Ex-wife testifies she was terrified of man accused of kidnapping, torturing and mutilating marijuana dispensary owner from Newport Beach

The ex-wife of a man on trial for the kidnapping, torture and sexual mutilation of a marijuana dispensary owner testified Wednesday to having lived in fear of her former spouse and having felt powerless to refuse to aid him in the run-up to the abduction.

Cortney Shegerian took the stand for the second day in a Newport Beach courtroom to testify as a key witness against Hossein Nayeri, who is accused of teaming up with a pair of high school friends to kidnap and torture a marijuana dispensary owner in an attempt to find a non-existent $1 million they falsely believed the man had buried in the desert.

Nayeri has denied taking part in the abduction, with his attorney raising the possibility that other men may have carried it out.

Shegerian, who met Nayeri when she was 16 and he was 23, said she married Nayeri without her parents’ knowledge. Over time, Nayeri persuaded Shegerian to steal about $150,000 from her parents in order to fund his “lifestyle” and a marijuana grow house, she said. Shegerian said she was “terrified” of Nayeri, alleging there was violence in their relationship.

“There were two parts of his personality,” Shegerian said. “There was the nice, charming, manipulative, draw-you-in part. Then there was this angry, crazy, temper-driven part, and it could go from zero to a thousand in a minute. And I didn’t feel like I could tell him no to anything.”

While witnesses in the trial have described the other two men accused of being involved in the kidnapping and torture – Kyle Handley and Ryan Kevorkian – as not particularly bright, Shegerian said Nayeri is “extremely intelligent.”

Prosecutors allege that Nayeri and the two other men, broke into a Newport Beach home on Oct. 2, 2012 and kidnapped the marijuana dispensary owner – who the Register is not naming due to the nature of the crimes – as well as the girlfriend of another man who lived at the residence. During a more than two-hour drive to the Mojave Desert, the men tortured the dispensary owner, beating him shocking him with a taser, whipping him with rubber piping and burning him with a blow torch.

Once in the desert, the men cut off the dispensary owner’s penis and doused him with bleach. The woman was able to free herself and find medical aid for herself and the dispensary owner. But the missing body part was never found.

Handley was the first to be arrested, prompting Nayeri to flee to Iran. Shegerian admitted to initially lying to police when they asked her about Nayeri and his alleged role in the abduction. She testified that she changed her mind after police reached out to her parents, and she began going to intensive therapy.

“It made me see things for what they were, and not this delusional fearful state I was in,” Shegerian said. “I realized what had happened and I realized I have to tell the truth and do what is right… I couldn’t live with what I had done and contributed to.”

Along with identifying the individuals alleged to have taken part in the kidnapping and torture, Shegerian convinced Nayeri to leave Iran to meet her in another country, where he was arrested and extradited.

Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy noted that Shegerian was in law school at the time, and was aware that the actions she was admitting to – for which she was later granted immunity – tied her to a criminal conspiracy. Shegerian admitted to helping Nayeri in surveilling the dispensary owner prior to the abduction, seeing Nayeri with a blow torch used in the torture, helping him cook poisoned hamburger meat to feed to a dog owned by the dispensary owner’s parents and to funneling tens of thousands of dollars of her parents money to Nayeri while he was on the run.

“I knew it would make me look like a monster, basically,” she said.

Nayeri’s attorney, Sal Ciulla, has told jurors that Shegerian lied to police about Nayeri’s alleged involvement in the abduction and torture. The defense attorney said Shegerian was already planning to leave Nayeri for another man, was worried about her own criminal culpability and her future in the legal profession.

“You were compelled to get Hossein back, because you were afraid of what would happen to you if you didn’t,” Ciulla said to Shegerian.

During his cross-examination of Shegerian, Ciulla asked why Shegerian seemed to be mentioning some details, including finding bloody socks following the abduction, that she hadn’t brought up to law enforcement before.

“Were those socks bloody?” Ciulla asked

“Yes, there was blood on one of those socks,” Shegerian responded.

“Have you ever said that before?” Ciulla said.

“I was never asked if there were stains or blood,” Shegerian replied.

Handley was sentenced last year and sentenced to four life terms behind bars. Kevorkian is awaiting trial. Nayeri gained further notoriety prior to trial for allegedly masterminding a brazen escape, along with two other inmates, from Orange County jail.

Testimony in the trial continues next week.