good evening. i'm amy robach, and this is "20/20." they cannot even imagine the night that they were about to have. all chaos breaks loose. >> i was just filled with terror. i'm screaming, somebody please help. >> they're continuously asking for one thing. $1 million. they're literally in the desert looking for buried treasure. it's like something out of a gangster movie. like when you want to get rid of somebody, dump them on to the desert floor. >> and nobody's around to hear

them if they scream. >> this ishe to shoot us. >> they ask again, where is the million dollars? for the final time he tells them, there is in no million dollars. >> heinous crime. now the plot thickens. who is hossein nayeri? >> take a seat. >> this is the only interview of hossein nayeri. >> i can feel him trying to manipulate me. >> there's a lot of stuff you guys don't have a clue about. >> this is the only criminal who's filmed his escape from jail. >> he's going kill me. there's no doubt in my mind. like, i'm dead.

this is the middle of the mojave desert at sunrise. >> it's cold and dark and there's literally no one around for miles. >> a human body lies in the midst of this nothingness. >> his hands are bounded behind his back. his legs are bound together. >> he's not moving. he's bloody. the question is, what happened here? >> what happened indeed. now, aye spent years covering what has to be one of the most incredible stories i've ever heard about. and it all began in newport beach, california. >> newport beach is a beach community. >> if you have more money than you know what to do with, a lot

of people move to newport beach. i mean, beverly hills is fine, but you can't have your yacht in beverly hills. >> just beautiful, sparkling ocean, sail boats, beautiful people. not at all the kind of place where you would expect something terrible to happen. >> mary barnes had just come to california from florida. >> mary has just moved into this house with her boyfriend and his roommate, this guy michael. >> we've agreed to only use michael's first name and not to show his face. >> michael had been renting a room in the house for about eight months. and mary had just moved in with her boyfriend two days before. so michael suddenly was her brand new roommate too. >> it was a four-bedroom house. a block from the beach. it was just a nice house. >> when you first met him, your roommate, do you recall what your impression was of him? >> yeah. um -- he was a very friendly

guy. kind of like a teddy ear. you kind of want to hug him. >> she has no idea who he is or even what business he's in. she essentially knows nothing about this guy >> 28-year-old michael was a young businessman. he took advantage of the new laws in california that allowed the sale of medical marijuana. >> he's in the marijuana business, but he's not a shady drug dealer. he is a legitimate businessman. >> yes, a legitimate business man, but with one odd twist. now, medical marijuana was legal in the state of california, but illegal federally. that meant that people like michael couldn't do business with banks. that means no credit cards, no checks. this was a cash only

>> for unscrupulous people, you're looking to get cash? you kn >> it's a typical monday night, early fall here in southern california. >> we're talking 70 degrees, clear sky. >> there's two people inside the house -- there is michael and there's mary. >> that particular night, her boyfriend was out of town on business. both of them were sleeping on the second floor. mary was sleeping in a master bedroom, and michael was sleeping on a couch in a recreation room. >> they could not even imagine the night that they were about to have. >> right around 2:30 in the morning, all chaos breaks. >> suddenly masked men are in this house. >> mary wakes up with a cold piece of metal on the back of her neck, and she immediately

realizes it's the barrel of a gun. >> a man leaned down next to my ear and whispered, don't worry, this is not about you. he slapped a piece of tape on my mouth. then he zip-tied my hands. he zip-tied my ankles together. >> she was blindfolded and is immediately taken out of bed. as he is carrying her downstairs, she can hear the cries from michael. michael is fighting for his life at that point. >> they asked him once, where's the money? and he said, i have $2,000 in the sock in the drawer in my room. not that. the million dollars. >> a million dollars. >> where's the million dollars? within a few minutes, i heard them dragging him down the steps. >> each time he hits a step, bang, bang, bang.

he has no clue who this is or why it's happening. he just knows everything is a nightmare. >> it's not until they hear a vehicle pull up that they realize that this is much, much worse than they thought. >> they're not stealing from him. they're actually going to kidnap him. >> the suspects loaded michael and mary into their vehicle. >> two of the men are in the back with mary and michael, while a third is driving. >> we can only imagine the terror. >> we were definitely on a highway. i kept bouncing. i was on my side. >> michael is taking as brutal a beating as you can possibly

imagine. >> do you hear what's going on next to you? >> yes. it was horrible. >> they beat him repeatedly all over his body with a rubber hose. >> he's also getting shocked with a stun gun. he's getting burned by a blow torch and they're continuously asking for one thing -- the million dollars. >> its really heinous. this man has no mercy. >> he kept saying, i don't have a million dollars. >> did he offer them something else? >> he did. he said, i have $100,000 in a safety deposit box. i can get it for you tomorrow. >> what did they say? >> not good enough. >> she hears him grunting in pain, and this goes on for hours. >> and you're saying that the whole time your roommate was being tortured? >> the entire time.

>> are you thinking, is this ever gonna end? >> yeah. >> at one point, even in blindfolds, they can tell that they slow down. >> it appears they have gotten off the highway, because they can hear the crunch of gravel. >> i was just filled with terror. a gut feeling of, these could be my last moments on earth. >> it's like something out of a gangster movie, like where you take somebody when you want to get rid of them. >> i was praying. i was praying a lot. i didn't want to die.

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you're out in the mojave desert and it's abandoned and desolate and dark. >> they can't see anybody, they can't hear anybody, and nobody's around to hear them if they scream. >> they're dragged out of this van, still bound, and dumped onto the desert floor. >> and they laid us down about two feet apart, side by side, and i thought, well, this is where they're going to shoot us. >> it's out of a movie. they're literally in the desert looking for buried treasure. >> remember, he can't deposit his money from the medical marijuana business in a bank. >> they believe he has buried $1 million somewhere out here, and they're going to big it up and they're going to be millionai millionaires. they ask him one more time, "where's the million dollars?" >> "where is the million

dollars?" and he tells them for the final time he tells them, there is no million dollars. >> and then the question is "well, now what?." >> and this is where it gets really horrible. >> they decide to take things to a pretty terrible place. >> if we're not going to get our money, we're going to take something. >> your [ bleep ] that's what he said. >> his -- >> his [ bleep ] - i thought, am i hearing things? >> and they take a serrated knife. >> i couldn't believe what was happening. it was like a bad dream. he was cutting off my roommate's penis. >> and singing. >> and singing, like -- ♪ and back and forth and back and forth ♪ >> the guy was a total sadist.

