Taxi driver testifies to week of terror, insists he was being held captive by O.C. jail escapees – Orange County Register
Long Ma recounts his 5-day ordeal when he was kidnapped by three inmates who escaped from the Santa Ana Central Men’s Prison in 2016. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)
From an abrupt kidnapping at gunpoint to forced pictures on the beach to motel room brawls, an independent taxi driver has testified this week that he endured a week of terror in 2016 while being held captive by three inmates who attempted a massive Manhunt for a daring escape to escape from an Orange County jail.
Long Ma — the Garden Grove driver who says he’s become an unwitting driver for three increasingly fractious fugitives — took a stand this week in the jailbreak trial of Hossein Nayeri, the alleged mastermind of the headline-grabbing escape from the Central Jail Complex Santa Ana.
Ma’s testimony — which took place in an Orange County Superior Courtroom less than a block from the scene of the prison break — came after Nayeri’s defense attorneys argued early in the trial that Ma was not the victim of a kidnapping but someone who had consented to be around to get the fugitives to safety for a big cash payout. Nayeri has admitted to escaping prison but has denied kidnapping Ma or being involved in any related auto theft.
The taxi driver – who testified through a Vietnamese-speaking interpreter – flatly denied willingly spending a week with Nayeri and the other refugees – Bac Tien Duong and Jonathan Tieu – and described the defense allegations as “absolutely fabricated”.
Nayeri, Duong and Tieu allegedly spent months cutting half-inch steel bars to gain access to the installation tunnels at the Central Men’s Prison. On January 22, 2016, the three men allegedly climbed rungs in the tunnels to get to the roof of the prison, where they abseiled five stories down the side of the building using a makeshift rope made of bed sheets. A friend of Duong’s said he picked up the fugitives not far from the prison and drove them to a house in Westminster.
Ma – who advertised his independent, unlicensed taxi service on the pages of local Vietnamese-language newspapers – received a call from one of the men and picked her up outside a restaurant on McFadden Avenue. Ma said he first drove them to a Walmart in Rosemead before they changed their minds and asked to go to a Target. After waiting nearly two hours for Nayeri to shop at the store, Ma said he followed the men’s directions to a parking lot next to a then-closed cafe and laundromat.
After a quiet chat with Nayeri, Ma said Duong told him the men needed his car.
“I said my car is for work,” Ma said. “And he pulled out a gun and pointed it at me.”
Ma said he was placed in the back seat of his car as the men drove to the first of a row of motel rooms, where they checked in using his ID and name.
“He took everything, my phone, my money. I wasn’t allowed to say anything to anyone,” Ma said. “I knew I was taken. I was very afraid.”
“I couldn’t sleep at all all night,” Ma added. “Because I was scared.”
The prison break quickly became national news as the manhunt for the escaped inmates escalated. Nayeri’s escape – who at the time was awaiting trial for kidnapping and brutally torturing a marijuana dispensary owner – was particularly alarming to authorities, given that he had fled to his native Iran in the past to avoid legal exposure .
Ma said he learned who the men were and why they were on the run after watching a televised press conference by an Orange County sheriff after his first night at the motel.
“Bac called me, pointed to the TV and said, ‘This is us, this is us.’ I saw the three guys clearly,” Ma said. “When they pointed the gun at me, I already knew what kind of people they were.”
After several days and nights in motels in the Rosemead area — during which time prosecutors allege the fugitives stole a van in Los Angeles — the three men and Ma drove to Northern California in two vehicles, Ma and the stolen van. Before they left, Ma said he convinced Duong to drive him back to his house to get medicine, a trip he had hoped would give him an opportunity to escape. Instead, Ma testified, Duong never left his side and his attempt to leave a message for roommates explaining his plight was unsuccessful.
At some point during their stay in the Bay Area, Ma said, Nayeri and Tieu took him to the beach. Photos of a smiling Ma standing next to Tieu on a pier have been cited by the defense as evidence Ma was a willing participant in their escape, but the driver said he had no choice but to appear cheerful.
“To be honest, I was forced to do it,” Ma testified. “I never felt like taking pictures with these people.”
Meanwhile, Ma testified, the bonds between the refugees seemed to be crumbling as the days went by. Ma said he was afraid of trying to escape because he thought he would be “shot in the head.”
“They really agreed for the first few days,” Ma said. “Then three or four days later, they were kind of cool, distant from each other.”
Disputes between Nayeri and Duong — which prosecutors say were about whether or not to kill Ma — eventually led to a fight between the two men in a motel room. Ma described how she helped clean up a bloody Duong after the altercation, and when Nayeri and Tieu left Ma and Duong alone at the motel the next day, the two men decided to return to Southern California.
Duong asked Ma to help him report to authorities, the driver said. As the only one of the refugees who spoke fluent Vietnamese, Duong had apparently bonded with Ma.
“Bac asked me if he could be my adoptive son,” Ma described part of their conversation on the way back to Orange County.
“Did you say something in reply?” asked Assistant District Attorney David McMurrin.
“Yes, I agreed,” Ma replied
Duong turned himself in to authorities, while Nayeri and Tieu were found in San Francisco a day later, ending the week-long manhunt.
When questioned directly by the prosecutor, Ma occasionally expressed anger at being asked to provide a step-by-step description of what happened to him. Nayeri watched the testimony dispassionately, often glancing down to take notes.
When Nayeri’s attorney, Michael Goldfeder, took over the questioning, Ma quickly became frustrated and angry, often challenging or refusing to answer the defense attorney’s questions.
Ma was particularly upset by questions about his relationship with an ex-wife, which apparently ended with him being accused of sexually harassing her and posting nude photos of her online. During prosecution questioning on Tuesday, Ma had denied his ex-wife’s allegations but declined to address them when defense attorneys brought them up on Wednesday, saying he “don’t remember.”
“Yesterday I said that my memory is very good. But today I forgot everything,” Ma said to Goldfeder. “It has nothing to do with the fact that I was kidnapped. I do not remember. ask no more.”
Orange County Superior Court Justice Larry Yellin repeatedly pardoned the jury to explain to Ma that he had no choice but to answer the attorneys’ questions whether he agreed with them or not.
“I would like to ask you to trust me that, as a judge in this case, I know how court proceedings work,” Yellin once told Ma.
Despite the judge’s warnings, Ma continued to complain when defense attorneys questioned him about alleged discrepancies between his current statement and his comments in police interrogations and previous statements. These alleged discrepancies included descriptions of a weapon the fugitives had and the exact actions of Nayeri, Duong, and Tieu.
“Not only do I refuse to answer your question, but I also beg you not to ask me anything further,” Ma told the defense attorney during a particularly combative conversation.
Duong – whom Ma credited with saving his life – has already been convicted for his role in the escape and kidnapping. Tieu is tried separately.
Nayeri – who since the escape has been convicted of kidnapping and torturing the owner of the marijuana dispensary that first landed him in jail – is already serving two consecutive life sentences regardless of the outcome of the prison escape trial.
