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Yaser Said 'honor killings' trial: Ex-FBI 'Top 10 Most Wanted' suspect accused of killing daughters testifies

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:31:32 GMT

One of the FBI’s former top ten most-wanted suspects, who is facing a trial 12 years after allegedly carrying out "honor killings" against his two daughters in Texas, took the stand on Monday and told the court, "I did not kill my daughters."

Yaser Said, 65, testified with the help of a translator on Monday inside a Dallas courtroom, where the defense rested later in the day. Said is charged with capital murder, accused of killing 18-year-old Amina Said and 17-year-old Sarah Said on New Year’s Day in 2008. Yaser Said has entered a not guilty plea.

Said, who had worked as a taxi driver, faces an automatic life sentence if convicted.

The sisters were found shot to death in a taxi parked near a hotel in the Dallas suburb of Irving.

YASER SAID 'HONOR KILLINGS' TRIAL: DAUGHTER IN 911 CALL TELLS POLICE SHE'S 'DYING'

His testimony comes days after jurors heard a 911 call Sarah Said made from a cell phone, telling the operator that her father shot her and she was dying.

"Help," said a crying voice on the 911 recording, later determined by police to be that of Sarah Said. "I’m dying. Oh my God. Stop it."

SON OF YASER SAID, FBI TEN MOST WANTED ‘HONOR KILLINGS’ SUSPECT, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONCEALING HIM

Said testified for less than two hours on Monday, when prosecutors tried to poke holes in his claims.

During cross-examination, prosecutors asked him if, as a taxi driver, he could understand and speak English. Through a translator, he answered yes.

Prosecutors also asked him why he would leave his daughters in his car if he feared he was being followed, as he had claimed. They also asked why he left his gun in his car if he was "scared."

Said responded that he believed the person following them was after him, and not his daughters.

TRIAL OF TEXAS MAN ACCUSED OF MURDERING DAUGHTERS IN ‘HONOR KILLINGS’ FOR HAVING NON-MUSLIM BOYFRIENDS BEGINS

During his cross-examination, Said also testified that women in America are more protected than men; that women do not have the fear of calling police on a man; and that his ex-wife, Patricia Owens, who testified last week, lied when she said that he had threatened to kill her.

A jury is expected to hear closing arguments on Tuesday, and panelists will be sequestered for the duration of deliberations.

Owens testified Thursday that her ex-husband was abusive and controlling during their marriage. And when Owens was asked to identify her ex-husband in court, she pointed at Said and said: "That devil there."

MARYLAND MAN ACCUSED OF KILLING, DISMEMBERING DAUGHTER, YEARS AFTER ALLEGEDLY MURDERED SON AND FRIEND

A former police detective testified Thursday that the taxi in which the girls had been found had been lent to Yaser Said.

A week before the sisters were killed, they and their mother left their home in the Dallas suburb of Lewisville and went to Oklahoma to get away from Said. Both sisters’ boyfriends also joined the three.

Prosecutor Lauren Black said in opening statements that the sisters had become "very scared for their lives," and the decision to leave was made after Said "put a gun to Amina’s head and threatened to kill her," the prosecutor said.

Owens, who spoke softly and often hesitantly on the stand, testified that Said eventually convinced her to return to Texas. "I didn’t think anything would happen," she testified.

Black said during opening statements that Said was "obsessed with possession and control." Owens testified that when she married Said, she was 15 and he was 29. The evening the girls were killed, Said wanted to take just the two sisters to a restaurant.

A police report from after the girls’ death described that a family member told investigators that the suspect threatened "bodily harm″ against Sarah for going on a date with a non-Muslim. Owens fled with her daughters in the week before their deaths because she was in "great fear for her life." Gail Gattrell, the sisters’ great-aunt, has called the deaths an "honor killing," in which a woman is murdered by a relative to protect her family’s honor.

In a letter written to the judge overseeing the case, Said said he was not happy with his kids’ "dating activity" but denied killing his daughters. Defense attorney Joseph Patton said in opening statements that the evidence would not support a conviction and that police were too quick to focus on Said.

In a Dec. 21, 2007, email that was brought into evidence, Amina Said told one of her teachers that she and her sister planned to run away. She wrote that she and her sister didn’t want to live by the culture of their father, who was born in Egypt, nor did they want arranged marriages, as he planned. Her father, she wrote, had "made our lives a nightmare."