he's a psychopath, and i could do nothing about it. and there was no sound from my roommate. >> torture. torture, plain and simple. >> and she hears the sound -- glug glug glug -- of this liquid coming out of some sort of a container. >> i was afraid they were splashing him with lighter fluid and they were gonna set us on fire. >> it turns out that it was bleach, poured all over the victim. >> bleach destroys dna, so if you're planning a crime like this, you will use bleach to cover your tracks. >> so after the mutilation, one of them bends over to mary, still hogtied and blindfolded. >> and they touch her with a knife, and they tell her, if you find the knife, you could set yourself free. >> the guy throws the knife. he said, today's your lucky day. >> right? like, thank you so much. you kidnapped me.

you terrified me. i think you killed my friend, and somehow i'm lucky now? >> now, with the kidnappers gone and the light of dawn just starting to appear, mary uses her knees to push up her blindfo blindfold. and still found, she somehow finds that knife in the dirt, cuts her feet free, and rushes over to michael. >> and as soon as i pulled the gag off, he just took a deep breath and he said, oh, that feels so much better. and i thought, oh, thank god, he's alive. >> and she tells michael, you know what? i hear cars. i'm going to walk until i find a car and i'm going to get us help. >> and this woman walks out barefoot through the california desert because she sees lights off in the distance that might be a road. so, we're talking about real heroism here. >> and it hurt a lot.

i walked as fast as i could. i couldn't run. i got to the highway. i'm screaming, somebody please help. somebody stop. somebody please help. fortunately, a police officer happened to be going the other way and saw me. and suddenly -- >> what are the chances? >> what are the chances? >> that morning i was on my way to work when i saw a woman walking along the right shoulder of the road. >> he can tell that something must be wrong here. >> as i got closer to her, i could see that her hands were behind her back and there was what looked like some white plastic sticking out from both sides behind her back. >> he realizes immediately, this is something major and something completely out of the ordinary. >> as soon as i realized it was zip ties and a blindfold, i realize that i'm going to have to start taking pictures of mary before i can cut the restraints off of her.

>> he's such a pro, he realizes that that's valuable evidence. >> how long have you been here? >> i guess it was just before sunrise. and i said, officer, my friend and i were kidnapped in newport beach. they threw us in a van. >> a van? >> it happened so fast. >> she tells him, i have a maim. >> what's his name? >> mike. >> who's laying in the desert just up the hill. we need to save him. >> we didn't know where he was. she told me that he was in the mountains. and i think to myself, holy crap, i hope she can narrow it down because there's a lot of mountains around here. >> mary gets into the car with sergeant williams. >> mary directed us south on highway 14 to a dirt road that lead west. we're going off road to look for a second victim. this is it. it's pretty desolate and uninhabited. mary took us to this gate right here. >> and we got to the gully. we're coming right now! >> before they even see the

victim, they are overpowered by this stench in the air. >> it was heavy. it was -- it actually made me choke. he had been doused in bleach from head to toe. >> are you a medic? >> i'm an emt. >> he has stab wounds. >> right about here is where michael was laying on his side. >> it's an overwhelming sight, even for a seasoned deputy. >> he starts photographing. so we get to see what his injuries look like. >> he can see the brutality of what happened to this poor man. >> ow, ow! >> you could tell he was hurt really bad. he was a mess. >> now deputy williams and his team have a job to do, and that's to try to find michael's severed body part. >> at this point, if they can find it, then they can reattach it, but it was nowhere to be found. >> they didn't just sever it, they took it with him to make

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the victim was laying in between the area of 18, 19, and 20. i had got in that morning, had a cup of coffee in my hand. and my cellphone rang. and first words he said was, dude, we've got a crazy one. and it was on. >> okay, so i guess any questions you guys have, just fire away. >> matt murphy was the senior deputy district attorney in the orange county district attorney's office. he's a fighter. and he's a winner. >> and he's very good at his job. >> at the point that i got the phone call on this case, i'd done over 100 jury trials. hadn't lost one since 1996. i've never had a case that has had more wild twists and turns than this one.

>> the location inside the orange arrows was bleach. >> this was a pretty big case, and i think for the prosecutors in orange county there was a lot of pressure to solve it. >> two victims were taken from this home. police say on october 2, a kidnapper broke in. he blindfolded the victims, a man and a woman, and forced them into a vehicle. >> usually when you have a crime of this magnitude, there's at least somewhere to start. there's at least a suspect or suspects. >> the victims did not have much to say to the newport beach p.d. they didn't know who would do this and why. >> i think we slept six hours in four days. we were so busy. because we didn't have any answers. we didn't have any direction. >> it was -- heinous crime, no clues. >> so, law enforcement begins canvassing the neighborhood in newport beach. >> canvasses are notoriously unfruitful.

it's a cold search for witnesses. the question is, did you see or hear anything unusual? >> it turns out the day prior to the kidnapping a witness had seen something suspicious -- a white pickup truck had parked behind michael's house. >> and this is where the neighbor comes into play. and really this is the big break. >> so, a woman was looking out her window and saw three guys that looked like they were workmen because they were in construction gear. but she noticed that they looked very suspicious. >> so the officers, like, hoping against hope that maybe she can describe the vehicle. and her answer is something to the effect of, well, would the license plate work? >> she takes down the license plate number. this turns out to be eureka. the truck is registered to a man by the name of kyle handley. >> so, of course, they go right

back to michael and say, do you know kyle? and michael's like, yeah, i know who kyle is, but how would he be tied to this? >> this is a young man who lives in the area, who happens to be in the marijuana business. >> michael says kyle enters his dispensary and starts selling him weed. and michael and kyle start a friendship. >> aside from their business relationship, michael thought he was a pretty cool guy and thought he might be fun to hang with. and he did -- he actually invited kyle on a las vegas wild weekend. and they had a blast. >> it's kind of a celebration. this is a very successful business that michael is running. he's celebrating a good year. >> they stay in a suite. they're gambling, having a good time. and michael's kind of bank rolling the trip. and handley's just kind of along for the ride. >> those personal and professional connections plus

the license plate are more than enough to raise suspicion on kyle handley. >> so the police get a warrant for kyle handley. and they go to his house, and he's not there. >> and we start videotaping and photographing every little thing. >> stand by. >> they get into the house, and clearly it's what's called a grow houshousing, right? there's almost no furniture in the place. and the reason there's no furniture is they need room for marijuana plants. they open up the laundry room. and there is a plastic container with zip ties that look exactly the same as the ones that were used on our victims. >> we're starting to get excited. we're starting to think, okay, kyle handley's definitely potentially associated with this. we go into the backyard. and in the backyard, he has trash bags. these big black trash bags. and then a green bag. and inside it, we find a cut zip tie. we find white towels covered in bleach.

