The trial for a Texas man accused of fatally shooting his two daughters in so-called “honor killings” in 2008 continued this week in a Dallas courtroom.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, agents arrested Yaser Abdel Said in Justin, Texas, in August 2020, according to an FBI statement. He had been wanted on capital murder charges for the deaths of his daughters, Lewisville High School students, Sarah Yaser Said, 17, and Amina Yaser Said, 18.
Said had been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitive list since 2014 after he allegedly shot his two daughters to death while inside a taxi, in Irving, Texas. Police, who called the deaths “honor killings,” said the alleged killer was upset his daughters had been dating non-Muslim boys.
“This is a case about a man obsessed with possession and control,” prosecutor Lauren Black said in court Tuesday, according to Fox News.
The girls thought they were going to dinner with their father, who was a taxi driver when the incident occurred. Sara managed to call 911 after the shootings. She pleaded for help and named her father as the shooter as she spoke to a 911 dispatcher, the Washington Post reports.
“Help,” Sarah said. “I’m dying. Oh my God. Stop it.”
Authorities didn’t find the girls immediately; they couldn’t determine the address through the 911 call. Someone from a nearby Omni hotel found the girls’ deceased bodies at around 7:30 p.m. and called 911.
“These were two young, spirited young ladies,” Black said during court this week. “Normal teenage girls who wanted a normal life.”
According to prosecutors, the girls were scared of their father and his controlling ways, prompting their mother to flee with them to Oklahoma. Days later, they returned to Texas, despite the girls’ pleas to stay away from him. The girls had said many times that they thought their father would kill them.
Within a week of returning home, the girls were dead.
Prior to their deaths, the girls said for years that their father had been sexually abusing them.
Said’s defense argued that authorities didn’t fully investigate the crime but instead, focused on Said as the primary suspect.
“Rather than investigating the murders, they were investigating Yaser,” lawyer Joseph Patton said.
Prosecutors are seeking an automatic sentence of life in prison, should Said be convicted.
The trial continues. Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Sarah Yaser Said and Amina Yaser Said/Handout]
