California regulators are alleging a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent suspension of its California license.

The potential penalty facing GM’s Cruise service could be around $1.5 million, based on documents filed late last week by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The notice orders Cruise to appear at a Feb. 6 evidentiary hearing to determine whether the robotaxi service misled regulators about what happened after one of its driverless cars ran into a pedestrian who had already been struck by another vehicle driven by a human on the evening of Oct. 2 in San Francisco.

The February hearing comes just six months after the commission authorized Cruise’s robotaxi service to begin charging passengers for around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco despite strident objections from city officials who warned the driverless cars malfunctioned.

Three weeks after Cruise’s Oct. 2 accident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles effectively shut down the robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.

The suspension was a major blow for Cruise and its corporate parent GM, which absorbed huge losses during the development of the driverless service that was supposed to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it expanded beyond San Francisco.

After losing nearly $6 billion since the end of 2019, Cruise has shifted into reverse as it scrambles to control the fallout from the Oct. 2 accident that critically injured the run-over pedestrian and led to the recent resignation of CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt.

Without directly addressing the potential fine, GM CEO Mary Barra said Monday that the October crash has helped the automaker learn more about the need for transparency and a better relationship with regulators.

“We’re very focused on righting the ship here because this is technology that can make the way we move from point A to point B safer,” Barra told a gathering of automotive media.

Barra also pointed to the overhaul of Cruise’s management that included a reorganization of its government-relations and legal teams as signs of progress. “We think we can do things more effectively,” she said.

Cruise issued its own statement pledging to respond “in a timely manner” to the Public Utilities Commission’s concerns. The company has already hired an outside law firm to scrutinize its response to the Oct. 2 accident.

The most serious questions about the incident concern Cruise’s handling of a video showing a robotaxi named “Panini” dragging the pedestrian 20 feet (6 meters) at a speed of seven miles per hour before coming to the stop.

In a Dec. 1 filing recounting how Cruise handled disclosures about the accident, the Public Utilities Commission asserted the company tried to conceal how its robotaxi reacted to the accident for more than two weeks.

The documents allege Cruise’s concealment started with an Oct. 3 phone call to a regulatory analyst who was told the robotaxi had come to an immediate stop upon impact with the pedestrian without mentioning the vehicle actually drove another 20 feet with the injured person still pinned down.

Cruise didn’t provide the video footage until Oct. 19, according to the regulatory filing. The cover-up spanned 15 days, according to the PUC, exposing Cruise and GM to potential fines of $100,000 per day, or $1.5 million.

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MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press

42 mins ago

FILE – Associated Press reporter Michael Liedtke sits in the back of a Cruise driverless taxi that picked him up in San Francisco’s Mission District, Feb. 15, 2023. The California regulator that approved the expansion of the Cruise robotaxi fleet owned by automaker General Motors is now threatening to fine the driverless service for covering up the severity of an accident that triggered the suspension of its California license. The potential penalty could be in the range of $1.5 million, based on documents filed Friday, Dec. 1, by the California Public Utilities Commission. (AP Photo/Terry Chea, File)

California regulators say a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent the suspension of its California license.

The potential penalty facing GM’s Cruise service could be around $1.5 million, based on documents filed late last week by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The notice orders Cruise to appear at a Feb. 6 evidentiary hearing to determine whether the robotaxi service misled regulators about what happened after one of its driverless cars ran into a pedestrian who had already been struck by another vehicle driven by a human on the evening of Oct. 2 in San Francisco.

The February hearing comes just six months after the Public Utilities Commission authorized Cruise’s robotaxi service to begin charging passengers for around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco despite strident objections from city officials who warned the driverless cars malfunctioned.

Three weeks after Cruise’s Oct. 2 accident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles effectively shut down robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.

The suspension was a major blow for Cruise and its corporate parent GM, which absorbed huge losses during the development of the driverless service that was supposed to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it expanded beyond San Francisco.

After losing nearly $6 billion since the end of 2019, Cruise has shifted into reverse as it scrambles to control the fallout from the Oct. 2 accident that critically injured the run-over pedestrian and led to the recent resignation of CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt.

“Cruise is committed to rebuilding trust with our regulators and will respond in a timely manner” to the Public Utilities Commission, the company said in a Monday statement. The San Francisco-based company has already hired an outside law firm to scrutinize its response to the Oct. 2 accident.

