Hossein Nayeri testifies that he played no role in the abduction, torture and sexual mutilation of a Newport Beach marijuana dispensary owner

Hossein Nayeri, who is accused of kidnapping, torturing and sexually mutilating a marijuana dispensary owner, denied playing any role in the headline-grabbing abduction as he took the stand for the first time during his Orange County Superior Court trial.

During several hours of testimony late Thursday and early Friday, Nayeri described himself as having been in the “big leagues” when it came to the marijuana-growing business, and he admitted to surveilling the kidnapped dispensary owner in the months leading up to his abduction.

But Nayeri, who is now 40, flatly denied the allegations that he teamed up with two friends from Clovis West High School in Fresno, Kyle Handley and Ryan Kevorkian, to kidnap and torture the dispensary owner in an attempt to find a non-existent $1 million the victim’s masked assailants wrongly believed he had buried in the desert.

“Did you participate in this kidnapping?” asked Sal Ciulla, one of the attorneys representing Nayeri.

“Of course not,” Nayeri replied.

“Did you know about it before it happened?” Ciulla asked.

“Of course not,” Nayeri said.

“How did you feel when you found out that it had happened?” the defense attorney asked.

“It was just so shocking,” Nayeri said. “It was like a wrecking ball hit my guts. I was completely blown away.”

During a testy stretch while questioned by Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy regarding Nayeri’s discharge from the U.S. Marines and his 2005 drunken-driving crash that killed a friend, Nayeri’s verbal sparring with the prosecutor drew warnings from Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg L. Prickett.

“Are we good?” Murphy asked Nayeri afterward.

“We are good – are you going to start telling the truth once in awhile?” Nayeri responded, drawing another warning from the judge.

Nayeri said that during his time running marijuana-grow operations, mainly in the Fresno area, he made several hundred thousand to more than a million dollars per year.

He acknowledged partnering with Handley for some of those operations, but said he had a falling out with Kevorkian and hadn’t spoken to him in years.

Nayeri said the marijuana-dispensary owner had “ripped off” Handley in a marijuana deal, a charge the owner has said isn’t true.

As a favor to Handley, Nayeri said he agreed to spend months keeping an eye on the dispensary owner through the use of GPS units and surveillance cameras.

Shortly after midnight on Sept. 26, 2012, Nayeri eluded a motorcycle officer during a high-speed chase after the officer tried to pull him over while he had cash and marijuana in his car. Nayeri escaped, but left his car, and the surveillance equipment and footage he had taken of the dispensary owner, behind for police to seize.

“Were you overly concerned about them having that?” Ciulla asked Nayeri.

“No, not at all,” Nayeri replied.

On Oct. 2, 2012, three masked men broke into a Newport Beach home where the dispensary owner was living, and tied up and kidnapped him and the girlfriend of the man who owned the property. During a two-hour-plus drive to the Mojave Desert, the men beat the dispensary owner, repeatedly shocked him with a Taser, whipped him with rubber piping and burned him with a blow torch.

Once in the desert, the men cut off the dispensary owner’s penis and left him and the woman behind, still bound and blindfolded.

The woman freed herself and found medical aid for the two of them, but the missing body part was never located. She was able to make it to a road and flag down a Kern County sheriff’s deputy on the way to work.

Handley was the first to be arrested, prompting Nayeri to flee to Iran, where he had been born and spent his childhood.

“And the reason you went to Iran?” Ciulla asked.

“Utter fear, bottom line,” Nayeri said.

Nayeri’s then-wife, Cortney Shegerian, previously testified that she initially lied to the police to protect Nayeri, and helped funnel him money overseas. Shegerian ultimately decided to cooperate with authorities, identifying the individuals she alleged took part in the kidnapping and persuaded Nayeri to leave Iran to visit her in another country, where he was arrested and extradited.

While the prosecutor on Friday sharply questioned Nayeri about several incidents in his past, including an alleged domestic-violence incident against Shegerian, the cross-examination had not reached Nayeri’s alleged role in the abduction before the hearing ended for the day.

Nayeri’s testimony is scheduled to resume on Tuesday morning at the Newport Beach courthouse.

Handley has already been convicted for his role in the abduction and torture, and was sentenced last year to four life terms behind bars. Kevorkian is awaiting trial.

Nayeri gained further notoriety while awaiting trial, when authorities allege he masterminded a brazen escape, along with two other inmates from Orange County jail. All three were caught, with Nayeri lasting eight days on the outside before getting nabbed.