Prosecutors in "honor killings" case tell judge of hit list against witnesses Attorneys tell judge some are afraid in 'honor killing' case

Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, facing murder charges, appears in a hearing Friday in which no witnesses were named. Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, facing murder charges, appears in a hearing Friday in which no witnesses were named. Photo: Cody Duty, Staff Photo: Cody Duty, Staff Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Prosecutors in "honor killings" case tell judge of hit list against witnesses 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

Witnesses in the case of a Montgomery County family charged in the 2012 deaths of two people in what authorities have described as "honor killings" were placed on a hit list and are afraid for their safety, Harris County prosecutors said Friday.

During a court hearing for 37-year-old Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, charged with murder and accused of assisting in the killing of Gelerah Bagherzadeh, Harris County assistant district attorneys told state District Judge Jan Krocker authorities had discovered a "hit list," that included the names of witnesses in the case.

Prosecutors did not comment on who created the list or who it belonged to, but they said the names included Houston Police Department and Harris County Sheriff's Office homicide investigators and a federal agent. The list also included relatives of Alrawabdeh's son-in-law, Coty Beavers, who was shot to death about 11 months after Bagherzadeh.

Capital murder charge

Alrawabdeh's husband, Ali Awad Mahmoud Irsan, 57, is charged with capital murder, accused of killing both Bagherzadeh and Beavers. Isran's, 21-year-old son, Nasim Irsan, is also charged with murder, accused of assisting in Bagherzadeh's death in January 2012.

Prosecutors say Irsan, a devout Muslim, disapproved of the marriage between his daughter, Nesreen Irsan, and Beavers, a Christian. They alleged that Irsan blamed 30-year-old Bagherzadeh, a Christian convert from Iran who was his daughter's best friend, for the marriage. At Irsan's court hearing on Thursday, prosecutors said he called his daughter and threatened her.

"He said, 'I killed that (expletive), and you're next. No one insults my honor as a Muslim and gets away with it,' " Assistant Harris County District attorney Tammy Thomas told Krocker, who also heard Irsan's case.

Nadia Irsan, 30, another of Irsan's daughters, is charged with felony stalking, accused of tracking her sister for her father.

Prosecutors revealed the information about a hit list after Krocker asked why the witnesses in Alrawabdeh's case were not being named in court.

During the hearing, Krocker appointed Katherine Scardino to represent Alrawabdeh, who stood next to her dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit. She kept her head down while prosecutors detailed Alrawabdeh's role in Bagherzadeh shooting, saying the woman was in the front passenger seat of the family car the night her when her husband gunned down the activist as she drove to her parents' Galleria-area home. They also allege Alrawabdeh overheard harassing phone conversations Ali Irsan made to Bagherzadeh.

Prosecutors also said Alrawabdeh helped her husband approach neighbors in the northwest Harris County apartment complex where Beavers lived with Nesreen Isran and assisted in offering them bribes for information about him.

Beavers was found shot to death in the apartment in November 2012.

Dismissal denied

After hearing the allegations, Scardino asked the judge to dismiss the murder charge, saying she felt there was no evidence in Alrawabdeh's case that warranted it.

Krocker declined, saying she would have to respect the grand jury's indictment. However, she did later note that it appeared prosecutors only had circumstantial evidence against Alrawabdeh at the time, and any substantiating evidence would remain to be seen during a trial.

"Based on what prosecutors said, I really did not hear any evidence that linked her to a murder," Scardino said following the hearing. As far as the hit list is concerned, Scardino said she asked prosecutors to see a copy of the list and hopes, "she's not on it," herself.

Ali Irsan, Alrawabdeh and Nasim Irsan are being held in Harris County Jail. Nadia Irsan was in federal custody as of Friday morning. She, her father and Alrawabdeh are awaiting sentencing in an unrelated disability fraud case.

Krocker said court hearings in Alrawabdeh's case are likely to resume in July.