04x04 - A Father's Shadow

[bunniefuu]

I don't believe

that you can justly k*ll anybody.

I'm not for people losing their life.

I just got dragged into the mix.

There was so much

media arousal over the case.

They purported it to be

a a religious m*rder,

which is not the fact.

There's nothing in the Muslim religion

that states for you to hurt anybody.

I'm thankful that I'm alive,

but at the same time,

I sometimes regret my decision.

I feel like there was something

we we could've done,

just at the time we didn't know.

I didn't know what I could do.

Warden has given permission

for him not to wear the handcuffs.

- Okay. Thank you so much.

- Okay.

My name is Nasim Ali Irsan.

I was convicted

of first-degree m*rder charge

and my sentence

is a 40-year sentence in TDCJ.

I was born September 17, 1993,

and I grew up in Conroe, Texas,

Houston area.

My childhood was a little bit rough.

I had a total of 12 siblings,

uh, including myself, and my family is

is Hmm, it's complicated.

I was born to strict parents.

You just did

what you were told, and that was it.

There was no questions asked.

Religion dominated everything

in the house.

I didn't know why I was a Muslim.

I just knew that I was a Muslim

by force of my father.

He pushed everything

that he believed upon us.

If you missed a prayer,

that, you know, that was grounds

for having your a*s beat.

Excuse my language.

But he grew up in a city

of a Middle Eastern Third World country.

So, he believes that the way

that he grew up on was the religion,

which is not the fact.

That's the culture

upon which he was brought up.

As kids, we were not allowed

to have any kind of friends.

He deemed everybody who was not a Muslim,

or of his same denomination,

to be infidels.

When I was in school,

I got pulled out of school

and my parents refused to allow me back

in school because I made some friends.

It kind of made me a social outcast.

Uh, I never I never grew up

around anybody to talk to.

So, I was I was sort of a loner.

I have four older sisters.

One of them, I I barely ever met.

The other sister underneath her is Nadia.

And then,

the one underneath her is Nesreen.

Nadia and Nesreen had a little clique,

a little pact

that they had between each other.

They're the ones

that took care of everything.

They fed everybody, cleaned the house.

My mom and dad's duty

was was merely just an existence.

They never cooked for us,

they never cleaned for us.

They they punished us, but they never

really played a part in our life.

That was all Nadia and Nesreen.

The proposition was brought to them that

they were either gonna go to college

or they were gonna go to Jordan

and be forced into marriage.

So they chose to go to college,

and, uh

but there

there was a strict rule

that they'd have to take the same classes

and be in the same same courses.

That way they could watch over each other.

The few friends

that my father did believe that they had

were allegedly Muslims,

and they were females.

In such a sense, he'd approved of it.

To his knowledge,

they'd go straight from college,

do their classes, and come straight home.

It became about two years into it

when Nesreen and Nadia

started be becoming more, um,

I want to say "rebellious" to his orders.

If he would have known

about the independence or the social life

that my sisters had in college,

it would've been a problem.

My father, Ali,

did tell my sister Nesreen,

"I would put a b*llet between your eyes

if I found out you were dating

anybody that wasn't a Muslim."

It enraged him

knowing that she was intentionally

and purposely disobeying his orders.

She would have been k*lled had she stayed

in the house any longer than she did.

She managed to escape,

and she ran out of a window

that, you know, that she had cracked open,

and she made it out.

Everything started from the day

that Nesreen ran away

and that's what led

to the unfortunate events

that we are in prison for right now.

My dad felt like

he took his daughter away from him.

But he believed that the dishonor

was blamed on the friends

that he found out she had in college.

That's when he told me

there was this girl named Gelareh

that had played a part

in my sister Nesreen's running away

and converting to a Christian.

My father believed

that she aided and abetted my sister

in disobeying his orders,

and he deemed my sister to be his honor.

So, he felt that she had soiled his honor

by assisting my sister Nesreen

to be converted into a Christian.

He felt like

that was enough for her to be k*lled.

The only way to clean his honor

would be by blood.

And he began the stalking of Miss Gelareh.

It would be nights

that he would go out

and monitor her movements.

See where she's going,

see who she talks to.

My father, he had GPS trackers

that he purchased online

to gather information, intel,

on Miss Gelareh's car,

which is how, in the end,

he had found out where she was.

I used to go on these checks

and my job was to watch

and document license plates numbers

and things that I seen

going in and out of this house.

I was only 17, 18 years old

at the time, and I didn't know no better.

There was night watches

to plan what the attack would be.

And that's what what led to that.

Houston Fire and Ambulance.

- What's the location of the emergency?

- Augusta Drive.

My neighbor's been shot.

I think she's in the car.

Please send someone quickly.

