We, the jury, unanimously find the
defendant Yasir Saeed guilty of
the offense of capital murder as
charged in the indictment. Alright,
time to get to the other big
breaking news of the day.
A jury finding Yasir Syed guilty of the
murders of his two teenage daughters.
The judge sentencing him to life in
prison without the possibility of parole.
His trial lasted 6 days,
with Syed taking the stand as we told
you about yesterday, claiming that.
He did not kill them.
Let's get out to Tonya Iser,
who has been covering this case since
it first started so many years ago.
Tanya, first of all,
if you can explain the jury's decision
here for people who haven't been
following this this trial closely.
If we can kind of talk about this sentence,
some people might be wondering, well,
why didn't he get the death penalty here?
Well, the death the death penalty
was taken off the table by the
district attorney's office.
But because he was convicted of
capital murder, he was sentenced
to life in prison without parole.
Now he can appeal this sentence,
but obviously that will be a
long and difficult process.
The jury came to their decision
after about 3 hours of this morning.
We heard closing statements with
the prosecution basically saying,
look you Officer Syed got up on the
stand yesterday and told really frankly,
a pretty crazy story.
He claimed he jumped out of the car
because he was afraid because somebody
was following them and ran off.
And that when he left his daughters
they were alive and well.
And he he kind of implied that some of
their friends might have done this to them.
He said that the reason that he never
turned himself in was because of
the unfair coverage by the media.
So basically he blamed the media for
his reasons for not turning himself in
for having not gone to their funerals.
It's it was really sort of a crazy story,
and frankly,
it didn't make a whole lot of sense and
and clearly the jurors didn't buy it either.
After today after the jury
rendered their verdict,
and he was sentenced to life in prison.
We heard victim impact statements,
so let's take a listen to what his
former wife Patricia Owens had to say.
That mean look that you
are glaring at me with.
I'm not scared of you anymore.
You've made me a strong person.
But you took my life,
you took my family all in one day.
You could keep those evil eyes
on me as long as you want.
But you will never break me down again.
That the.
Tanya, so we're hearing from from the
two girls mother there as you said it,
it seems like the jury just did
not buy Syed's arguments on the
stand yesterday because they came
back so quickly with this verdict.
And it's a heavy verdict in, you know,
in these these trials are not easy on juries,
but they came back very quickly here
at the thought that a dad would get
out of a car and run away while
shots were being fired and his two
teenage daughters were inside.
What did you get? A sense from the family.
I mean, we just hear from the
mom there of these two teenagers.
What did you get as far as a sense
of of family reaction there in the
courtroom they have waited such
a long time here for justice.
Yeah, they have waited a long time and I
do want to clarify Jason that he's saying
that when he left them they were alive
and well that someone was following them,
but he assumed that it was friends
of his daughters and he kind of told
this crazy story about how he thought
somebody was after him. It was.
It was pretty unbelievable, but his
his wife and his former wife and her sister.
I mean they they were really
emphatic in their statements.
Patricia Owens calling him the devil
calling him a liar and and when.
As she's talking, he is shaking his hands.
He is, I mean, shaking his head.
He's visibly upset this
is a man by all accounts.
Who was all about control.
He thought he could control his daughters.
He thought he could control his wife,
his, his, his wife.
Also his former wife also said from
the stand that because of his actions,
his son is now serving a 10 year
prison sentence for helping him,
helping him hide.
And what Joshua Saeed heard
today from the criminal justice
system is that he is no longer.
And control back to
you. I was going to say for sure there
you couldn't control the jury and and
thanks for the clarification there.
Again, the shots not being fired.
According to him he ran away and then
everything unfolded after he had run away.
But again, the jury definitely not buying
that there in the Syed trial this afternoon.
Life in prison. Tanya eiser.
Thank you so much for all
the coverage on this.
Not just during this trial
but through the years.