tonight, master manipulator. >> i have many flaws. wanting to hurt people is not one of them. >> committing depraved crimes. >> they're in the mojave desert. they're dragged out of this van. >> i kept saying, i don't have a million dollars. >> the suspect on the run overseas. the one person who could tempt him out of hiding, his wife, risking her own wife to bring him down. >> anything could set him off, ask he's highly suspicious. >> the final courtroom showdown. >> i have no words. i don't know what to say. >> would the jury believe him? up at 2:00am again? tonight, try pure zzzs all night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer.

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because it hasn't removed the endless mundane work we all hate. ♪ ♪ automation can solve that by taking on repetitive tasks for us. unleash your potential. uipath. reboot work. "nightline," "catch me if you can." here's matt gutman. >> they could not even imagine the night they were about to have. >> i was just filled with terror. i'm screaming, somebody please help! >> they're continuously asking for one thing, the million dollars. >> dumped onto the desert floor. >> this is where they're going to shoot us. >> heinous crime.

now the plot thickens. who is hossainairi? >> there's a lot of stuff you guys don't have a clue about. >> this is the only criminal i've heard of who filmed his own escape from jail. >> he's going to kill me, there's no doubt in my mind, i'm dead. >> newport beach is a beach community. >> not at all the kind of place where you would expect something terrible to happen. >> mary has moved into this house with her boyfriend. and his roommate, michael. >> he's in the marijuana business but he's not a shady drug dealer, he is a legitimate businessman. >> reporter: medical marijuana was legal in the state of california, but illegal federally. that meant that people like michael couldn't do business with banks. >> this is a cash-only business.

>> it's a typical monday night. early fall here in southern california. >> there's two people inside the house. there's michael, there's mary. >> suddenly, masked men are in this house. >> mary wakes up with a cold piece of metal on the back of her neck. >> she is blindfolded and is immediately taken out of bed. he's carrying her downstairs. she can hear the cries for michael. >> they asked him, where's the million dollars? within just a few minutes, i heard them dragging him down the steps. >> they're not stealing from him. they're actually going to kidnap him. >> the suspects loaded michael and mary into their vehicle. >> michael's taking as brutal a beating as you could possibly imagine. >> this man has no mercy.

>> and they're continuously asking for one thing, the million dollars. >> he kept saying, i don't have the million dollars. >> they're out in the mojave desert. and it's abandoned and desolate and dark. >> they're dragged out of this van. >> remember, he can't deposit his money from the medical marijuana business in a bank. >> they believe he has buried a million dollars somewhere out here. >> they ask him one more time, where's the million dollars? >> and for the final time, he tells them, there is no million dollars. >> if we're not going to get our money, we're going to take something. >> your [ bleep ]. that's what he said. i couldn't believe what was happening. he was cutting off my roommate's penis. the guy was a total sadist.

he's a psychopath. >> so after the mutilation, one of them bends over to mary, still hogtied and blindfolded, and they tell her, if you find the knife, you can set yourself free. >> reporter: now with the kidnappers gone, mary somehow finds that knife in the dirt, cuts her feet tree. >> this woman walks out barefoot, through the california desert, because she sees lights off in the distance that might be a road. >> fortunately, a police officer happened to be going the other way and saw me. and i said, officer, my friend and i were kidnapped in newport beach. >> laying in the desert just up the hill, we need to save him. >> mary directed us to a dirt road that led west. >> before they even see the victim, they are overpowered by the stench in the air. >> it was heavy. it was -- it actually made me choke. he had been doused with bleach

from head to toe. >> bleach destroys dna. if you're planning a crime like this, you will use bleach to cover your tracks. >> he starts photographing. you can see the brutality of what happened to this poor man. >> now deputy williams and his team have a job to do. and that's to try to find michael's severed body part. >> he didn't just sever it, he took it with him to ensure that he would suffer for that the rest of his life. >> it turns out the day prior to our kidnapping, a witness had seen something suspicious. a white pickup truck had parked behind michael's house. >> the truck is registered to a man by the name of kyle handily. >> of course they go right back to michael and say, do you know kyle? michael's like, yeah, i know who kyle is, but how would he be tied to this? >> this is a young man who happens to be in the marijuana business.

>> michael says kyle enters his dispensary and starts selling him weed. michael and kyle start a friendship. >> he actually invited kyle on a las vegas wild weekend, and they had a blast. >> so the police get a warrant for hambly. they go to his house. >> their eyes are set on a truck that's parked in the driveway. it's the truck that they trace kyle's registration to. inside that truck was a pair of blue gloves. >> there's a person that matches the dna that was in that glove, and it wasn't kyle hambly, and it wasn't our victim's. >> a name comes back. hossein nayeri. >> were you there at the kidnapping? >> no, not at all, absolutely not. >> were you part of mutilating him? >> obviously not. i have many flaws. wanting to hurt people is definitely not one of them. >> when he was a child,

hussein's family emigrated from iran to california. that's where he later met his future wife. >> i first met him at the munoz cafe in fresno when i was 16. >> 16? >> 16. he was funny and charming. and cute. >> she comes from a very good family. and they're not happy about it. they don't really like him. >> the relationship progresses to the point that 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. i was at a place in my life where i ate all that up. he would say all the right things. >> reporter: and their relationship eventually became stormy. courtney says nayeri was physically abusive, that he isolated her from family and friends. >> he started dabbling in growing marijuana. >> he told courtney he was growing marijuana with two high school buddies, kyle hambly and another guy. >> one of the customers at the