I'm not sure she's alive.

Can you tell

if she's awake right now?

She's not.

Okay, we are dispatching

emergency units.

Okay, just remain safe

if the assailant is nearby.

Do not disturb the scene

or move any weapons.

Yeah. Oh, God.

This is probably one of the cases

that, you know, got to me personally.

I had a plan to retire a year earlier

than I did, but I just couldn't.

I couldn't let it go.

This is the case that kept me here.

My name's, uh, Officer Richard Bolton.

Retired now, but I was a police officer

for the City of Houston for 32 years.

Well, this is not a high crime area.

This is a really nice area of Houston.

It was just shocking to think

something like that would happen here.

When I arrived that night,

her vehicle was smashed

into this garage door right here.

And the door was all caved in.

The car was still in gear

and the tires were still spinning.

You know, you could smell

the burning rubber, still.

We're shining flashlights in here.

She was sitting in the driver's seat,

and she was slumped over

the console this way

you know, facedown.

There was one wound to her upper arm

and one wound

to the right side of her head,

and it was apparent

that the victim had been shot.

At least twice.

Point-blank range

through the passenger window.

This wasn't a robbery.

Her purse and wallet

were still in the front seat of her car.

Somebody, they followed her in here

to k*ll her.

It was a pretty horrific scene.

You don't ever get used to it.

The most difficult thing is we had to make

death notification to her parents.

You know, it almost made you

want to break down. It It was that

You know

it was hard.

We didn't have any answers for them.

We did not know a motive.

We didn't have a clue who did this to her.

Gelareh, say something.

What? Like what?

A message to Iran.

I look forward to a day

when we can all be free like this in Iran.

This is where I first met Gelareh.

It was during a candle vigil for people

who died during the protest in Iran.

Gelareh was right at the front.

Out of thousands of faces,

she had a face that you would remember.

The sun was going down.

Candles

Music, singing

It It was a very special moment.

The irony is, later on,

we had a candle vigil for Gelareh.

Here, the very same place.

My name is Seth Eslami,

and I was a friend of Gelareh.

Gelareh grew up in the capital of Iran,

Tehran, the largest city.

When you grow up in a country where

there's a certain power in charge

that tells you how to think,

what to think, what to like. Right?

Then freedom becomes very valuable.

So when you come

to a free environment like here,

then you realize it, and you're like,

"Wow, this is so sweet."

"This is so wonderful," you know?

She wanted her friends and family

and fellow, you know, countrymen

to have the same thing.

Especially as a female, she was

definitely passionate about equality.

We started working together

during the protest events

and got closer and we became good friends.

She became good friends with my wife.

She was the only person

who ever babysit for us.

She was one of those optimistic ones.

You wouldn't see much pessimism in her.

Yeah, she she never gave up hope.

It was a feeling of pure shock.

No, these are not feelings that

Uh This is the feeling

that I hope nobody has to go through.

Let's just put it this way.

It just didn't make any sense.

As far as I know, police had no suspects.

And they came up with the largest reward

in Houston history.

They put a $200,000 reward

for any information.

And then the news got big.

Thirty-year-old Gelareh Bagherzadeh

was m*rder*d,

shot to death near her parents' home

in the Galleria area.

Mysterious death of an activist

pushing for women's rights in Iran.

Now there are new questions

about whether her activist past

could have played a role in her death.

There was a theory that this was done

because of her activism.

"Oh, yes, the Iranian government

went and k*lled this, you know, activist."

But this doesn't make sense.

You know, yes, we're not a fan

of the Iranian government,

but let's focus

on something more realistic.

Certain questions never leave your mind,

you know?

Did you miss something? Did you

Is there something to know,

or is there something to be afraid of?

But, in her case,

it just did not make any sense.

I can't imagine how her family

was going through with it.

You know, as a friend,

it was difficult for me, but her family

Unbelievable.

Every time I met them,

you could see it in her mother's eyes.

Me, friends, people that I knew,

we had no idea.

We had no clue.

911, hello?

Oh, ma'am,

my husband's been shot!

He's on the ground,

and there's blood all over the place!

- Ma'am, please help me! I love him!

- Okay.

Why, God?

Why did God do this to me?

God wasn't the one that did it, sweetie.

I've worked criminal cases,

I've worked counterterrorism cases.

This one, I'll always remember.

My name is Carlos Acosta.

I'm a special agent with FBI,

and I was the lead investigator

on the Nasim Irsan investigation.

After the FBI became involved,

we identified that there was a clear link

between both murders.

Nesreen was Coty Beavers' wife

and Gelareh's best friend.

The first thing we did

was interview Nesreen.

She made the allegations that

her father, Ali, was involved in both

not only the m*rder of Coty Beavers,

but also the m*rder

of her best friend, Gelareh.

