Naman Shrestha
In Hulu’s ‘Wicked Game: Devil in the Desert,’ the focus is on the crimes of Hossein Nayeri and the police’s years-long pursuit of the perpetrator. Kidnapping and torturing a dispensary owner wasn’t his only crime, he even fled away from the country before getting arrested several years later. The docuseries also explores how he managed to escape from his prison cell along with his two cellmates. Thanks to the archival footage and interviews with his victims, we get a detailed account of his crimes and their effects on others’ lives.
Hossein Nayeri Tortured a Dispensary Owner and Left Him in the Middle of a Desert
Former US Marine Hossein Nayeri and his high school friend, Kyle Handley, operated a pot-growing business. With the help of Ryan Kevorkian, Kyle, and Naomi Rhodus, Hossein devised a plan to abduct his marijuana dispensary owner, Michael S., from his Newport Beach residence to get him to pay them $1 million. On October 2, 2012, the three men broke into his house wearing masks and abducted not only Michael but the homeowner’s girlfriend, Mary Barnes. They put them in the back of their van and began driving to the middle of the Mojave Desert. During the ride, the men tortured the dispensary owner using rubber piping, a Taser, and a blowtorch while demanding money from him.
Upon reaching the desert, Hossein reportedly cut off Michael’s genitalia and left him and Mary for dead in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t take long for the authorities to determine the perpetrators. Not long after the kidnapping and torturing of Michael, Kyle was arrested. Meanwhile, Hossein left the country and flew to Iran. His wife at the time, Cortney Shegerian, maintained contact with him and provided him with money and other necessities However, the authorities learned about her relationship with the fugitive and questioned her, letting her know that she faced life in prison due to her being one of his accomplices in a way.
Hossein Nayeri Escaped From His Prison Cell With Two of His Cellmates
Cortney then became cooperative with the police and cut off all contact with Hossein Nayeri. In the next couple of months, the police plotted with her to entrap her husband. She started talking to him on the phone regularly again and convinced him to meet her in Spain to catch up with each other and start afresh. When Hossein deboarded the plane in Prague, Czech Republic, to catch another flight to Spain, he was arrested by the authorities. After about a year of staying in custody in Prague, he was extradited to the States in 2014. While being locked up in Orange County Central Men’s Jail, he and Cortney divorced. Collaborating with his two cellmates, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong, Hossein Nayeri came up with a plan to escape the jail.
At that time, he was awaiting trial for charges of kidnapping, torturing, and mutilating his marijuana dispensary owner. The trio somehow managed to smuggle various tools to cut through the iron bars of their cell to access the roof through plumbing shafts. After a couple of weeks of preparation and planning, on January 22, 2016, they made their way to the roof and used a rope made of bed linens to climb down five stories. Once out of the prison facility, they broke into the taxi of a 72-year-old driver whom they forced to drive away at gunpoint. The taxi driver drove the fugitives around as they stopped in numerous motels and even stole a van. On January 29, Bac surrendered himself to the police while the other two cellmates, including Hossein, were taken into custody in San Francisco the following day.
Hossein Nayeri is Currently Incarcerated at a California Prison Facility
Hossein Nayeri was ultimately held accountable for his criminal wrongdoings by the jury in August 2019. He was convicted of two counts of kidnapping for ransom of Michael and Mary Barnes in Newport Beach, California, as well as the brutal torture of the then-28-year-old medical marijuana dealer in October 2012. Even after days of deliberation, the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on the charge of aggravated mayhem regarding the mutilation, leading to his acquittal on that particular charge. In October 2020, the former US Marine was handed two consecutive terms of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In addition, he received seven years to life for the torture.
In March 2023, about two years after being sentenced to multiple life terms without parole, Hossein was convicted of two additional charges — organizing and participating in an escape from Orange County Men’s Central Jail in Santa Ana and stealing a van post-jailbreak in January 2016. However, he was acquitted by the court for the kidnapping of cab driver Long Ma. Ultimately, the former Newport Beach marijuana grower was handed two years and eight months in prison for the aforementioned convictions. Therefore, as of today, the 46-year-old is serving his sentence behind bars at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, California. Taking into consideration his multiple life-term imprisonments, it can be said with certainty that Hossein Nayeri would never taste freedom again and spend the remainder of his life in prison.
Read More: Jonathan Tieu and Bac Duong: Where Are Hossein Nayeri’s Cellmates Now?
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