Attorney for Hossein Nayeri questions key evidence, testimony allegedly tying him to abduction, torture of pot dispensary owner

An attorney for Hossein Nayeri on Friday raised doubts about key testimony and forensic evidence prosecutors allege ties him to the abduction, torture and sexual mutilation of a Newport Beach marijuana dispensary owner, as his high-profile trial wound to a close.

A Newport Beach jury on Monday, Aug. 12, is expected to begin their deliberations, as they are tasked to decide whether Nayeri, as alleged by prosecutors, masterminded the headline-grabbing kidnapping and personally tortured the dispensary owner and cut his penis off in an effort to find a non-existent $1 million they wrongly believed had been buried in the desert.

During his closing arguments on Friday morning, Sal Ciulla, Nayeri’s attorney, told jurors that the case against Nayeri is based on circumstantial evidence and the “lies” of his ex-wife, a key witness for the prosecution. Prosecutors allege that Nayeri planned the kidnapping and carried it out with two high-school friends, Kyle Handley and Ryan Kevorkian.

During at-times combative testimony earlier in the week, Nayeri admitted to surveilling the dispensary owner for months prior to the abduction, but has denied playing a role in the actual kidnapping or knowing about the failed robbery plot.

“It got heated at times, it got loud, he got angry,” Ciulla said of Nayeri’s testimony. “But ask yourself this: how would you react if you were accused of something this twisted, this disgusting and this evil and you didn’t do it?”

Nayeri testified that Handley, who he was teaming with for a marijuana grow operation, asked him to keep an eye on the dispensary owner, who the Register is not naming due to the nature of the crimes. The dispensary owner owed Handley $300,000 from a marijuana deal, Nayeri said, an allegation the dispensary owner has denied.

On Sept. 26, 2012, Nayeri eluded a Newport Beach motorcycle officer who tried to pull him over while he had cash and marijuana in his car, but left his vehicle, along with surveillance equipment and footage he had taken of the dispensary owner, behind for police to seize.

Nayeri testified that he then went to Handley and told him he could no longer watch the dispensary owner, but said he did not tell Handley about police getting his equipment.

“He tells Handley he is through,” Ciulla told jurors. “Handley then panics and takes matters into his own hands.”

On Oct. 2, 2012, three masked men broke into the Newport Beach home where the dispensary owner was sleeping, then forced he and the girlfriend of the man who owned the home into a van. During a more than two hour drive to the Mojave Desert, the men beat the dispensary owner, shocked him with a Taser, whipped him with rubber piping and burned him with a blow torch.

Once in the desert, the men cut off the dispensary owner’s penis, then left he and the woman behind. She was able to free herself and get medical attention for him, but the missing body part was never found.

A Newport Beach neighbor reported seeing a suspicious vehicle at the dispensary owner’s home prior to the abduction, leading police to Handley. A glove found in Handley’s car was later tied through DNA to Nayeri, while a zip-tie at the residence similar to the ones used to bind the dispensary owner and the woman was tied through DNA to Kevorkian.

Nayeri fled to Iran after Handley’s arrest. His then-wife, Cortney Shegerian, ultimately agreed to work with authorities, convincing Nayeri to leave Iran so he could be arrested and identifying to police who she alleged was involved in the abduction.

Nayeri’s attorney asked jurors why Nayeri would go through with an abduction knowing that police had in their possession the surveillance footage from the car chase tying him to the victim.

“Who is going to do that?” the defense attorney said. “Not even the dumbest person in the world would follow through with this.”

Ciulla accused Shegerian of lying to authorities and in her testimony. She was planning to leave Nayeri for another man, the defense attorney said, wanted Nayeri’s money and was worried about derailing her law career after just passing the bar exam.

“She thought she was in a world of trouble,” Ciulla said. “She got the best lawyer she could get. And she comes up with stories.”

The defense attorney also questioned investigator’s handling of the glove they found with Nayeri’s DNA on it, as well as a second glove police say was found nearby. Both gloves were collected, Ciulla said, but only one sent to the crime lab for analysis. Prosecutors have said that both gloves were kept as evidence.

Nayeri gained further notoriety while awaiting trial for allegedly masterminding a brazen escape, along with two other inmates, from an Orange County jail. Nayeri, during his testimony earlier this week, said he escaped because he felt he was being “railroaded.”

Handley has already been convicted and sentenced to four life terms in prison. Kevorkian is awaiting trial.