>> michael, when he's found in the desert, he's covered in bleach. his clothes are covered in bleach. >> once police have searched the house, their eyes are set on a truck that's parked in the driveway. it's the truck that they traced kyle's registration to. >> they see the same license plate number, so they know that she wrote it down right. the first thing the officers notice when they open up the back of the truck -- is the overwhelming smell of bleach. >> so, after finding all of this evidence, we call matt murphy and ask him, can we charge kyle handley with this crime? and he says yes. and from there, we charge kyle handley with kidnapping, aggravated assault, and mayhem. >> october 6th, handley's arrested. >> it's exciting, but it's only the beginning. we know he has associates. we know there's other suspects. >> so now the detectives focus on that vehicle.

>> they want to know if it was actually used in the crim i think and if there's any dna inside the vehicle that might lead them to any other suspects. and this is where the blue gl e gloves enter the story. >> inside that truck was a pair of blue gloves. >> two blue nitrile gloves. nitrile gloves are rubber gloves. and we later submitted one of those to the lab. >> they run a dna test on it, and they get a hit. >> there is a person that matches the dna that was in that glove, and it wasn't kyle handley and it wasn't our victims. >> a name comes back. hossein nayeri. >> hossein nayeri. >> hossein nayeri. >> at this point, nobody knows who hossein nayeri is. >> i've never heard of the name before. i know nothing about him. >> now the plot thickens. cops immediately go to michael and say, who is hossein nayeri? the answer? i have no clue.

>> take a seat. this is only network interview of hossein nayeri. what would you want people to know about you? >> i'm just an average, ordinary person. simple as that. >> what was a latex glove with your dna doing in his car? >> oh, the famous latex glove. we'll get to it when the time comes. when i showed my mom the dna results, it made her feel proud. they saw us, they recognized us. ancestry® specifically showed the regions that my family was from. the state of jalisco. the city of guadalajara. the results were a reflection of our family and the results were really human. i feel proud about my identity. greater details. richer stories. and now with health insights. get your dna kit at ancestry.com.

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once kyle handley is arrested and we learn more and more details and get more and more evidence, we begin to focus on hossein nayeri as the mastermind. >> when you listen to hossein nayeri you ask yourself, is he an innocent man, unjustly charged? or is he in fact a sociopathic miscreant? >> were you there at the kidnapping? >> no, not at all. >> you were not there. >> absolutely not. >> were you part of the mutilating? >> obviously not. the stuff that they say about me wanting to hurt people, i have many flaws. wanting to hurt people is definitely not one of them. there is a lot of stuff that you guys don't have a clue about, so when the time comes, we'll put it all out on the table for you. >> hossein nayeri has been in trouble with the law many times, and when i spoke with him, there was an air of mystery some about him. there were some things he just didn't want the talk about.

as it turns out, there are lingering questions about events throughout hossein nayeri's life. >> nayeri was born in iran and came to the u.s. as a young boy. >> kind of the all-american story, really. he comes from an oppressive country, moves to fresno. gets welcomed by america. >> he's a middle child. mom a doctor, dad is a lawyer. >> being put in school without knowing any english and having to survive that. >> he was on the wrestling team. a very physical sport, and is about, on some level, you know, dominating your opponent. >> he was kind of the black sheep of the family. a ton of fights in high school. he was always just problematic. >> and then you enlisted in the marines. >> i did. >> why did you do that? >> i needed some structure in my

life, i want to say, at the time. you could say i was partying a little too much. >> in the marines he had been upgraded to a special position doing surveillance because nayeri was a very smart, cunning guy. >> he's a marine for two years. but being nayeri, he is incapable of following the rules. >> throughout his tenure as a marine, he had a lot of issues. got in some fights. he stole some stuff. he also went awol. at one point, he had dishonorable discharge. he had to go to court and fight for that to be changed, and he was just quote/unquote discharged. >> joining the marines, he was very proud of that. it didn't work out for him. he left under a cloud. >> after the marines, he's back in fresno. he's working as a waiter in a café. >> he's handsome. he's 24 years old at this point. and he meets a young woman who he's waiting on. and that moment changed her life forever. >> i first met him at the mimi's cafe in fresno when i was 16.

>> 16? >> 16. >> she was quite a bit younger than you, right? >> well, i thought she was 18. >> he was funny and charming and cute. intriguing for a 16-year-old teenager. >> i get a phone call. there must be some misunderstanding. she said, i'm not 18. i'm 16. >> i was so inexperienced with relationships. i didn't know what was -- like, this is fun. >> well, great. you got me hooked. it was a great start. >> she got in this relationship at a time when she was probably not equipped to handle that type of relationship with an adult. >> she comes from a very good family, and they're not happy about it. they don't really like him. >> he's bad news. the relationship progresses to the point where she's hiding it from her parents.

>> he had this way of manipulating you into convincing you. your parents don't understand you. i understand you. and i was at a place in my life where i just -- i ate all that up. he would say all the right things, but he would do all the wrong things. >> he started dabbling in growing marijuana. basically he began learning that you could make money from it. >> nayeri tells cortney that he was growing marijuana with two high school buddies, kyle handley and another guy named ehsan tousi. now, tousi's family denies vehemently that he had anything to do with the marijuana business. >> ehsan was really smart and with it and just a really nice, good human being. kyle was quiet, listened to everything that hossein would say. because hossein is like the alpha dog, when he's in the room he's just dictating everything. >> things are going well, their business is booming, and then tragedy strikes. >> i was coming back from a casino with my best friend,

business partner. i had a couple of shots in the casino. >> they had been gambling and drinking, and for whatever reason, hossein drove ehsan's car home. >> and i lost control. boom, boom, boom, roll over. boom, boom, boom, roll over. i killed my best friend. >> and i lost control and boom boom rolled over. >> he's driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. he's looking at a vehicular manslaughter charge for which you can go to state prison. what does our man hossein nayeri do? he immediately flees to iran. >> the judge in the case puts out an arrest warrant in his name, and nayeri is suddenly an international fugitive. >> you fled to iran. >> i did. >> were you surprised when you heard that he did flee to iran? >> no. he's to type that always tries to get out of his situation, whatever it is. >> i've thought about this a lot throughout my life, since

