"Hey, DA: Interview These Guys!"

Johar: AWOL. Photo courtesy Irvine P.D.

Bakhtar: Friend of Johar?

Nelson: R.I.P. Photo courtesy Linda Cator

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More About

• Homayan Bakhtar
• Andrea Nelson
• Matt Murphy
• Murder and Homicide
• Crime

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Nelson's mother has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Bakhtar and has launched a website claiming he murdered her daughter, www.andrearemembered.com. A sworn declaration by an investigator working for her attorney cites interviews with several unnamed former Mr. J's employees. "Mr. Bakhtar had a close personal relationship with Mr. Johar and the Johar family and [he] therefore lied to the police during the initial investigation into the death of Andrea Nelson," it states.

Matt Murphy, the deputy DA who declined to prosecute Bakhtar for homicide, said evidence that Bakhtar lied to police about his relationship to Nelson's ex-boyfriend wouldn't change his mind about her death.

"If I had to prove Bakhtar was a liar, I could do that in a New York minute," Murphy said. "But that doesn't prove a homicide case."

But some lies are more important than others, and if Homayan Bakhtar lied to police, it's possible he did so to mask a significant fact: the man who showed up at a hospital with Andrea Nelson's corpse was closely involved with the very scandal she revealed to police.

nschou@ocweekly.com