The most serious questions about the incident concern Cruise’s handling of a video showing a robotaxi named “Panini” dragging the pedestrian 20 feet before coming to the stop.

In a Dec. 1 filing recounting how Cruise handled disclosures about the accident, the Public Utilities Commission asserted the company tried to conceal how its robotaxi reacted to the accident for more than two weeks.

Cruise didn’t provide the video footage until Oct. 19, according to the regulatory filing. The cover-up spanned 15 days, according to the PUC, exposing Cruise and GM to potential fines of $100,000 per day, or $1.5 million.

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Photos: San Carlos Sting Operation

About CSLB: CSLB operates under the umbrella of the Department of Consumer Affairs and licenses and regulates about 285,000 contractors in California.
Source: CSLB

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The trial of Billy Chemirmir, a man accused of killing elderly women in the Dallas area, began Monday.

The 48-year-old is charged with the murder of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris. The Associated Press reported that if convicted, he faces life in prison without parole. He pleads not guilty to the charges.

Chemirmir was arrested in 2018 when 91-year-old Mary Annis Bartel survived an attack on her apartment in a senior living community in Plano, Texas.

Although Bartel died last year, her statement was recorded earlier so the jury could hear her testimony.

“My eyes were just fixed on those green rubber gloves that I saw,” Bartel said in the video. “When I saw those two green rubber gloves, I knew immediately, firstly, I shouldn’t have opened the door, secondly, my life was in grave danger.”

Bartel said she tried to push him away but was overpowered.

“He said, ‘Don’t fight me, lie on the bed,'” said Bartel, who then passed out trying to smother her with a pillow.

When she woke up, her wedding ring, engagement ring and more were missing. She said she couldn’t remember the details of the man who attacked her.

The next day, police tracked Chemirmir to his nearby home, where they found jewelry and cash. The discovery of a discarded jewelry box led police to Harris’ home, where they found her dead after being smothered by a pillow.

“This is about stalking, choking and stealing,” prosecutor Glen Fitzmartin told the jury in his opening statement.

The AP reported that the defense did not issue an opening statement.

See more Associated Press reports below.

Billy Chemirmir’s trial began November 15 for the death of one of 18 women he allegedly killed in Texas over a two-year period. Above, this undated photo provided by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office shows Chemirmir. File/Dallas County Sheriff’s Office via AP

In his opening statement, Fitzmartin said that earlier that day, Harris and Chemirmir checked out at a Walmart store at the same time.

After his arrest, authorities announced they would be investigating hundreds of deaths, raising the possibility that a serial killer had been stalking the elderly. In the years that followed, the number of people accused of Chemirmir’s murder grew.

Fitzmartin said jurors would also hear about the killing of 87-year-old Mary Brooks, who was found dead at her Richardson home in January 2018. Chemirmir was accused of her death.

Brooks’ death, Fitzmartin said, was originally described as natural causes, but following an inquest following Chemirmir’s arrest, the coroner changed the cause of death to homicide.

Fitzmartin said that the day before Brooks was found dead, she was at a Walmart, the same Walmart Harris had before her death later in the year. Fitzmartin said a model vehicle known to be driven by Chemirmir was parked next to Brooks’ vehicle.

“He follows her out of there, follows her to her house, kills her, steals from her,” Fitzmartin said.

Most of the victims were killed in independent residential communities for the elderly, where Chemirmir is believed to have broken into apartments or posed as a craftsman. He is also accused of killing women in private homes, including the widow of a man he had cared for in his job as a home caregiver.

Chemirmir’s lawyer described the evidence against Chemirmir as circumstantial evidence.

Update 11/15/2021 5:10 PM ET: This story has been updated to include quotes from Mary Bartel.

Billy Chemirmir is accused of killing 18 elderly women in Dallas and its suburbs over a two-year period. Above, jurors are shown recorded video testimony of victim Mary Bartel as she answers questions from the prosecutor and defense attorney during the murder trial of Chemirmir (second from right) at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas on November 15. Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, pool

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Mission Local is informed that San Francisco police earlier today made an arrest in connection with the April 4 killing of tech executive Bob Lee after an operation was conducted outside of city limits. The alleged killer also works in engineering and is a man Lee allegedly knew.

We are told that police were dispatched to Emeryville today with a warrant to arrest a man named Nima Momeni. The name and address in Emeryville. SFPD officials traveled to correspond with this man, the owner of a company called Expand IT.

