arrest that police moved in and arrested two others, Ryan Kavorkian, 34, and his wife, Naomi Kevorkian, 33, in Fresno, California.
The fourth man and the principal in the case is Kyle Shirakawa Handley, 34, who was arrested a year ago, just shortly after the crime 13 months ago.
Prosecutors said the four carried out a plan to kidnap the owner of a California medical marijuana dispensary—which is legal in California—whom they believed was hiding money in the Mojave Desert. The victim’s name has not been released.
According to a police statement, the plans for the kidnapping were put in motion after Handley, a marijuana grower who supplied the dispensary, went on an “extravagant and expensive” trip to Las Vegas with the victim and other growers.
When Handley returned from the trip, he told the three others that the victim was “extremely wealthy” and they developed a plan to rob him.
For weeks, the four staked out the victim’s home and followed him on several trips he took to the Mojave Desert.
They believed he was hiding money in the desert. But that was in error; he was actually looking into a land investment.
On October 2, 2012, the three men broke into the victim’s home in Newport Beach, California, south of Los Angeles by using a ladder to climb up to the home’s balcony.
Inside, they found their 29-year-old target as well as his roommate’s 53-year-old girlfriend. They tied up both and drove them off to the Mojave Desert.
In the secluded desert, the group tortured the man in an attempt to make him reveal where he had stashed his money.
They beat him up, burned him with a blowtorch and then chopped off his penis.
That’s when they realized there was no buried treasure.
They decided to abandon the man and woman in the desert, taking the penis with them so it couldn’t be reattached. They also poured bleach all over the man believing it would destroy any DNA evidence connecting them to the crime.
After the trio drove off, the woman, whose hands were still tied up, ran for a mile down the road to a highway where she eventually flagged down a police car.
According to the police statement, the male victim spent “an extensive period of time in the hospital recovering from his injuries.”
Handley was arrested after being linked to a car parked outside the dispensary owner’s home the time of the attack. A neighbor who was suspicious of the vehicle had taken down its license plate number, and Handley was the car’s registered owner.
The police statement said Handley had unspecified evidence of the crime in his home, and Nayeri was linked to the crime through DNA found on that evidence.
About a week before the attack, Nayeri was accused of refusing to pull over and leading Newport Beach police on a car chase. He crashed the car, ran and evaded capture. Police found surveillance equipment and videos inside the abandoned car, but didn’t link the evidence to the attack on the dispensary owner until Nayeri was identified as a suspect.
All four were charged Friday with kidnapping, aggravated mayhem, torture and burglary, with what California calls a “sentencing enhancement” for inflicting great bodily injury. If convicted, they could spend the rest of their lives in prison without the possibility of parole. Naomi Kevorkian was not present for the torture, but was charged because she took part in planning the abduction and torture.