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call geico and see how easy saving on homeowners and condo insurance can be. i'll come back for the plate. to hossein, running and doing whatever he wants is working out for him. no one chased him when he ran. >> he's in iran for about a year, and he decides he's going to sneak back into the united states, which he does. >> after literally fleeing the country to escape the case, nayeri got what looks to be a slap on the wrist essentially. >> he gets a reduced charge and he's released from the local

jail, which is pretty good given that you were charged with vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. >> very fortunate, yes. >> a few years later, nayeri's back in town. at this point, cortney is attending cal state-fresno. and they reconnect. he would pop into my life and pop out of it and pop into my life and pop out of it. >> according to cortney in the beginning it was fine, but it started to get contemptuous. >> he'd say, you're too fat. your nose is too big. your butt's too small. little comments here and there that he starts to break you down as a person, as a woman. making me feel bad about just everything and at the same separating me from my family emotionally. >> you see this very dysfunctional, sick relationship between the two of them.

>> it just broke me down. >> there was pushing and shoving before, but as time went on, it got worse. >> apparently the fights got so loud that sometimes neighbors would call their property manager. it got to be pretty extreme. >> i didn't really know what to do. my parents don't have any idea that we're together. none of my friends know. i thought i loved him. i didn't realize that what i was experiencing was not at all love. i remember one time he was mad at me. he bit my arm so bad that my entire arm turned black. and then he started to get really violent. i mean, it was crazy. throwing me on the ground and putting his foot on my neck. at this point now i'm absolutely petrified of him. it escalated to being, you know, weekly. >> and you still married this guy? >> yeah. yeah. >> married without your parents knowing? >> married without my parents knowing. i was completely alone in this

world, and the only life left i had in any sort of way was him. >> at one point, it becomes so bad that cortney calls the police on hossein. >> you pinned her to the floor, put her in a choke hold, and threatened to kill her with a box cutter, reportedly. >> no, no. i screwed up really, really bad. i grabbed her arm really hard. i left fingerprints on her arm. never before have i touched her. never again did i touch cortney after that. never. >> he said touched your arm once or twice. >> he's a complete liar. i just couldn't take it anymore, and i was like, fine, i'll press charges. he gets a deal. >> he got anger management classes and the case was dismissed. >> he doesn't have to go to jail, and he doesn't even wind up with a domestic violence charge on his record. >> the more he got away with,

the more of monster he would become. his attitude was, i can get away with anything i want to. >> and you took him back? >> i felt like i had nowhere to really go. and that's exactly where he wanted me was trapped. it was more like, i could kill you. i could kill your family. i was in jail. if he was out of jail, i was in jail. i was in hossein jail. >> at this point according to cortney she's basically living a double life. in the outside world she is attending law school, on her way to a respectable career. but at home, she is totally under the control of hossein nayeri as he hatches this plot to steal that supposed $1 million. >> in 2011, him and kyle reconnected. that's when kyle moved in with me and the two of them got into business growing marijuana somewhere in long beach.

>> so let me get this straight. the husband your parents don't know you have, his best friend moves in with you so they can do a pot business together. >> you got it. >> cortney funded everything, and she was funding it through her parents money. >> law school is expensive and her parents were helping her pay for that, and really what she's doing is she is financing hossein nayeri's marijuana business through her father, unbeknownst to the dad. >> one of nayeri and kyle's customers, the medical marijuana dispensary run by the man we are calling michael. remember, michael liked kyle so much he invited him on that wild all expenses paid trip to las vegas. >> he's paying with a big bundle of cash. that's a dinner bell to somebody like kyle handley. >> after seeing how much cash michael was throwing around, kyle handley and hossein nayeri must have thought, we can get that money. >> they do a little bit of math

and they think, he must have at least a million dollars in cash. it comes out of thin air. >> where in the heck did these people come up with the million dollar figure? none of this ever had to happen. >> so they devise a scheme to track the movements of michael to find out where he's putting all of his money. >> they want to know everywhere michael's going and who he's associated with. >> the cameras on michael's home and cameras on his parents' home. >> they buy some cheap gps equipment from a website, and they surreptitiously attach it to his vehicle. >> he's able to follow his every move. he's able to see tracking symbols, beeping icons. >> i mean, it was an obsession. he was obsessed.

>> one day, nayeri is glued to his computer screen, and he calls out for cortney -- come look, come look. >> he goes, he's going out to the desert. he's driving all over this desert. >> looking at the map, he turns to her and says, wouldn't that be a good place to bury money? >> i said, yeah,en why, maybe. sure. something like that. >> he feels this is his big moment. that's the place where the money is buried. >> really? that's the conclusion you reached? like, is it in a wooden chest? it's just, it's cartoonish. >> it turns out the reason why michael was in the desert was because a casual acquaintance was trying to get him involved in some superfluous real estate deal. >> that one moment is what changes the lives for everyone. they're going to kidnap this

individual, drag him out there and have them dig it up for them to take. >> but just one week before they pull off this savage plan, a totally unexpected twist -- nayeri is driving in newport beach when suddenly he sees police are trying to pull him over on a traffic violation. >> he had been drinking, and the police were going to pull him over and he gets into basically a high-speed chase and flees. and law enforcement is looking for him. >> but nayeri left something behind in that car that is soon going to be huge. and the police launch a plot not even the master criminal hossein nayeri sees coming. it's a trap, and cortney is the bait. ♪

