Ali Mahmood Awad Irsan (; born December 27, 1957"Irsan, Ali Awas Mahmoud." Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved on September 9, 2018.) is a Jordanian-American convicted murderer held on Texas death row. He was sentenced for the murders of Iranian-American activist Gelareh Bagherzadeh (), a friend of one of his daughters; and his son-in-law, Coty Beavers, in Greater Houston.
Multiple media reports described the crimes as honor killings.
Background Ali Irsan and his family Ali Irsan was born to a father in the Jordanian Army.
Irsan, using a student visa, came to the United States in 1979, and became a naturalized United States citizen. He lived on a property in a rural area, in unincorporated eastern Montgomery County, Texas, near Conroe. - The address quoted in the article shows that the house was in an unincorporated area. Craig Malisow of the Houston Press stated that Irsan "considered himself to be a devout Muslim." Irsan studied in a "medical laboratory" program at Kirkwood Community College. He stated in court filings that he studied in a medical program at a tertiary institution in Jordan, and he also stated that he had a Houston Community College "diploma of auto-mechanic".
Irsan, then 22, married his first wife when she was 17. He and Robin Dahl first met in 1979 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, while he studied in community college and she worked on her GED. They married circa 1980, and moved to the Houston area by 1984. The couple had four children, with their first being born in 1981. In 1994 Irsan divorced his first wife.
When Irsan was 35, he traveled to Jordan and entered into an arranged marriage with a girl, Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh (), who was approximately 15 or 16. His first wife left the house shortly after he brought home his second wife. Alrawabdeh, a Jordanian national,"Coordinated Effort Results In Multiple Charges Against Jordanian National And Family Members." U.S. Department of Justice. May 23, 2014. Retrieved on September 9, 2018. arrived in the U.S. circa 1995. In federal court, Irsan stated that he married her in Jordan but that he did not legally marry her in the United States. Alrawabdeh had eight children with him while they lived in the United States; including those from his other wife, the total number of children known to be fathered by Irsan is 12. She naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2001.
In 1999, Irsan killed Amjad Hussein Alidam (), the husband of Nasemah Rachelle Irsan (), Irsan's eldest daughter, at Irsan's residence. Alidam was an Iraqi immigrant to the U.S. and a Shia Muslim. Irsan (who was a Sunni Muslim and did not approve of the marriage) stated that he shot Alidam in the head with a shotgun in self-defense. Irsan never received criminal charges in that case, as area law enforcement believed him to be innocent. A Montgomery County grand jury did not indict Irsan for Alidam's murder. Nasemah was sent back to Jordan, where she remarried; she later returned to the U.S. with her new husband.
Nesreen Irsan Beavers, Nadia Irsan, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, and Coty Beavers
Two of Irsan's daughters, Nadia (; born 1984), and Nesreen (; born 1988), were children of Irsan's first wife. Nadia is a U.S. citizen, and the family had previously educated them through homeschooling. After Irsan suffered a heart attack and was diagnosed with a heart condition, Nesreen and Nadia were able to convince their father to allow them to go to medical school to become doctors and ensure their father's health would be properly maintained. To their surprise, Irsan allowed Nadia and Nesreen to enroll in a tertiary institution, a biology program at Lone Star College-Montgomery. Candace Strang, a professor at Lone Star who taught the women, stated that, as paraphrased by Malislow in a Houston Press article, Nadia and Nesreen "fought hard to convince their father to let them enroll". While there, Nesreen and her older sister, Nadia, met Coty Beavers and his twin brother, Cory. Beavers was a Christian, while the girls were Muslims; at the time, both girls wore hijabs. Within a few months, the girls began taking off their hijabs and wearing makeup at school. Nesreen very quickly fell in love with Coty Beavers, and the two began secretly dating. While Nesreen initially had the help and support of her older sister, Nadia, after Nadia's romantic feelings for Coty's twin brother, Cory, were not returned, Nadia quickly became jealous of her sister's new relationship and retreated into the role of dutiful daughter to Irsan.
The two women and Cory Beavers were admitted to the molecular genetics program at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Texas Medical Center; at MD Anderson, Nesreen met Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian woman. Bagherzadeh, a medical student and medical researcher, had molecular genetics as her area of study. She was born in France and was from Tehran. She studied biology in Tehran and later attended university in Budapest, Hungary, before moving to Houston in 2007 to join her parents, who bought a house near Uptown Houston (the area around the Houston Galleria) so she could live there; this residence was within the Woodway Point townhomes, where a nearby street would become the site of her death. Nesreen introduced Coty Beavers's twin brother, Cory, to Bagherzadeh.
Bagherzadeh was known to publicly protest in favor of women's rights on numerous occasions, and publicly criticized the Iranian government. She participated in the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests that were held in Houston and also protested against the Al-Hadi Mosque, which she accused of being connected to the Iranian government. Lomi Kriel of the Houston Chronicle wrote that "she was outspokenly critical of Islam, even becoming embroiled in an argument with her father's bosses about their faith." She was a member of Second Baptist Church, having converted to Christianity in 2011. When Nesreen chose to leave Islam and become a Christian, Bagherzadeh gave her support, suggesting that Nesreen marry her love, Coty Beavers.
