Hossein Nayeri is a convicted criminal who reached infamy when he escaped from Orange County Jail, recorded the escape and his days on the run. He was convicted in the kidnap and torture of a marijuana dispensary owner and Mary Barnes.

Adam Houssein Nayeri fled multiple times. The first time, he was a teenager who recently completed Marine Corps boot camp and fled his post. Then, he was charged in the vehicular manslaughter death of his friend, and fled the country to Iran. Finally, his escape from Orange County Jail made national headlines.

Hossein Nayeri Wife (Cortney Shegerian)

Hossein’w wife was Cortney Shegerian, at the time of many of his crimes. She testified at his trial that she was “terrified” of her husband, according to the Los Angeles Times. She testified Nayeri was controlling and abusive. She eventually pressed charges against Nayeri for physical abuse but agreed to a plea deal which ordered him to complete counseling.

Shegerian and Nayeri met when she was a teenager. She kept their relationship a secret from her parents, even after they were married, according to ABC News even after she married him years later. They were eventually divorced.

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Hossein Nayeri Escape from Jail

In 2016, Hossein Nayeri used a contraband cellphone to film his daring escape from a maximum-security wing at an Orange County jail. In 2017, NBC4 shared a video, showing the first-person vantage point of the escapees and scenes of their days on the run. The video which can bee seen here shows the three men, along with a cab driver, evading law enforcement in a statewide manhunt for more than a week. Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu were captured in San Francisco. The third man, Bac Duong, turned himself in before the arrest.

The Santa Ana skyline comes into view as the inmates reach the rooftop of the Orange County Jail. The video does not show how the inmates got to the ground, but Nayeri says on the recording they had an industrial rope, a toolbox, a duffle bag, and new clothes. They take turns posing at the corner of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco.

Hossein Nayeri Manhunt & Arrest

Following their escape, the police issued a statewide manhunt before Hossein Nayeri and Jonathan Tieu which lasted for 8 days. They were captured in San Francisco. A witness recognized a white van from reports and suspected it was the one stolen from Whole Foods and used in their caper. Upon being spotted, Nayeri ran from police after, but he was arrested after a brief foot chase, according to the Los Angeles Times. Tieu was found hiding inside. He was arrested without incident.

The third escapee, Bac Duong, was accused of stealing the van after responding to an ad on Craigslist. He turned himself in before the arrest of Nayeri and Tieu. The three men drove to northern California and checked into a motel in San Jose, the Los Angeles Times reported. Duong surrendered after one of his friends called the police.

Hossein Nayeri ABC 20/20

Speaking to ABC 20/20, Adam Hossein Nayeri said he did not want to hurt anyone. “I’m just an average, ordinary person. Simple as that,” he said. “I have many flaws. Wanting to hurt people is definitely not one of them.”

He told ABC how he committed his jailbreak and said he was innocent of the charges he was about to face at trial. He was eventually convicted at trial of kidnapping a marijuana dispensary owner, Michael, and Mary Barnes from their Newport Beach, California, home. The men cut off Michael’s penis, burned him with a blowtorch and doused him with bleach. They left Michael and Mary Barnes in the Mojave Desert and drove away with Michael’s penis.

“Cutting it off is one thing. Ensuring that it is never recovered to be reattached is a level of depravity and cruelty that…this man should never get out of prison,” said Matt Murphy, the former senior deputy district attorney for Orange County who prosecuted Nayeri’s case and who is now an ABC News consultant.

Speaking of his co-conspirators, Nayeri described them as his “business partners,” and said he believed Michael had buried $1 million in cash in the desert. “[I want] to get my side of the story out,” Nayeri said. “The true version of what happened.”

Hossein Nayeri Charged Involuntary Manslaughter

Hossein Nayeri became infamous when he and two other inmates escaped Orange County Jail. He also fled the country after he was charged with involuntary manslaughter following the death of his friend in a car accident in 2005. He fled to his home country of Iran to escape the charges. But the first time Nayeri ever escaped was when he fled his post as a U.S. Marine, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Nayeri enlisted in the Marine Corps as a teen in 1998. Shortly after he completed boot camp, he fled his post at Camp Pendleton, the newspaper reported. He would remain missing from October 1998 to March 1999. After he was found, he was labeled a deserter, sentenced to the brig for 47 days, court-martialed him and kicked him out under a “bad conduct” discharge, Marines spokeswoman Yvonne Carlock told the Los Angeles Times.

“He barely earned the title Marine,” she told the newspaper. However, he still used his military service to ask for leniency in the manslaughter death of his friend.

“After careful consideration, we decided to join the Marine Corps because we wanted a challenge and the Marine Corps was perceived as the toughest and the best,” Nayeri wrote in a sentencing letter to a judge in 2009. “I even took it a step further and worked hard and qualified for Reconnaissance School.”