Multiple police sources have not described the pre-dawn stabbing last week that killed 43-year-old Lee in a deserted section of downtown San Francisco as neither an attempted robbery nor a random attack.

Rather, Lee and Momeni were portrayed by police as familiar with each other. In the early hours of April 4, they were allegedly driving together through downtown San Francisco in a car registered to the suspect.

Allegedly, some sort of confrontation began while both men were in the vehicle and possibly continued after Lee exited the car. Police allege Momeni stabbed Lee multiple times with a knife, which was recovered not far from where officers originally responded on the 300 block of Main Street.

This scenario would partially explain why at 2:30 a.m. Lee was walking through a portion of Main Street where there is little to no foot traffic. That was one of several incongruous circumstances surrounding Lee’s violent death, which law enforcement officials said from the start felt it was anything but a simple or random crime.

Still, some of Lee’s tech industry peers and a chorus of other influential voices portrayed this murder as part of a city engulfed in violent crime and descending into further chaos. While Lee is one of a dozen murder victims in San Francisco this year, his murder is the only one that has received national — or, in most cases, only superficial local coverage.

The other San Francisco murder victims of 2023 are Gavin Boston, 40; Irving Sanchez Morales, 28; Carlos Romero Flores, 29; Maxwell Maltzman, 18; Demario Lockett, 44; Maxwell Mason, 29; Humberto Avila, 46; Gregory McFarland Jr., 36; Kareem Sims, 43; Debra Lynn Hord, 57; and Jermaine Reeves, 52.

In San Francisco there is much visible public misery, troubling street behavior and blatant drug use. Property crime rates have long been high and police detection rates for property crimes have long been minimal. However, the city’s violent crime rate is at near historic lows and lower than most medium-to-large cities.

Homicides per 100,000 population

In recent years,

The number of murders increased in San

Francisco – but they stay

low compared to

historical trends

Homicides per 100,000 population

In recent years,

The number of murders increased in San

Francisco – but they stay

low compared to historical trends

Diagram by Will Jarrett. Data from the California Department of Justice and the Census Bureau.

Today’s arrest appears to disprove the notion that San Francisco’s streets caused Lee’s violent death. If the police have their man, what was involved was neither a robbery nor a gratuitous assault by a random assailant, but an alleged argument between men who knew each other, which the suspect allegedly escalated into a deadly conflict.

However, Lee’s death was summed up in the media and on social media as a highlight of recent San Francisco misfortunes and crimes: large groups of young people feuding in Stonestown; the abrupt closure of mid-tier Whole Foods, leaving San Franciscans with just eight other Whole Foods within city limits; the severe caning of former fire commissioner Don Carmignani in the Marina District, allegedly by belligerent homeless people – all of which creates a sense of a city dying.

However, this type of reporting does not capture the actual life experience of the vast majority of San Franciscans. Also, potentially extenuating details of each event are omitted. Carmignani, for example, was brutally hit in the head with a metal bar and hospitalized. But the lawyer for his alleged attacker claims the former fire commissioner initially pepper-sprayed the homeless man accused of hitting him – which would certainly falsify this incident.

Notably, police sources report that prior to this incident, a number of homeless people in the Marina District had been pepper sprayed.

The Lee arrest is a groundbreaking story. We will update or track this item asap.

To update:

Records from San Francisco show that Nima Momeni was taken to jail at 9:19 a.m

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SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco District Attorney on Monday released surveillance video showing the fatal shooting of a suspected shoplifter by an on-duty Walgreens security guard, along with other footage and documents that she says support her decision not to press charges against the guard , substantiate.

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins released the information amid public outrage over the April 27 death of Banko Brown, a 24-year-old who was unarmed, outside a downtown Walgreens building. Last week, the board of directors passed a resolution asking her office and the police to release more evidence. She justified her decision not to attack security guard Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony on the grounds of self-defense.

But the release of surveillance video didn’t seem to calm critics in a city dogged by brazen shoplifting and where there is much disagreement about the appropriate response to crime, especially when the suspect is homeless or impoverished.

The silent footage shows Brown walking towards the door with a bag in hand when he is stopped by Anthony, who then hits him repeatedly. The two fight until Anthony pinches Brown to the ground. Meanwhile, shoppers continued to enter the store during the altercation.