Irsan had earlier told his daughters that they were not allowed to date. According to court testimony, Irsan threatened the girls with death if they engaged in romantic relationships, and also stated he would kill their boyfriends if that were ever the case. (the apartment complex was the place where Beavers would die) The relationship between Nesreen and Nadia deteriorated. Nesreen later found employment at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Kidnapping, escape, harassment, and marriage Irsan learned about Nesreen's relationship with Beavers while he was in Jordan with his son. In June 2011, his wife, Alrawabdeh, held Nesreen against her will at Irsan's residence; Nesreen accused her sister Nadia of also holding her against her will. The family members holding her captive had discovered e-mails, text messages, and voice mails sent to and from Coty Beavers on Nesreen's communication device. She escaped through a window and went to join Beavers at his residence, then at his mother's house in Spring. In November 2011, Coty's brother, Cory, and Bagherzadeh became romantically involved.
Nesreen had stated she was afraid her father would harm her. Her father and other members of the family searched for her and sent messages to Bagherzadeh, who refused to divulge any information. For a time, Irsan remained unaware of the location of Nesreen's residence. However, beginning around fall 2011, Irsan began to harass Nesreen, Coty Beavers, and Bagherzadeh, and the group experienced acts of vandalism against their property. Nesreen, who was 23 at the time, got a protective order that banned her father from contacting her, but he continued to look for her. For those reasons, she chose not to attend the graduation ceremony for her class.
Around July 2012, Nesreen married Coty Beavers, taking the name Nesreen Irsan Beavers, and holding only a civil ceremony to avoid unwanted attention, doing so at the Harris County Courthouse. The two moved to a new residence a significant distance away from their previous one; they were at the Legacy Park Apartments in unincorporated northwest Harris County, which would become the site of Beavers' death. (the address is shown to give a precise location of the crime scene) Nesreen and Beavers chose a gated apartment complex, specifically for their protection; they rented a third-floor unit to minimize their possibility of being attacked. Whenever Nesreen left the apartment to travel to and from work, Beavers escorted her to her car to protect her. He also had an assault rifle in case he needed self-defense.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Nesreen stated that, historically, law enforcement in the Houston area had difficulty dealing with honor crimes, as they did not understand the culture, and the ramifications for violating honor codes.
Federal fraud convictions Nesreen told authorities that Irsan had committed fraud related to Social Security. The family received money from the Social Security Administration (SSA), called Supplemental Security Income (SSI), for disabled children, and for adults who are unable to work and do not have resources, but Irsan and his family concealed their resources, while telling the government that, beginning in 1990, he was unable to work due to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Irsan held his money in multiple bank accounts, some in Jordan, with some under the names of his children while having de facto control over them, while also receiving welfare payments and concealing the true amount of money he controlled. He also possessed multiple fraudulent credit cards, some under false names and some in the names of family members. The criminal schemes began in 1995. Agencies investigating these financial crimes included multiple agencies in the federal, state, and local levels, among them the FBI, SSA, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), Homeland Security Investigations, and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.
FBI agents, accompanied by local police, arrested Irsan, Alrawabdeh, and Nadia on May 22, 2014, on offenses related to fraud perpetrated against the Social Security system. Irsan was held without bail in the Joe Corley Detention Facility/Joe Corley Processing Center, a private correctional facility in Conroe, Texas, operated by the GEO Group which, in addition to housing immigration prisoners, acts as a detention center for the U.S. Marshals Service. All three suspects were also held at Federal Detention Center, Houston in Downtown Houston. Alrawabdeh and Nadia were also held. Six of Irsan's children who were still minors were put in the custody of child protective services (CPS).
The AUSA assigned federal prosecutors Jim McAlister and Mark McIntyre, Irsan was represented by attorney John Floyd. The FBI raided the house again on June 5, 2014. Irsan was initially charged with conspiracy to commit welfare fraud in a continuing scheme, to defraud the United States, and to commit theft of public money over $1,000.
On April 3, 2015, Irsan pleaded guilty,"Conroe Family Handed Federal Prison Sentences." U.S. Department of Justice. July 6, 2015. Retrieved on September 9, 2018. to "conspiracy to defraud the United States", while Alrawabdeh and Nadia were convicted of "making false statements"."Conroe Family Guilty Of Disability Fraud." U.S. Department of Justice. April 3, 2015. Retrieved on September 9, 2018. Irsan was sentenced to 45 months' confinement and a fine of $290,651 by Judge Lynn Hughes. Alrawabdeh and Nadia each received 24 months.
The arrests and prosecutions were not covered in the Jordanian news media.
Murders
Bagherzadeh's murder