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i thought, this is where they're going to shoot us. >> they can't see anybody, they can't hear anybody, and nobody's around to hear them if they scream. ♪ this monster's back in town ♪ whoa >> the guy was a total sadist. he's a psychopath. >> were you there at the kidnapping? >> i'm absolutely petrified of him. i was living with a monster. >> how can we get him in our clutches? a-ha. cortney. >> she and the police are laying a trap for nayeri, and she is essentially the bait. ♪ this isn't over yet >> he's going to kill me. i mean, there's no doubt in my

mind. like, i'm dead. >> there were headlines in the local paper that screamed, oh, my god, they let hannibal out. this is the only criminal that filmed his own escape. >> you see it in a tv or movie, we see it in stories but this is real life. >> you want to give an answer for that? >> i want to give you an answer for that, personally. ♪ this monster's back in town first of all, we have an absolutely brutal crime. mary and michael were brutalized. this is as bad as it gets. >> after the kidnapping, nayeri is back in newport beach and only takes a couple days before

handley's arrested and he finds out about it. >> he's frantic. not the cool calm collected person that he was. i mean, he was like "i got to get out of here, i gotta get out of here." >> this kidnapping happens. this man is mutilated. and a few days later, you end up in iran. >> yes. >> the mastermind has fled to the one nation on the planet earth that is never going to extradite one of its citizens to the united states, ever. >> he was gone. he vanished. we need to story something up. something needs to change. >> guess what? remember the car that nayeri was driving when he led police on a high-speed pursuit? that car remained impounded. >> police realized they have this vehicle that's tied to his name, and his name is tied to this kidnapping. >> and we go and search that car. and then we find two surveillance cameras and one gps tracker that absolutely cracks this case wide open.

>> i put it in the computer, and the first thing that comes up i. he had hours and hours of video surveillance of michael's house. i can't let this go. i can't let this individual sit in iran for the next 10 years without being convicted of kidnapping michael. >> and they're pondering, how can we get him back? how can we get him in our clutches? a-ha -- cortney. >> at some point, hossein said all of this surveillance equipment that was in the car is available to be, you know, picked up. so go down there and pick it up. >> she does what she's told if hossein tells her to do it. >> when cortney comes to claim the vehicle, she basically walks right into the case. i literally present her with the cameras and the gps tracker and say, is this yours? do you want it? and she says yes. >> so i go back there and i sign for it, and detective peters is like, you're not taking this with you. we have to ask you a few

questions. >> being a lawyer, she knows she's in a very bad situation at that point. >> and i'm totally uncooperative. >> cortney, being an accessory to this, she could have been held liable for every aspect of the crime. >> there's no words to describe how i felt at this point. i mean, everything was closing in on me. >> ryan is a good man, and he's a dad, and he's got a daughter. ryan's like, you know what? i'm just going to call her dad. >> can you imagine for a father what a horrific phone call that would have been, having no idea of any of it and this is how you find out? >> i talked to him in terms of his child, his girl, his daughter. his little baby is in a lot of trouble. >> that must have been a heck of a conversation when you spoke to your parents for the first time. >> oh, it was a nightmare. it was a worst nightmare. >> he convinces her that she needs to play ball. >> the father, he got involved.

they called a lawyer, and it was a game changer. >> her entire life was at stake. she faced life in jail without any possibility of parole. >> there's only one smart thing to do and that's cooperate. >> at that point, i stopped all contact with hossein. >> they schedule a meeting, and we start asking her questions. >> today is may 7th. interview with cortney shegarian. at what point did you find out the kidnapping was going to take place, had taken place, and who gave you that information? >> i didn't know that they were going to kidnap the person. hossein told me that him and kyle believe that michael had a lot of cash somewhere, and they were trying to find it and they were going to basically steal it. >> this was the first time that we found out when it started, who was involved, and how it came about. >> police say, would you be willing to help us try to get hossein back from iran?

>> are you going to be able to call hossein again for us? >> if you would like me to. i'll do anything you want me to. >> if this young woman will step up and do the right thing, she simultaneously gets to save her own life and ensure that justice is done in this horrific case. >> she and the police are laying a trap for nayeri, and she's essentially the bait. >> so, this was the plan -- cortney would convince nayeri she wants to go on a romantic vacation with him in spain. but his night there would have a layover in a place that would extradite him, prague, capital of the czech republic. for this to work, cortney needs to reconnect with nayeri and really make him believe she wants wants to rekindle their relationship. >> she knew that her freedom was resting on her getting him to meet her for a happy rendezvous.

>> hello? >> hi. >> hey. >> so, cortney has to get back in nayeri's good graces. >> it's just been ten months since i've been able to be around you like every day, you know? >> i know. >> it's not what i envisioned. >> what's significant about this big acting job is that a lot of time had passed. he's not sure what's happened in that time. >> you didn't know i wanted to see you? i say i miss you every single time i talk to you. are you [ bleep ] joking? let's spend a couple weeks together. i mean, come on. >> she's not genuinely happy. we're listening to those tapes hoping that he hasn't caught on. >> we can travel all around spain and do whatever. it will be great. >> i agree. spain, i hear, is a nice place. >> i was thinking to myself, oh, my god, he's going to sense that my voice inflection changes, if i don't laugh at a joke. you know, anything could set him off, and he's highly suspicious. >> if he realized that she was

working with law enforcement, he could have her killed. >> nayeri's a psycho. and she's betraying him. >> i want to see you. i want you to come and meet me. then we can be together. ♪ together forever >> she has lived under his thumb for so long. if it was real, she would be singing. >> i love you so much. i want to see you. >> she knows she has to do that to convince him to get on that plane. >> and then the night he was supposed to come, i'm calling hossien. and he's not answering and i'm like, "oh, my god, he's not getting on this plane. everybody is going to think i tipped him off. and i hadn't. finally, he calls me and he's like, oh, i'm so sorry. i overslept. i'll be there soon. >> he honestly believed that he was going to reconcile this relationship and instead, he gets off the plane in prague -- and gets stripped, arrested, cavity searched, and thrown in prison.

>> ugh. a true dungeon. true dungeon. 100 something years old. wet, cold, no hot water. it was just something out of a movie, twilight zone. >> and there he waits for extradition for an entire year. >> and afterwards, she not only divorced you, but she annulled the marriage. >> she's good. she's good. what can i say? >> there's a photo of ryan peters putting handcuffs on hossein nayeri in new york. now at that point, we're celebrating. >> nayeri is finally in their hands. he's finally booked into orange county jail. >> nayeri is about to go to trial. he's about to face justice. not so fast. >> three inmates on the run. i wrote this a long time ago. i don't know how old i was.

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>> what did it feel like to have hossein nayeri back just a few miles from where you're living? >> it was scary. he sent me a birthday card, which was really scary, because it meant he knew where i >> somehow he gets a cell phone. >> you have to remember nayeri's past. if he's not feeling happy about the situation he's in, he's going to take it upon himself to remove himself from that situation, and that means fleeing. >> according to authorities, nayeri becomes the ringleader of an escape plot with two other inmates. >> bac duong was 43. jonathan tieu was 20. >> this is literally escape from alcatraz. >> that guy, played by clint eastwood, gets in the grate behind his cell and tunnels out. >> we used the movie analogy. this jailbreak was just insane.