When Anthony lets go of Brown, Brown picks up the bag and makes his way out of the store. He turns and appears to walk towards Anthony, whereupon Anthony raises his gun and fires once, causing Brown to fall back onto the ground outside.

In a police interview, Anthony said he asked Brown to return the items, but Brown was aggressive and fought to keep the items. He said he told Brown he would let him go if he calmed down, and that Brown kept saying he would stab him. A knife was not found on Brown.

Anthony said he let Brown go, but he drew his gun and kept it pointed at the ground just in case Brown charged. He said he fired as Brown advanced, unaware that Brown would simply spit at him.

San Francisco supervisor Shamann Walton said in a statement that the video offered no justification for the shooting. He plans to join Chief Executive Aaron Peskin in asking the Attorney General for an independent review of the prosecutor’s decision.

But Jenkins, who initially dropped the case on May 1, said even after seeking further evidence, there was nothing to disprove the guard’s reasonable claim of self-defense. She urged viewers to review all evidence, including witness and police accounts, particularly given the lack of sound in the video footage.

“There will be a temptation as people to just look at the video footage of this incident and nothing else. We’re used to seeing videos online and often that’s what grabs our attention rather than going a step further” , she said in a press conference.

Brown, who struggled with homelessness, worked as a community organizer for the Young Women’s Freedom Center, a nonprofit organization that supports young women and transgender youth.

“We don’t have to see the video to know that the killing of Banko Brown was unjust. “Armed violence is not a justifiable response to poverty,” Julia Arroyo, the center’s co-executive director, said in a statement Monday. “We have to live with the sobering reality that he was killed for no reason other than $14.”

Arroyo described Brown as a bright and funny young man who was shy but made friends easily.

Supervisor Dean Preston introduced legislation last week banning private security guards from drawing their firearms unless there is an actual and specific threat to an individual.

Walgreens did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment. Walgreens, Target and other downtown retailers have complained of brazen shoplifting. Whole Foods recently announced it would temporarily close a downtown location, citing employee safety.

Kingdom Group Protective Services, which provides security for Walgreens, said in a statement it was cooperating with law enforcement and could not comment further.

State records show that Anthony has been licensed as a security guard since 2012.

Jenkins became district attorney last year after voters ousted her predecessor Chesa Boudin over criticism that he was too soft on crime. She promised to be a fair but tough prosecutor who would not ignore blatant retail thefts and open-air drug dealing.

___

Los Angeles Associated Press reporter Christopher Weber contributed.

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By Felix Cortez

Click here for updates on this story

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KSBW) – A video going viral on social media showing a repairman yelling at a female tenant after he allegedly just sexually assaulted her highlights the safety of tenants and the steps they are taking should do to protect themselves from violent and unscrupulous craftsmen.

The video was taken by Debs Campaigne, a Watsonville tenant who let John Welsh into her home for repairs. Welsh was sent by the property owner and at one point in the video you can be heard yelling, “The fact that I got a little weird with you is because I’m just a guy, whatever the (expletive) is.”

The video has attracted more than 6 million views on social media. But that’s not why Campaigne decided to tell her story to Action News 8, she’s talking to prevent the same thing from happening to other tenants.

“What I kept telling myself is like, I’m his last victim, I’m his last victim and I’ll do whatever you can to be their last victim. Do what you can to stop that person from hurting someone else, even if it’s uncomfortable,” Campaigne said.

In another part of the video, Welsh yells at Campaigne: “…I can leave right now, you have no water, your carpets are not clean, your (power) blinds are not up and nothing is done.”

Campainge says she asked for items in her rented apartment to be fixed but says she ended up being sexually assaulted by Welsh. The 62-year-old was arrested days later by Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Deputies.

Campaigne says she decided to speak out because she wants other tenants to know their rights when it comes to letting tradespeople into their home or apartment.

Garbage piles up in Pajaro as residents clean up from floods. District chiefs estimate Pajaro’s full recovery will take “months, if not years” “We have the right to ask for background checks and references, just like the owners and landlords have the right to that information before we bring people into our home You don’t have to let anyone in,” Campaigne said.

The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office says you should do your homework before hiring a contractor or handyman, and they warn landlords not to cut corners to hire the cheapest help.

“Be careful when it comes to checking whether they are licensed or not, checking backgrounds and actually calling references. We believe this can prevent some tragedy,” said Ashley Keehn, spokeswoman for the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.

