Brother of capital murder suspect Yaser Said gets 12 years for hiding him for years

A brother of capital murder suspect Yaser Said was sentenced to 12 year in a federal prison for hiding him from authorities for 12 years

U.S. Judge Reed O’Conor announced the sentence Friday morning against 60-year-old Yassein Said, who repeatedly told the judge he didn’t commit a crime.

“I didn’t see my brother for 20 years,” Yassein Said said Friday morning before he was sentenced. “I didn’t commit any crime. I wasn’t raised that way.”

Before he was sentenced, O’Connor acknowledged that he had read the 22 letters of support for Yassein Said. His daughters also spoke in support of their father Friday morning.

The daughters noted their father was old and sick, and he needed to be cared for.

A federal jury in February found Yassein Said guilty of conspiracy to conceal a person from arrest, concealing a person from arrest and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.

O’Connor sentenced Yassein Said to 114 months on the first charge and 60 months each on the last two charges. The sentences will be served concurrently.

Yassein Said was the second family member to be sent to federal prison for hiding Yaser Said.

In January, Islam Said, 32, of Irving, the son of Yaser Said, pleaded guilty to 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. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.

Yaser Said is accused of shooting to death his teenage daughters, Amina and Sarah, in his taxi in Irving on Jan. 1, 2008, and then leaving their bodies in the car.

Yaser Said was on the run for 12 years before he was captured in August 2020 in a Justin home owned by Yassein Said’s daughter.

For years, federal authorities say, Yassein and Islam Said helped conceal their relative, who had been on the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” list.

During the investigation on Yassein Said, FBI agents used witness interviews, review of email accounts, vehicle rental records, travel records, social media accounts, wireless telephone records and surveillance.

The killings of the Said sisters drew national attention when some family members said that the girls were victims of an “honor killing” because their father thought they had brought shame to the family.

Authorities have declined to comment on a motive.

Federal authorities believe Yassein Said harbored his brother from at least Aug. 1, 2017, until Aug. 26, 2020, when Yaser Said was arrested in Justin.

Investigators got a break in 2017 when a maintenance worker at the Copper Canyon Apartments in Bedford spotted Yaser Said in an apartment rented by Islam Said, federal agents said.

FBI agents had told apartment officials before that encounter that Islam Said was renting an apartment there and that he was the son of a wanted fugitive.

After the sighting, on Aug. 14, 2017, an FBI agent tried to interview Islam Said, wanting to ask him who was inside the Bedford apartment and get consent to search it. Islam Said refused to cooperate and called his attorney. Later, authorities discovered that Islam Said called someone and told them, “we have a big problem,” according to a federal criminal complaint.

Authorities obtained a search warrant for the apartment and executed it on Aug. 15, 2017, but they didn’t find anyone. Investigators collected a Pall Mall cigarette butt from a trash can, a pair of eyeglasses, and a toothbrush found in a luggage bag inside a closet.

A few days after the Bedford apartment was searched, Yassein Said and another man showed up at the leasing office, demanding to know who saw someone in Islam Said’s apartment, according to the complaint.

Months later, test results on DNA collected from the apartment indicated that Yaser Said had been there.

In August 2020, authorities discovered that two homes were in the name of Dalal Said, one of Yassein Said’s daughters. One home was in Justin and the other in Euless. Authorities already knew that the Euless residence was the primary home of Islam Said.

Federal authorities began physical surveillance at both homes.

Yaser Said is awaiting his capital murder trial in Dallas County.