A 32-year-old Irving man has pleaded guilty to helping a capital murder suspect evade capture for more than 12 years, announced Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Prerak Shah.
Islam Yaser-Abdel Said, the son of FBI “10 Most Wanted” suspect Yaser Said, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to one count of conspiracy to conceal a person from arrest, one count of concealing a person from arrest, and one count of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Mr. Said pleaded open to the charges against him, with no assurances from the government as to the sentence prosecutors would recommend to the judge.
“Islam Said prioritized the whims of his father, an alleged killer, over justice for his own sisters. Thanks to the dogged work of the FBI and its law enforcement partners, however, Mr. Said’s efforts were ultimately in vain,” said U.S. Attorney Prerak Shah. “We are grateful to the many agents and officers who worked to apprehend Mr. Said, along with his father and uncle. Sarah and Amina deserve justice.”
“Islam Said made it possible for his father, Yaser Said, to evade justice for the brutal murder of his daughters for more than a decade,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno. “Along with our partners, the FBI is thankful for the dedication and relentless pursuit that led to the capture of Amina and Sarah’s killer and those that provided him harbor.”
In plea papers, Mr. Said admitted to sheltering his father from arrest in an attempt to subvert the administration of justice.
The elder Mr. Said had been a fugitive from justice since New Year’s Day 2008, when he allegedly murdered his teenage daughters, Amina and Sarah. According to law enforcement, he shot the girls to death inside his taxicab and abandoned their bodies inside the vehicle. He was captured by the FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force in August 2020, and is currently in state custody.
By pleading guilty, Islam Said admitted that the evidence proved he committed the crimes charged in the superseding indictment.
Conspiring with his uncle, Yassein Said, Islam Said harbored his father, Yaser, inside an apartment in Bedford, Texas, where a maintenance worker spotted Yaser on Aug. 14, 2017. After the maintenance worker reported the sighting to the FBI, an agent was dispatched to interview Islam, but Islam refused to cooperate, instead calling his uncle to say, “we have problem,” prosecutors said.
He later harbored his father inside a home in Justin, Texas that belonged to his cousin. On Aug. 25, 2020 FBI agents observed Mr. Said and his uncle deliver grocery bags to the residence, then followed the men to a shopping center 20 miles away, were they dumped trash retrieved from the home.
Islam Said now faces up to 30 years in federal prison. His is slated to be sentenced on April 30, 2021 at 9 a.m. by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor.
Islam’s uncle, Yassein Said, is set for trial on Feb. 1, 2021.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Division and the Irving Police Department conducted the investigation with the assistance of U.S. Customs & Border Patrol, the Dallas Police Department, the Garland Police department, the Grand Prairie Police Department, and the Texas Department of Public Safety. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tiffany H. Eggers and Errin Martin are prosecuting the case.