So we focused on Nesreen's father, Ali,

and we started by searching his property.

It was one of the longest non-stop

search warrants that we conducted.

We were able to find evidence

linking back to the murders.

One was a particular .38 caliber revolver,

which was the same caliber

as the m*rder weapon

that was utilized in the Gelareh m*rder.

We also discovered

that in the faucets of the roof

were two car navigation devices.

And so, with those we had enough evidence

to put him at both m*rder sites.

All of the evidence was pointing to Ali.

So we we thought we had him

for both murders.

Until we discovered a call

between Ali and Nasim.

Ali was in jail,

so everything that he was saying

on the open line was recorded.

Nasim was speaking to his dad

about the m*rder of Gelareh.

Nasim,

listen to me, baby.

I'm a very, very bad man.

I'm very bad. I don't know

how many lives have to be lost.

Nasim, listen to me, baby.

I'm dangerous.

I'm a very, very dangerous man.

That's all I can say.

God knows.

God knows and soon the world will too.

Nasim, listen to me.

There was two people that knew

and now they can't speak.

After the jail call,

we realized that Nasim was involved.

He was feeling guilty,

and he was pretty much

making admission to m*rder.

That was quite a break.

So, we start looking into Nasim.

And other pieces of evidence

started to mount up.

We realized on the night

Gelareh was k*lled,

the family was stopped,

heading from Houston back toward Conroe.

If you drove from that m*rder scene,

it was the exact route you'd have had

to drive to get to Ali Irsan's residence.

Come on over here for me.

The time period fit perfectly,

the car that he was driving fit perfectly,

and there was a third person

in the back seat.

Why was you going so fast?

We knew it was one of the sons,

and suspect number one was Nasim.

Ultimately, his own mother,

Shmou, agreed to testify

that it was Nasim that actually

committed the m*rder of Gelareh

which really corroborated

the other evidence that we had uncovered.

I have no doubts that Nasim actually

fired that g*n that k*lled Gelareh.

We brought criminal charges

on the state charge of capital m*rder

against Ali and Nasim.

Guilty of capital m*rder.

That was the verdict today

in the Ali Irsan trial.

Arguably, one of the longest

m*rder trials in recent history

with one of the shortest

jury deliberations.

Just 35 minutes.

The next phase, sentencing.

In Texas, if you're charged

with capital m*rder,

there are only two possible outcomes.

It's either life without parole,

or the death penalty.

As defense attorneys,

your duty is to your client,

and getting the best possible outcome

for that client.

Sometimes we're in the business

of damage control.

My name's Daniel Werlinger,

and I was one of Nasim Irsan's

defense attorneys, uh, during his case.

The Nasim I saw was a young man

who was very much lost,

but also seemed to have an understanding

of what was what he was facing,

and and understood that, really,

the only way to help himself

was to help us try and save

some part of his life.

Once we started looking at Nasim's life,

it became apparent that Ali Irsan

very much controlled his son,

and there was a lot of abuse

that ultimately caused Nasim

to be a pawn in in Ali's game.

My relationship

with my father wasn't one

that I believe a normal kid

has with their father.

My earliest memory

was of my father beating me.

I was probably around the age

of three or four,

and that was my earliest memory of him.

We went through a lot of

a lot of punishments

that people would say were extreme,

but, of course at the time,

I felt like it was normal.

Everything from beatings

to being stabbed by my parents.

Uh, the the punishments were endless.

When my father wanted something,

there was no choice.

He got what he wanted.

Nasim's treatment by his father

was absolutely awful.

And no person should ever have

to endure that, and there's no

It's not a cultural thing.

It's not a It's not a discipline thing.

It's just abuse.

Ali Irsan did things to Nasim Irsan

that warped him

and turned him from being someone

who could be a normal, productive citizen

into being the cold, calculating

foot soldier and muscle of Ali Irsan.

Once we really started

digging into the case,

and realizing the level of abuse

that Nasim experienced

at the hands of his father,

we knew right then and there,

this was going to be, uh,

the cornerstone of our defense.

This was the way in which

we were going to save his life.

Breaking developments in a story

we have been tracking since 2012.

A new guilty plea

in the so-called honor killings.

Nasim Irsan made his way

to court today shackled and disheveled.

Today, Irsan took a plea deal.

His capital m*rder charge was dismissed

in exchange for him going to prison

for 40 years for m*rder.

Meanwhile, Irsan's father is on death row

for k*lling his daughter's husband.

The reason why he entered

a plea of guilty to m*rder

was because the facts and evidence were

would've been proved

beyond a reasonable doubt

that he was a party to one homicide.