>> nayeri, in his arrogance, is actually videotaping this entire incident. >> my name is adam hossein nayeri. >> some of the photographs and videos are edited and posted online by his legal team. >> the video begins before the night they even got out. >> why did you do that? why did you shoot the video? >> believe it or not, it was all spontaneous. >> the arrogance. everything he's recording will be seized by police and used against him. >> to saw through a metal grate, it's not something you can do over the course of one night. so they would have had to have done it repeatedly. >> they really thought they could beat the system and never get caught. >> and nobody from the jail had any idea of what was going on? >> i'm going to pass on that question.

>> absolutely. he and his cohorts got help from the outside. >> so, the official version is after the 5:00 am body count, nayeri, bok, jonathan tieu, they saw through the last of this metal grate. >> did you ever have machine tools or was it just all by hand? >> awe hand tools. no machines, no. >> so, here he is, opens up the grate, slides inside the tunnel, and turns around, and in one magnificent moment, in his eyes, gives the thumbs up to his own cell phone. >> and then you stick a hand right out with the thumbs up. >> right. >> that is hamming it up for the camera. >> it is very taunting. the amount of ego that would go into making that up yourself is pretty incredible. >> he's having fun doing this. and that is hossein nayeri. that's him in a nutshell. >> here's nayeri committing a

crime and generating evidence in realtime against himself. >> then the film shows nayeri and his two jail mates walking through the innards of the jail building. >> this video shows hossein nayeri walking people really through what this took. >> his video shows how they created basically harnesses that when they needed to climb up the ventilation piping, they'd swing a harness here, climb up to that, and do that over and over and over until they could reach the trapdoor of the roof. >> that's it. >> that's it. >> the video then shows them on the rooftop. >> how long did you have access to the rooftop for before you actually escaped? >> a couple of weeks, you could say. we were able to have somebody bring us some necessary tools that we needed. >> and you're doing this for ten days, two weeks, nobody notices? >> obviously not.

>> it seems like hossein nayeri is trying to expose the orange county sheriff's department as being ill-equipped to hold someone like him. >> we don't see on that video everything. i mean, nayeri is manipulative in this sense as well. he's showing you certain aspects of the escape. he's not showing every aspect of the escape. >> it's unbelievable. it really is unbelievable they pulled it off. managed to climb down four stories from this jail to the ground and escape without being detected. >> i got a call in the middle of the night that three men had escaped from jail, and one of them was hossein nayeri. and i just thought, you've got to be kidding me. how does this happen? >> tonight, the frantic manhunt. >> police scouring the streets with flashlights. >> our personnel will exhaust every technique and option. >> there was a chill over the community as a whole, but

specifically anyone who had any connection to this case. >> both the prosecutors and cortney shegerian were terrified that nayeri had broken out, thinking, if he's going to get anyone, he's coming to get me. >> police knocking on my door. boom, boom, boom, boom. this is like 5:30 in the morning. there's two officers there. do you know hossein nayeri? of course. well, did you know that he escaped from jail? i became hysterical. it's my worst nightmare coming alive. he's going to kill me. i mean, there's no doubt in my mind. like, i'm dead. [sfx: ding] ♪ ♪ i don't know about you ♪ ♪ but i got to get it out ♪ i don't know how soon ♪ [sfx: chime] how much? cinco pesos vale. oh ok, thanks. [sfx: ding] ♪ but if we die, ♪ i want to bring the whole thing too ♪ ♪ ooooooh

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we turn to the intense manhunt in southern california. >> the massive manhunt. >> three fugitives. >> three inmates are now on the run. >> authorities now warning they could be anywhere. >> they get a huge head start on law enforcement. >> yeah, like 16 hours or something like that. i'm petrified out of my mind. >> if i wanted to do something, i would have, right?

i had the freedom to do it, didn't i? >> you mean to have attacked prosecutors or your ex wife or police or anyone? >> or everything included. >> in the end, nayeri did not get to cortney or anyone associated with the case. but according to authorities he was about to terrorize someone else. >> an unsuspecting cab driver named long ma, a vietnamese immigrant, gets a call to pick up three men. he's in for the ride of his life. >> so they seemed just light regular people hiring a car? >> translator: yes, i didn't pay them much attention. just normal. people call me and i just take them. >> at some point during this drive they pull a gun on you. did they tell you what they wanted you to do? >> translator: then they took my car key. they ask if i agree or not. >> you have a gun to your ribs so what are you going to say?

>> translator: i cannot say no. >> i have no doubt he feared for his life. >> any progress on the search for these dangerous men? >> there's a national media tidal wave. >> three violent criminals -- >> tour full-times their faces are plastered on tv the less chance they have at making this clean escape. >> if you see these people call the hot line. >> they end up going to the hotel. >> we stay here three nights. >> three nights here. >> that's how he'd sleep with his feet on the chair blocking the door. so that you couldn't get out. >> translator: yes. the gun was under there. >> were you scared? >> translator: yes, yes, of course he was scared. >> the pressure is mounting. maybe it was fun for a minute, but its not fun now.

>> now they're very concerned. they need a second vehicle. >> they stole a white van, a nondescript white van. >> the escapees may be living out of this white van. >> they ultimately make their way to northern california. >> there started to be infighting between the three, and the arguments were about, should we kill long ma? should we kill the cab driver? >> do you know what they're saying at all? >> boom boom old man. >> translator: i just know they said, boom, boom, boom old man. >> he figures he's dead, she's never going to survive this. >> now it's almost a week. and for some reason nayeri decides once again to start recording again. >> one day nayeri says, hey, we're all going to the beach in santa cruz. >> nayeri posts some of the

videos online to attempt to show that long ma wasn't kidnapped. >> they're taking family vacation photos. long ma doesn't know what's happening. >> are they telling long ma he needs to smile? i don't know. but it's really, really strange. >> they go back to the motel. >> there is a fight between bac and hossein nayeri. >> they'd a fight. he hit him in the nose. >> yeah. here, here. >> wow. >> and it's during this fight that nayeri makes a gesture, slits his finger across his throat and points at long ma. >> and it's actually bac who comes to the elderly cabdriver's rescue. bac decides he's getting out of dodge. >> translator: the next morning, he told me i'm old man, he wants me to accept him as grandson and he'll consider me as the father.