In another interaction between tenant and tradesman, Campaigne is heard saying she just wants “a little space”. Welsh responds by saying, “No, I don’t care what you want.”

A simple Google search revealed that Welsh, who does business under the Bella Tiger name, has had his license revoked for more than a dozen code violations, including; intentional or fraudulent act, no license number, exceeding contract amount and no license number on contracts.

Campaigne wants others to hear their story now more than ever, now that many are rebuilding after the recent storms and floods and may be looking for handymen or contractors.

“Right now, with the storms we’ve had in our county, there is a tremendous need for home support in terms of maintenance and repairs and we just need to protect ourselves,” Campaigne said.

As for the Campaigne case, Welsh has been charged with sexual violence. It’s still an active investigation and sheriff’s office investigators want to hear from anyone who may have done business with Welsh and did business as Bella Tiger.

Please note: This content is subject to a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the author of this article, do not use it on any platform.

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San Francisco Police Commissioner William Scott and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins (R) at a news conference about the murder of Cash App founder Bob Lee.

The man accused of fatally assaulting Silicon Valley CEO Bob Lee will plead not guilty to the murder, his attorney said.

The indictment of suspect Nima Momeni in San Francisco state court was delayed Tuesday, but his attorney, Paula Canny, told reporters at the courthouse that camera footage used by prosecutors as evidence does not support a first-degree murder charge.

“I don’t think you can see anything in the videos,” she said.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has asked the court not to grant bail and release Momeni, arguing the April 4 murder was “planned and intentional.”

Lee, 43, who was chief product officer at cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin and created the Cash App, was revered in the tech world for his programming talents. Prosecutors say he was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife on a downtown San Francisco street after meeting with friends, including Momeni’s sister.

Momeni appeared in court for the second time on Tuesday and his indictment was again postponed to May 2. Canny said she’s waiting for an autopsy report from the city coroner’s office. Jenkins said at a news conference that the report could take weeks to complete.

Canny told Bloombeg News she would resist the district attorney’s efforts to keep her client, a 38-year-old IT consultant, jailed pending his trial.

In a court filing in support of Momeni’s detention, prosecutors cited surveillance footage showing the men in Momeni’s car pulling out of his sister’s apartment building together and driving into a “dark and remote area.”

A color video segment cited in the filing then shows two men standing on a sidewalk for about five minutes – with the camera too far away to make out their faces – before one suddenly moves toward the other. The men then separate, one walking away injured and the other moving along a fence line where the knife was later recovered, according to the filing, which describes Momeni’s BMW speeding away from the scene.

Jenkins told reporters Tuesday that Canny was given DNA evidence from the bloodied knife. She declined to elaborate.

The district attorney said she believes Canny saw enough evidence for Momeni to file a plea deal. Jenkins expressed disappointment that the indictment was delayed, especially after many of Lee’s family members turned up for Tuesday’s hearing.

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By Sean Emery
The Orange County Registry

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — More than six years after three men brazenly escaped from an Orange County jail, the trial of the accused mastermind of the prison break: a Newport Beach cannabis grower and former international fugitive who has since been convicted and to was sentenced to life imprisonment for kidnapping and torture in prison.

Hossein Nayeri listens to opening statements at the Supreme Court in Santa Ana, CA. Nayeri is accused of kidnapping and vehicle theft following his escape from an Orange County jail in 2016. (Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Hossein Nayeri, 44, has previously publicly admitted taking part in the 2016 escape from Santa Ana’s Central Jail Complex, even recording the escape on a contraband cell phone. An intensive week-long manhunt ended with Nayeri and his fellow fugitives being re-arrested.

On Monday, as Nayeri’s final trial began in a Santa Ana courtroom less than a block from the scene of the prison break, his defense attorney dismissed prosecutor’s claims that Nayeri was also involved in kidnapping a taxi driver or stealing a van, according to the headline-grabbing Escape.

At the time of the escape, Nayeri — whom prosecutors had previously likened to the fictional Hannibal Lecter and described as a “psychopath” and a “truly diabolical criminal” — was already accused of orchestrating one of Orange County’s most violent and shocking crimes in recent memory.

In 2012, Nayeri and two high school friends kidnapped and tortured a marijuana dispensary owner who they mistakenly believed had a non-existent million dollars buried in the Mojave Desert. The pharmacy’s owner was beaten with plastic tubing, shocked with a taser and burned with a blowtorch before his penis was cut off and he was left tied up in the desert.