Thankfully, he realized that

if he could be secured a guilty plea

for a lesser charge of m*rder,

then that was the way to go.

I pled guilty

because every time I go to court,

they're telling me that I may receive

a life without parole sentence,

or the death penalty sentence,

for a crime that I didn't commit.

See, the m*rder of Gelareh Bagherzadeh,

I didn't personally have a hand in.

So, my only option, I felt,

was to plead guilty to this charge

and receive the least amount of time

that I could.

So this is why

you take pleas on the record.

Um, it's not uncommon

that, um, once a person gets to prison

that they all of a sudden

decide they're not guilty of an offense.

Even if he wants to say now

that he didn't pull the trigger,

it doesn't change the fact

that he's guilty of m*rder.

He was very much involved in this case.

And of course, in Texas,

if you are a party to a crime,

you're guilty no matter

what role you played in that offense,

whether you were the triggerman,

a setup man or a getaway driver.

But, regardless of what Nasim tells you

today versus what he said in the past,

the evidence is crystal clear

that Nasim's father

is the mastermind of these offenses.

And if you take him out of the equation,

none of this happens.

Nasim did not have an issue with Gelareh.

He did not have an issue

with Coty Beavers.

Uh, his issue was

that if his father told him to jump,

his response was, "How high?"

That was his issue.

I grew up with an a*usive father.

Sometimes those figures

have a certain influence on us,

that they want

that we want to please them.

We want to do whatever it takes,

regardless of how evil their plans are.

I don't want anybody to get abused.

I don't want anybody to get beaten,

but that doesn't justify m*rder.

That doesn't justify m*rder in any way.

And in this specific case,

Gelareh did nothing to this guy.

Gelareh did absolutely nothing

to this guy.

If, you know, if someone else abuses you,

you don't go m*rder someone else.

I can't say

for certain who shot Gelareh Bagherzadeh

because I wasn't

I wasn't there at the actual moment

that she was shot.

Now, I can only assume

that it was my father.

I stress the fact that

I my job, personally,

was only that of of mandate.

I was at the house

and I was I was forced to wake up,

and when when the m*rder was done,

I was forced to take the p*stol

that was used, the g*n that was used,

and bury it in the backyard.

Wow.

Uh, well.

Uh, my first impression is,

I I don't believe it.

I don't believe what he's saying.

I think he is just trying to find a way

to get out of prison early.

What he is saying, that

he didn't do it,

and he doesn't know who did it

'cause he wasn't there. I I don't

I don't believe it.

Even if what he just said is true,

which I strongly doubt

it doesn't change anything.

He refused to say anything

after her m*rder.

Whether he was the one

who pulled the trigger or not,

he could have gone at any point

and said something.

And that would have saved

Coty Beavers's life.

It's a little aggravating.

It's a little aggravating.

I say a little

but more than a little.

It's done. It's finished.

You know, you pleaded guilty.

You went through the entire process.

It wasn't like an overnight process.

Years went by,

and then after all these years,

you just come and say,

"Oh, well, it wasn't me."

"I don't even know who did it."

It's it's insulting in a way. It's

You know? It's insulting

to everybody who was involved.

Do I think that he was the mastermind

behind the whole thing?

No. Everybody knows that's not true.

But, he had his chances.

He could have

he could have helped his own conscience.

Big time.

But he didn't.

I'm not a m*rder*r.

I've never even hurt an animal.

We're so numb to emotion.

We just do what we're told.

Even even somebody talking

about m*rder, it doesn't affect you.

I didn't know those people.

I didn't blame Nesreen for leaving,

I didn't blame my sister

for wanting to get out of the house.

I didn't blame my sister

for going somewhere where she felt safe,

because I tried to do that,

and I wasn't able.

I never thought

anything she did was wrong,

and I never thought anything this serious

would come out of it.

I'm a very, very bad man.

I'm very bad. I don't know

how many lives have to be lost.

Nasim, listen to me, baby.

I'm dangerous.

I'm a very, very dangerous man.

So, yeah, that phone call

is hard to explain

if you're only looking

at those statements by itself.

I didn't say that I k*lled those people.

I said that they were dead because of me.

They were dead because of me because

I could've said something to the police.

I could have said something.

Even though I might've been k*lled for it.

I I There's a chance

I could have stopped that.

I feel morally culpable,

but not as much as I used to.

I feel that there's a

there's a sense of blame,

but not not so much that I lost

my life behind in prison but behind it,

because I didn't do anything, and

People say that I should have stopped it,

I knew enough to stop it,

but they say that from a distance.

They say that not being in the

situation, the predicament that I was in.

At times, as a child,

you do want your father's approval,

but there's times when you

you just give up

and you don't care anymore.

And you do what you're told.