>> he and ma take the cab and together head back to southern california where bac turns himself in. >> late this morning bacboung surrendered in southern california, back at orange county jail where they escaped from a week ago. >> in his mind hossein nayeri is so scary, i would rather go back to orange county jail and take my chances than spend one more free day with this guy. that is a barometer of how scary hossein nayeri is. >> nayeri and tieu end up in san francisco. >> here for the first time. flew up to san francisco, flew up to the best part of san francisco. >> haight ash bury, baby. >> and in the video they're kind of camped out there in their temporary home. >> they are in this stolen van. they are videotaping themselves talking about smoking pot and eating bananas.

>> this is our casa right now for the moment. >> want some bananas? no, we don't have crack. crystal meth. we're smoking weed, eating bananas. >> at one point nayeri gets out of the back of the van and somebody recognizes him. >> i looked kind of bummy, homeless. >> believe it or not, there is a homeless man in the bay area who is a self-described news junkie. >> i was reading "the san francisco chronicle." as i was reading about some escaped fugitives, and nayeri pops out of the van. i said, "i got to go report it to the authorities." >> code four, code four. we got him now. >> after eight days this manhunt has come to an end. >> breaking news, the two

remaining fugitives are on their way back here to the orange county jail. >> the three of them are back here now. they are fugitives no more. >> i was very relieved. but to be honest i was thinking, if he did this one, he's going to figure out how to do it again. >> nayeri and the others are facing charges to breaking out of jail, kidnapping long ma. >> now i understand they film you every time you're out of your jail cell. >> they do. they do, yes. >> and you're cuffed. shackled hands and feet. >> i'm nailed to the ground practically. >> just when you think finally the party's over for this guy -- no, no, no, just wait. >> mr. nayeri, i'm going ask the questions and give us the answers. >> truth. truth, please ♪ >> hossein nayeri guarantees you he can explain everything. >> he did not tell me any plan

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a guilty verdict just came down for 38-year-old kyle shirakawa handley. >> kyle handley, hossein nayeri's coconspirator in the kidnapping, went to trial first. the jury deliberated for less than two hours before convicting him of kidnapping, mayhem and torture. >> handley is sentenced to four life terms in prison. >> the book is closed on kyle handley. up next, hossein nayeri. >> on day one of trial, the courtroom was buzzing. >> they polled a large pool of people for this particular jury. and honestly, i thought i would really like to be on this trial. >> i got a lot of things i want to go through here, as you can imagine.

>> matt murphy is determined to end the game that is hossein nayeri. >> forensically we have a very strong case. we've got kyle handley's license plate. >> i was able to take down the license plate. >> we've got a glove that's used in the cleanup that has hossein nayeri's dna in it. who was the name on the hit? >> hossein nayeri. >> my impression of the defense is they had a pretty steep hill to climb. >> good afternoon. >> the defense, their goal is to convince the jurors that there's not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. you only need one person and that can hang a jury. >> in this case, it would be a huge mistake to accept something as true just because it seems obvious at the start. >> the defense focused on what the defense described as circumstantial evidence tying nayeri to the crime. >> there was no physical proof that nayeri was present in the house where the kidnapping took

place or the van that transported the victims to the desert, or out in the desert. >> they also questioned the investigation. >> i thought that there were issues in the case that pointed towards the police not playing fairly with the evidence. the blue glove was the biggest one. there's something really funny about this glove. >> the defense team did a decent job of trying to paint the picture that it could have been planted. >> our assertion is they had the video surveillance equipment in nayeri's vehicle, the chevy tahoe, a week before the kidnapping. once the kidnapping occurs, somebody would have said, wait a minute. we just saw footage in this guy's car that ran from us of the same house and the same victim. it wouldn't be a gigantic leap that evidence was planted on a glove to match nayeri. did i think i was going to be able to prove it? no. but i thought if we could get

the jury to open their mind about maybe something like that did happen, that would be enough to create a doubt about the rest of it. >> it's an absurd argument. they didn't plant the glove not only because they wouldn't plant the glove, but because they didn't know who hossein nayeri was yet. >> the people may call their next witness, please. >> if there was a key piece of evidence in this, it's his wife courtney, because if she's believed it's done. he's over. >> it had been almost six and a half years since i had seen hossein, and i was just so scared to face him. you have to understand, in my mind he's still larger than life. and the thought of him looking at me it was almost like more than i could bear. >> you are the ex-wife of hossein nayeri. >> i am. they told me, don't look at him. sit in the witness stand and scoot back so when you're testifying he's not in your line of sight. so that's what i did. >> when cortney testified, i was very fascinated.

i think we all were listening to every word she had to say, watching body language. >> so you actually saw this torch? in addition to the torch, did you see anything else, any other instrumentality of this kidnapping that you recall? >> i saw ski masks. i saw a fake construction worker outfit. >> it was crucial for us to have the jury doubt her credibility. >> when mr. ciulla was asking her questions, he really was zoning in on her character. >> your parents own a electronics recycling company, >> they do. >> sometime during '09 there was an audit in that company, and it was determined that somebody was stealing money from the company, right? >> i was putting on my parents american express charges for hossein. >> lots of money, right? >> lots of -- yes. >> in the range of maybe $150,000, something like that. >> could be.

>> at first, i wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or not. >> nayeri and his attorney claimed that she had flipped on him to avoid getting herself in trouble. >> cortney was given use immunity, and that means that anything she said could not be used against her. you then made a deal to cooperate, right? >> i decided to cooperate, and yeah, i mean, that's what i did. >> cortney's end game was no prosecution, no jail, keep my law license. most people would do and say anything to save all of that. >> who cares? her motivation to do it, whether it's self-preservation, whether it's doing right thing, where whether it's good citizenship -- the question for a jury is, is she telling the truth?

>> i was terrified of hossein. there were two parts of his personality and they were just these separate parts. there was the nice, charming, manipulative, draw-you-in part and then there was this angry, crazy, temper-driven, scary. >> she really described this jekyll and hyde of a man that was so charming and so loving, and then an instant was violent and abusive. i think if anything paints a picture of who he is, that really did it. >> this is just the kind of defendant who would insist upon taking the stand. prosecutors love it. >> i'm just asking whether you agree or disagree. >> it was watching a heavyweight boxing match. >> you want to give us answer for that? >> i want to give you an answer for that, personally. our story begins more than 60 years ago inside an abandoned chicken coop. where our founder discovered a retired teacher living. no home.