A woman who was kidnapped along with the owner of the pharmacy managed to escape and waved for help. The missing body part was never found.

Nayeri quickly fled the country and traveled to his native Iran before being identified as a suspect in the kidnapping and torture.

Unbeknownst to Nayeri, his then-wife agreed to work with law enforcement to persuade him to travel to another country, where he was arrested and extradited to the United States.

[EARLIER: Calif. officials: Staffing issues aided inmates escape]

While at the local jail, Nayeri reportedly teamed up with two other inmates — Bac Tien Duong and Jonathan Tieu — and spent months cutting half-inch steel bars to gain access to plumbing tunnels inside the central prison complex.

During a visit to the prison, Duong Loc provided Nguyen, an old friend, with a list of items needed for the escape, including cell phones, rope, a utility knife, and civilian clothes.

During Monday’s testimony, Nguyen said he agreed to bring the items “out of fear.” He described walking out of the prison twice in the early hours of the morning, where he attached backpacks filled with the items to ropes with hooks, which inmates apparently used to pull the bags onto the prison roof.

“What did you think the items would be used for?” Assistant District Attorney David McMurrin asked Nguyen.

“Definitely wanted to use it to try to escape from prison,” Nguyen replied, adding that Duong once mentioned meeting another inmate who had “this fantastic plan” for a prison break.

On January 22, 2016, Nayeri, Duong and Tieu allegedly climbed rungs in the installation tunnels to get to the roof of the prison, where they rappel five stories down the side of the building using a makeshift rope made of bed sheets. Nguyen admitted picking up the three men not far away and driving them to a residence in Westminster.

Prosecutors said the three men were in high spirits after their escape.

“They laughed, they said they were famous that Mr. Nayeri planned this for seven and a half months,” McMurrin told jurors.

According to prosecutors, the men then contacted Long Ma, an allegedly unsuspecting independent taxi driver who advertised in local Vietnamese newspapers. Ma picked the men up and drove them to Rosemead, where he said they had a gun pointed at him.

“He didn’t want to be there,” McMurrin said of the cab driver. “He was afraid for his life”

The three escapees and Ma – who said he was being held against his will – spent several nights in hotels around Rosemead while a massive law enforcement trawl searched for them. The fugitives then stole a van in Los Angeles and drove to San Jose, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors have previously claimed that the “honeymoon phase” between the Bay Area fugitives had gone “sour,” culminating in Nayeri and Duong falling out during a heated argument in a hotel room over what to do with the cab driver. bumped into each other. Nayeri wanted to kill Ma, prosecutors claim, while the taxi driver said Duong fought to keep him alive.

Nayeri and Tieu eventually left the hotel room, McMurrin told jurors, and Duong decided to go with Ma and drive back to Santa Ana, where Duong turned himself in to authorities. Nayeri and Tieu were found in San Francisco a day later, ending the week-long manhunt.

During a previous trial, Duong’s lawyer framed Nayeri as the mastermind behind the escape, arguing that Duong simply wanted to get out of prison, meet some women, and then flee to Vietnam. The taxi driver credited Duong with saving his life and asked a judge for clemency. Duong was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for both escaping prison and the attempted murder case that landed him behind bars in the first place.

Nayeri, in his own testimony during the 2019 torture and kidnapping trial, admitted to escaping prison and stated that he felt he was being followed by law enforcement.

“Mr. Nayeri accepts responsibility for the escape,” defense attorney Michael Goldfeder told the jury Monday.

Goldfeder described Duong, not Nayeri, as the actual mastermind behind the escape and said Nayeri was not present when Duong stole the van in Los Angeles.

Defense attorneys also claimed that Ma was not kidnapped, arguing that the cab driver would be paid $10,000 for his role in escaping the manhunt. The defense attorney said Ma took remittances for the fugitives and checked them into motel rooms. He also showed the jury pictures of a smiling Ma and Tieu standing on a Northern California pier amid the manhunt.

“Mr. Ma is a willing, consenting participant in moving these people around,” Goldfeder said. “It’s just four people working together in unison.”

Tieu will be tried separately for his alleged role in the escape.

Nayeri is already serving two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the kidnapping and torture case, regardless of the outcome of the prison escape trial.

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BEFORE: A year later, escaping from a California prison remains a fresh wound

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