Houston father found guilty of honor killings

A Houston jury took just 35 minutes this week to find a Jordanian immigrant guilty in the honor killings of his daughter’s husband and friend in 2012. Prosecutors said Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan plotted the murders after his daughter, then 24 years old, ran away and married a Christian man, Coty Beavers. Irsan, his wife, and his adult son were all charged in the murders, but his wife, Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, testified against him in exchange for a lesser charge. Irsan’s daughter Nesreem Irsan testified at the trial about how she broke free of her father’s radical Islamic demands while attending college, the Houston Chronicle reported. He threatened to kill her, she said, along with her husband and a friend who he believed encouraged her marriage. Irsan faces the death penalty now for his role in the death of the husband and friend, and his son is awaiting trial on capital murder charges.