16 August 2018 :

A Harris County jury sentenced Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, a Jordanian immigrant, to death. Irsan was found guilty of capital murder last month in the November 12, 2012 fatal shootings of his son-in-law, Coty Beavers, 28, and his daughter’s friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, 30. Prosecutors alleged that Irsan, a 60-year-old conservative Muslim, became enraged after his daughter, Nesreen Irsan, married Beavers, a Christian, and converted to Christianity. Investigators said Bagherzadeh, an Iranian activist and medical researcher who supporter her choice, had encouraged her friend to marry Beavers. Irsan’s wife, Shmou Alrawabdeh, testified at trial that her husband tried to “clean his honor” with the killings. She told jurors her husband also intended to kill their daughter, Beavers’ twin brother and Beavers’ mother. To be tried separately are also Irsan's adult son, Nasim Irsan, 24, who is charged with capital murder, and his adult daughter, Nadia, who is charged with stalking. Special prosecutor Marie Primm reminded the jury that Irsan also killed a different son-in-law in 1999. Irsan testified that it was in self-defense. Other family members said he blasted Amjad Alidam in the chest with a shotgun because he did not approve of Alidam's marriage to his oldest daughter, then planted a pistol on the body. In 2015, Irsan, his wife and another daughter were sentenced to federal prison for defrauding the Social Security system.