The Texas woman behind a revenge plot for the death of an Iranian terrorist walked away without jail time Wednesday despite originally being indicted for attempted murder.
(Video: KLAS)
On March 5, 2022, an unsuspecting man had committed to a rendezvous with then-21-year-old University of Texas student Nika Nikoubin. The encounter left the victim, later identified as Daniel Trevino, with two puncture wounds in his neck as the Iranian immigrant thought it “fair that American blood be spilled” in retaliation for the drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Having already pleaded down from an attempted murder charge and two counts of battery to two counts of false imprisonment with the use of a deadly weapon, KLAS reported that Clark County District Judge Carli Keirny sentenced Nikoubin to three years probation.
During testimony, the now-23-year-old detailed how she had spent 10 days in a mental health facility prior to her trip to Las Vegas where she assaulted the victim. In addition to her claims of struggling with diagnoses of schizophrenia, severe depression and bipolar disorder, Nikoubin told the judge, “I was raped when I was 18 years old by another student. At the time, I did not fully realize the impact that this experience had on me and my mental health deteriorated.”
“These diagnoses were deeply upsetting to me and, truthfully, I was in denial,” she argued. “While I was prescribed medication to treat my disorders, I initially struggled to properly follow my treatment regimen.”
As previously reported, the Iranian immigrant had met Trevino through the dating app Plenty of Fish and then lured him to a Las Vegas-area hotel for a tryst. While the pair engaged in sexual activity, the victim was blindfolded at which point the femme fatale had struck his neck with a knife.
Iranian femme fatale lures man to NV hotel for kinky sex, stabs him as revenge for US killing Soleimani https://t.co/ZqiE7wZSGV pic.twitter.com/8iXHzoaaYM
— BizPac Review (@BIZPACReview) March 13, 2022
“I have the scars to show for it,” Trevino said in court.
When speaking with Henderson Police at the time of her arrest, Nikoubin had told authorities, “I mean the U.S. killed Soleimani. Lots of blood spilled. So, I feel like, it’s fair that American blood be spilled.”
Meanwhile, in court before Judge Kierny, her attorney defended her actions and claimed, “Nikoubin specifically stated she did not wish to kill [the victim], but only wanted to ‘hurt him.'”
On top of the seeming leniency that was applied to the young woman, her case revealed apparent safety concerns as the Dallas-based agency that had been charged with monitoring her house arrest was limited to checking her location, not if she violated any of the conditions of that status like her curfew. As a result, Nikoubin had been able to attend classes at the University of Texas during the spring semester before the school was aware of her presence.
University spokesman Phil Roth released a statement in February that said, “Because the safety of our campus and our community is of utmost importance, we have removed her from campus.”
Kierny had said it was beyond her authority to issue a campus ban, though she had prohibited the young woman, an aspiring singer, from attempting to book performances away from her home in Frisco, Texas. Of note, her father is a professor at UT Dallas where she was enrolled.
Nikoubin stated before the court, “Most importantly your honor, I want to express my deepest apologies to the victim, Daniel, and to the state of Nevada, for the harm that I have caused.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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