Plot figure accused of stalking
Members of woman’s family accused of having different roles in the killings of 2
Nadia Irsan, jealous of her sister’s marriage, helped her father stalk the couple for more than a year by researching them online, filing false police reports and putting a GPS tracker on her sister’s car, prosecutors said in court Tuesday.
Prosecutors said she had been rejected by her sister’s brotherin-law, fueling her hatred and leading to threats.
“I cannot wait until my dad puts a bullet between your eyes,” Irsan reportedly told her brother-in-law, Coty Beavers, a few months before he was gunned down in his Harris County apartment. Tuesday’s revelation was another alleged admission that prosecutors have relied on to build a case against Nadia Irsan and her father, Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan.
He is charged with capital murder, accused in the shooting deaths in 2012 of Beavers and, months earlier, of Gelareh Bagherzadeh, the best friend of Nesreen Irsan.
The patriarch’s wife and adult
Prosecutors say that Nadia Irsan put a GPS tracking device on her sister’s car and shared the data it generated with her father.
son are charged with murder, accused of helping the 57-year-old fatally shoot Bagherzadeh, 30, as she drove to her parent’s Galleria-area home.
The wide-ranging allegations boil down to an elaborate plot by Ali Irsan, a strict disciplinarian and observant Muslim, and other family members to kill his daughter’s husband and her best friend, Bagherzadeh, a Christian convert who was seen as encouraging his daughter.
Assistant Harris County District Attorney Tammy Thomas said in court that investigators also believe Irsan was also plotting to kill Nesreen Irsan, the daughter at the center of the labyrinthine web.
In an earlier hearing, Thomas said Irsan threatened that daughter, even scaring her away from attending her college graduation.
“He said, ‘I killed that b----, and you’re next. No one insults my honor as a Muslim and gets away with it,’” Thomas told state District Judge Jan Krocker.
Thomas said Irsan violated a protective order by calling his daughter during the graduation and asking where she was, then saying he had planned a different kind of “anniversary” for the day.
In Federal custody
Like her father and mother, she remains in federal custody, waiting to be sentenced this summer in an unrelated case.
After that, she will be held in the Harris County jail in lieu of a $500,000 bail to answer allegations that she stalked her sister while carrying a gun.
Krocker appointed two attorneys from the Harris County Public Defender’s Office, Eric Davis and Jackie Carpenter, to defend the 30-year-old.
Both lawyers said they are concerned that religious and cultural differences may affect the perception of the case.
“Prosecutors see what they want to see,” Davis said.
“We have such a scare about Islam in this country and that’s a concern.”
He said the fact that charges have been brought “means nothing.”
Carpenter said she believes a thorough investigation will show that Nadia Irsan is not guilty.
The family drama began in an isolated home in Montgomery County where the two sisters and their 10 siblings were mostly home schooled, prosecutors said.
In 2011, Nadia and Nesreen were taking classes at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and both shed their hijabs and began to date outside of their faith.
They also both lied to their father about what they were doing and their whereabouts, prosecutors said.
Nadia was enamored with Cory Beavers, who declined her advances while Nesreen and Coty Beavers developed a relationship that would see them elope.
Cory Beavers dated Bagherzadeh who became close friends with Nesreen.
Prosecutors said Nadia did not like her sister’s boyfriend.
She is accused of causing a wreck on U.S. 59 by physically fighting with her sister as the duo drove to Beavers’ home.
Prosecutors said Nadia tried to take the keys out of the moving car and may have grabbed the steering wheel as they approached the off-ramp, causing a crash.
After that, the family held Nesreen against her will in their home for several days, prosecutors said.
She escaped through a window, taking only the clothes on her back and eloped with Beavers.
Her sister later filed a false police report, telling officials at M.D. Anderson that Nesreen stole a chemical from a lab to poison their father.
After the report was found to be false, Nadia and her father were prohibited from being on the grounds at M.D. Anderson and their photos were circulated, Thomas said.
Car tracked
During a lengthy explanation of the investigation Tuesday, prosecutors told the judge that Nadia Irsan put a GPS tracking device on her sister’s car and shared the data it generated with her father.
Nadia and her father also had GPS navigational devices in their cars that were analyzed by the FBI to find that they had been making trips, almost daily, to track Nesreen or just drive by her apartment in the middle of the night.
The last trip Nadia made to the apartment was an early morning trip on the day Coty Beavers was fatally shot in his home in November 2012, prosecutors said.
If convicted, Nadia Irsan faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for the third-degree felony.
Prosecutors also noted that the law of parties may allow the state to expand the charges if she is accused of helping her father commit capital murder.
Nadia Irsan’s mother and brother are charged with murder, accused of helping Ali Irsan shoot Bagherzadeh in January 2012.