On Monday, the father accused of brutally shooting his two teenage daughters in a cab in the Dallas region in 2008 told jurors in his capital murder trial that he escaped the car before they were slain because he believed someone was trying to kill him. According to a family member, the slayings were “honor murders” carried out by the teenagers’ father, Yaser Said.
“Definitely not, I did not murder my girls,” claimed Said, whose Arabic testimony was translated into English.
Said avoided capture for nearly a decade after the murders of his two daughters, Amina Said, 18, and Sarah Said, 17. Yaser Said, who faces an automatic life sentence if convicted, said that he did not surrender because he did not believe he would get a fair trial. Both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases on Monday afternoon. The jury will hear closing arguments Tuesday morning. Said, 65, was a cab driver, and a former police investigator testified that the taxi in which the girls’ corpses were discovered on New Year’s Day in 2008 outside a hotel was loaned to Said.
Amina Said was shot twice and Sarah Said was shot nine times.
In a letter to the court handling the case, Said expressed his displeasure with his children’s “dating activities,” but denied murdering his daughters.
Said told jurors that he was bringing the sisters to supper the night they were slain because he wanted to “fix the situation” after they had left home a week earlier, traveling to Oklahoma with their mother and boyfriends.
“I was outraged because it’s something to be upset about in my culture,” said Said, who testified that he was born in Egypt, moved to the United States in 1983, and subsequently became a citizen.
The sisters’ great-aunt, Gail Gattrell, has described the killings as a “honor killing,” in which a lady is slain by a relative to maintain her family’s honor.
During opening comments, prosecutor Lauren Black said that the sisters had grown “extremely terrified for their lives,” and that the decision to flee was reached after Said “placed a pistol to Amina’s head and threatened to murder her.” Said, according to Black, was “obsessed with possession and control.”
Patricia Owens, Said’s former wife, testified that Said finally persuaded her to return to Texas from Oklahoma.
Said claimed that he feared someone was following the cab as he drove to supper with his children the night they were slain. He stated he had no idea who it was but believed it was one of his kids’ friends. He said that he was afraid of being hurt, so he left his kids in the cab and rushed into the surrounding woods.
“I had no expectation that anybody would hurt them,” Said said.
Jurors heard Sarah Said’s mobile phone 911 call, in which she told the operator that her father had shot her and that she was dying.
On the 911 call, Sarah could be heard saying, “Help.” “I’m going to die. Oh my goodness. Stop doing it.”
In his opening speech, defense counsel Joseph Patton said that the evidence would not support a conviction and that officers were too eager to concentrate on Said. He also said that individuals might experience hallucinations with intense stress, such as being shot numerous times.
Amina Said’s boyfriend testified that he and his father saw her and her sister traveling in a cab with their father the night they were slain.
Yaser Said, who has been wanted for capital murder since the killings, was added to the FBI’s most-wanted list. Near August 2020, he was apprehended in Justin, approximately 35 miles northwest of Dallas. His son, Islam Said, and his brother, Yassim Said, were later convicted of assisting him in evading capture.