medical marijuana dispensary owned by michael. michael liked kyle so much he invited him on that wild all expenses paid trip to las vegas. >> after seeing how much carmichael is throwing around, kyle and hussein must have thought, we can get that money. >> they do a bit of math and think, he must have at least a million dollars in cash. >> so they devise a scheme to track the movements of michael to find out where he's putting all of his money. they guy cheap gps equipment from a website, and they surreptitiously attach it to his vehicle. >> one day nayeri is glued to his computer screen. >> he goes, he's going out to the desert. >> he feels this is his big moment. that's the place where the money is buried. >> that one moment is what changes the lives for everyone. they're going to kidnap this

individual, drag him out there, and have him dig it up for them to take. >> reporter: but just one week before they try to pull off his savage plan is nayeri is driving in newport beach when suddenly he sees police are trying to pull him over on a traffic violation. >> he gets into basically a high-speed chase. and flees. >> reporter: but nayeri has left something behind in that car that is soon going to become huge. and the police launch a plot not even a master criminal hussein nayeri sees coming. it's a trap, and courtney is the bait. wow. can we get some sun? ♪ uh, mom? can we go to the beach?

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♪ so with investigators and police hot on his trail, nayeri flees to his homeland of iran. >> to the one nation on the planet earth that is never going to extradite one of its citizens to the united states, ever. >> remember the car nayeri was driving when he led police on a high-speed pursuit? that car remain impounded. >> we go and search that car. then we find two surveillance cameras and one gps tracker. i put it in the computer. he had hours and hours of video surveillance of michael's house. >> at some point, hussein said all of this surveillance equipment that was in the car is available to be picked up. so go down there and pick it up. >> she does what she's told. if hussein tells her to do it. >> when courtney comes to claim

the vehicle, she basically walks right into the case. >> i go back there and i sign for it. and the detective is like, we're not taking this with you, we have to ask you a few questions. >> courtney being an accessory to this, she could have been held liable for every aspect of the crime. >> she faced life in jail without any possibility of parole. >> there's only one smart thing to do, and that's cooperate. >> are you going to be able to call hussein again for us? >> if you'd like me to, i'll do anything that you want me to do. >> she and the police are laying a trap for nayeri, and she's essentially the bait. >> reporter: so this was the plan. courtney has to convince nayeri that she wants to go on a romantic vacation with him to spain. but his flight there would have a layover in a place that would extradite him. prague in the czech republic.

>> it's just been 10 months since i've been able to be around you every day, you know? >> i know. >> it's not what i envisioned. >> i was thinking to myself, oh my god, he's going to sense -- my voice inflection changes, if i don't laugh at a joke, anything could set him off. >> if he realized 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. and we can be together. >> gets off the plane in prague. and gets stripped, arrested, cavity searched, and thrown in prison. >> and afterwards she not only divorced you, but she annulled the marriage. >> she's good. she's good, what can i say?

>> nayeri is finally booked into orange county jail. >> somehow, nayeri gets access to a cell phone and begins videotaping himself in the jail. >> reporter: according to authorities, nayeri becomes the ringleader of an escape plot with two other inmates. >> nayeri, in his arrogance, is actually videotaping this entire incident. >> why did you do that, why did you shoot the video? >> believe it or not, it was all spontaneous. >> picture the arrogance of this. everything that he's recording will eventually be seized by police and used against him. >> so here he is, opens up the grate, slides inside the tunnel, and gives the thumbs up to his own cell phone. >> tonight the frantic manhunt -- >> police scouring the streets with flashlights -- >> our personnel will exhaust

every investigative technique and option -- >> there was a chill over the community as a whole. but specifically anyone who had any connection to this case. >> police come in, two officers there. do you know hussein nayeri? of course. well, did you know he escaped from jail? and i became hysterical. i mean, it's my worst nightmare coming alive. he's going to kill me. there's no doubt in my mind. i'm dead. >> he had a huge head start. >> like 16 hours or something like that. i'm just 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. >> the manhunt continues. three violent criminals -- >> 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." i was reading about escaped fugitives and out popped an escaped fugitive. i've got to go report it to the authorities. >> just when you think, finally, the party's over for this guy. no, no, no. just wait. >> forensically, we have a very strong case. we've got the license plate, we've got a glove used in the cleanup that has hussein nayeri's dna in it. >> the defense, their goal is to convince the jurors there's not prove beyond a reasonable doubt. >> there's no proof he was present in the house where the kidnapping took place or in the van that transported the victims to the desert or out in the desert. >> defense may call their next witness. >> call hussein nayeri. >> on the stand he painted kyle

hamly as the mastermind. >> he said he did surveillance as a favor for a friend and had nothing to do with the kidnapping. >> did you participate in this kidnapping? >> of course not. >> did you know about it before it happened? >> of course not. >> his testimony, i only watched him for kyle hanbly, who's the real criminal mastermind. it is patently absurd. the question is, is the jury believing it? >> you're very emotional, you appear to be crying. why is that? >> i have no words. i don't know what to say. i don't know what to say. >> 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 sorryfor him. >> the trial of hussein nayeri has gone on almost a month before the jury goes and deliberates. >> most people around the case assumed it was going to be a fairly short deliberation.

that did not end up being the case. >> i'm thinking, oh my god, he's such a master manipulator, that whole show he put on, it worked. >> now we're on day five, and we're told that there's a verdict. >> verdict. we, the jury in the above-entitled action, find the defendant, hussein nayeri, getty. >> 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. >> you thought you got away.

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kyle hanbly, coconspirator, the jury deliberated less than two hours before convicting him of kidnapping, mayhem, and torture. >> a third suspect in the case has yet to be tried. this past october, nayeri was sentenced to life in prison without parole. michael now at the sentencing confronting the man who tortured him. >> what kind of human being does such a thing? the complications and pain, physically and psychologically, connected to this sick act are so