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>> gpses and cameras. >> nayeri admits to conducting the surveillance for months. >> several, yes. nine months. >> was this a job for you? were you getting paid for it? >> i was, yes. >> throughout all of it, he continually flatly denied knowing anything about the kidnapping. >> did you participate in this kidnapping? >> of course not. >> did you know about it before it happened? >> of course not. >> his testimony of "i only watched him for kyle handley, who's the real criminal mastermind," it is patently absurd. the question is, is the jury believing it? that's the real question. >> you're very emotional, appear to be crying. why is that? >> at one point, during questioning from his lawyer, hossein nayeri got emotional. >> i have no words. i don't know what to say. >> and this is the performance of his life because, literally, his life depends on whether or not he can get one or two of

these jurors to feel sorry for him. >> do you remember writing that? >> yes. >> hossein nayeri is a con man and this is a big giant manipulation to the jury. that's what the game is. >> is that a reference to how you left the marine corps? >> yes. one of the biggest heartbreaks of my entire life. >> i very rarely look at my jurors when i'm in trial, and i looked over at when he was crying. he had one who looked like she was tearing up a little bit. i got the bring her back. >> >> you may begin your cross-examination. >> thank you. good morning mr. nayeri. >> good morning mr. murphy. >> when the cross-examination began, matt murphy started to ask him questions. >> absolutely wrong. >> mr. nayeri, we've got all the time in the world, so you don't have to interrupt me. i'm not going to interrupt you. >> and nayeri got testy. >> we good? >> i understand. >> okay. are we good? are you going do that?

>> we're good. are you going to start telling the truth once in a while? >> sir. sir, you may not make that kind of statements. you know better than that. do you understand? >> yes, your honor. >> very rarely do you ever see a prosecutor and a defendant go out at it the way nayeri and matt murphy did. >> nayeri certainly had met his match in matt murphy. >> you set up this whole kidnapping. right? >> you don't even believe that. >> i'm going to take that as a no. >> it was watching a heavyweight boxing match. it was just counterpunch after counterpunch setting each other up. >> you need to hear the truth. do you want real answers or you want fake answers? >> sir, sir. >> he's in a battle between the impression he's trying to make and his actual nature. >> you're just trying to box me in. i'm trying to explain to you so you can get it. >> sir, you and i have had a conversation about these gratuitous comments. please stop them. next question please. >> there was one exchange where they had to ask the jury to leave because nayeri yells at

murphy and you thought, "here we go." >> mr. nayeri, i'm going to ask the questions. >> truth. truth please. >> mr. nayeri, do i need to admonish you again sir? >> your honor, he's shoving down information down my throat. >> ladies and gentleman, i need you to please leave the courtroom. >> when he's throwing out those little lines, like he's trying to challenge me, he's personally attacking me, it means the strategy is working -- that i'm under his skin, and that he's blowing it. >> he'd go from this charming young man to i'm angry and i'm not going to take this. that's what his ex-wife had described. it was jarring to see it in person. >> your marriage to cortney was annulled. yes or no. >> falsely, yes, it was annulled. >> you could tell that there was just like this negative electricity between the two of them. >> based on false information, yes, it was annulled. based on a bunch of bull! >> sir! >> i would say it was hate, is what it felt like.

it was so intense. >> i'm asking the questions. >> i don't remember. look, man, you've got answer the questions or not. >> you want the jury to see the real evil, angry, violent nature of this man. the hossein nayeri that's in the back of a van not getting what he wants. >> i just got one last question. you're out in the desert. michael [ bleep ] -- did you cut off his penis? why couldn't you just leave it there in the hopes that it could be reattached? >> you're done? >> you want to give us an answer for that? >> i want to give you an answer for that, personally. >> it reached a point at the end where he actually threatened me. >> personally, i'm done, is that what you said? i'm done? what does that mean, mr. nayeri? >> i said, are you done?

>> so my question, to you -- >> i'm not even going to answer your question. you don't even deserve an answer to that. >> okay. >> nice try. >> you are the only ones that can achieve justice. >> most people around the case assumed it was going to be a fairy short deliberation. >> hold that man accountable for what he did. >> it became pretty obvious pretty early that it was a jury that was divided. >> i just kept thinking to i have moderate to severe pnow, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer, yeah i feel free ♪

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the trial of hossein nayeri has gone on for almost a month before the jury hits the evidence and goes back and deliberates. >> hold that man accountable for what he did. >> most people around the case assumed it was going to be a fairly short deliberation. that did not end up being the case. >> on a monday the jury got the case. tuesday goes by. wednesday, thursday goes by, and

i'm thinking, oh, my god, he's such a master manipulator that that whole show he put on where he's superaggressive and threatening matt murphy -- >> falsely, yes, it was annulled. based on a bunch of bull. >> sir. >> you don't deserve an answer. >> it worked. >> we had one juror who felt that he was absolutely innocent. when he cried on the stand during his testimony, she also cried. so that's what we started out with. >> that juror had come and spoken to the bailiff in tears, saying, i don't know if i can do this anymore. there's too much pressure in there. >> there was standing and yelling and screaming. it got really out of hand a couple of times. >> to give the jury credit, they stuck with it. >> they worked and worked and worked. >> finally, by the end of day three, i felt that there was some change in the one juror.

the logical piece that started to come around for her was that his surveillance aided and abetted the crime to happen. the way that the law reads, that if someone aids and abets, they are just as guilty. >> now we're on day five, and we're told that there's a verdict. >> you could feel the tension in the courtroom. >> we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant, hossein nayeri, guilty. >> nayeri was convicted of the kidnapping, the torture. the jury hung on the aggravated mayhem charge. >> the jury couldn't decide whether or not he actually was the cutter. that doesn't matter. he's the worst of the worst.

>> it was justice in this case, because he did it. it was a relief for me because he's never going to get out again. this is it. >> that's right. we got you. you thought you got away. you thought you were smarter than us. we got you. a third suspect in that kidnapping and torture case has yet to be tried that is our program for tonight. be sure to tune in monday night, 10:00 p.m. eastern for a breaking news life "20/20" special on coronavirus. thanks for watching. i'm amy robach. for all of us here at "20/20," good night.

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