NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A California man was convicted Friday of kidnapping and torturing a marijuana dispensary owner who he believed had buried large amounts of cash in the desert.
A jury in Newport Beach found Hossein Nayeri, 40, guilty of two counts of kidnapping and one count of torture. Jurors did not reach a verdict on a charge of mayhem or an enhancement that Nayeri personally inflicted injury in the torture count.
Authorities said Nayeri and three others abducted the dispensary owner from his Newport Beach home in 2012 along with his roommate’s girlfriend, believing the man had buried money in the desert.
The abductors bound and tortured the man while demanding the money. His penis was cut off and he was burned with a blow torch before leaving him and the woman on the side of a desert road.
The man survived and testified at trial.
Nayeri also testified and denied involvement in the kidnapping.
While awaiting trial in 2016, Nayeri broke out of the Orange County jail with two other inmates in a bold escape. They led authorities on a weeklong manhunt across the state before being captured.
During his trial, Nayeri testified that he had worked in the marijuana business. Authorities said one of Nayeri’s friends, Kyle Handley, had been growing marijuana for the dispensary owner and traveled with him on a trip to Las Vegas that led him to believe the owner was wealthy.
Handley, Nayeri and two other friends then plotted to kidnap and rob the victim, authorities said.
After the abduction, Newport Beach police linked a car that had been parked outside the victim’s home that night to Handley. and DNA evidence at Handley’s home to Nayeri, who by that time had fled to Iran, authorities said.
Nayeri was extradited to the U.S. in 2014 from the Czech Republic, where he had stopped to transfer flights to meet up with family in Spain.
Handley was convicted in the case last year and sentenced to life without parole.