"He will, without any drama nor doubt, kill us," the email read.

Yaser Said, who had been sought on a capital murder warrant since the slayings, was placed on the FBI’s most-wanted list. He was finally arrested in August 2020 in Justin, about 35 miles northwest of Dallas. His son, Islam Said, and his brother, Yassim Said, were subsequently convicted of helping him evade arrest.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Oregon GOP hopeful Christine Drazan reveals plans for state that hasn't elected Republican governor in decades

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:11:58 GMT

EXCLUSIVE— Republican Oregon gubernatorial hopeful Christine Drazan has a plan to take her state in a "new direction," and away from the "extreme" policies she says have led to high crime rates, failing schools and a major homelessness crisis.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Drazan, outlined her "Roadmap for Oregon's Future," a plan she said would appeal to Oregonians across all political spectrums, and would lead the state, a progressive-haven long run by Democrats, to new heights with real, "tangible" change.

"You know, this race this year is really about leadership. It's a pretty simple conversation that we're having with Oregonians. Are you better off today than you were ten years ago before Democrats took control of everything?" Drazan, a former minority leader in the Oregon House of Representatives, said when asked why she felt her campaign would win in a state that hasn't elected a Republican governor in decades.

"Things are more expensive here; taxes are higher; our schools are among the worst in the nation. We have among the highest numbers for homelessness and addiction with the lowest level of access to recovery services. And our crime numbers have gone through the roof," she added.

OREGON GOP GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE DRAZAN TARGETS DEMOCRATIC LEADERS IN FIRST GENERAL ELECTION AD BLITZ

Drazan argued that Oregonians had felt the negative changes taking place across the state, and could see the "direct connection" between them and Democrat Gov. Kate Brown, who has served as governor since 2015 and is term-limited.

She described her opponent, Democrat nominee and former Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives Tina Kotek, as a continuation of the left-wing policies that lead Oregon down its current path, and said that Oregonians didn't believe single-party control had served them very well.

"They want balance, and they want somebody, frankly, that's going to fix the problems that are hurting them," Drazan said. "And it's not about this global agenda. They don't want somebody to be focused entirely on federal issues and global issues and just talk climate with them all the time."

"They want somebody that's going to say, ‘We need better schools and politics out of the classroom. We need lower taxes. We need to be able to afford to fill up our car at the gas pump,’" she added. "Those are the basic kitchen table issues that Oregonians want their next leader to focus on, and I am the only candidate in this race that's focusing on those issues in a way that is a new direction for our state."

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As part of her "roadmap," Drazan plans to tackle issues plaguing Oregon, such as homelessness, drug use, mental health challenges, rising crime and lagging school performance. She also plans to lower taxes and take action to reduce the cost of living in the state.

When asked how she would use the roadmap to make headway into a state that historically heavily favors Democrats, Drazan said Oregonians could see the failures of those running the state, but she would show them they were solvable issues.

"The issues that are outlined in the road map are the core issues that Oregonians have seen Democrats fail on for far too long in my home state," she said. "The failures that our state is facing right now are not inevitable, they are failed leadership. And that's the connection."

"This roadmap to Oregon's future is to have this conversation with Oregonians and be really clear, this absolutely is solvable. This spot that we're in right now, where there's homeless on every corner and under every overpass, it doesn't have to be this way, and we can fix this," she said.

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"It's very important for me to really get out there and talk to Oregonians about this, about the change that they want to see, and how we're going to accomplish it in a very tangible way. And that's what the road map allows us to do," she added.

Drazan committed to working with a Democrat-controlled state legislature to reach "reasonable" approaches to issues, but said that she would veto any bill that didn't support law enforcement or that expanded upon abortion protections already codified into state law.

She also vowed to stop the exposure of Oregonians to single-party control of the state, and to restore the focus of education on meeting graduation requirements, rather than turning children into "Democrat change-makers."

She added, however, that working with Democrats would benefit the state and would lead to "more durable solutions" without political extremism.

When it came to former President Donald Trump, who is expected to be a major player in this year's midterms, Drazan predicted he would have little interest in Oregon, and stood firm that national politics didn't play a heavy role in statewide elections.

"We're a long ways from Washington, D.C.," she said. "We're not a regular swing drop-in state for anybody to really come here. And Oregonians right now are really so focused on the challenges that we have that are here at home. That has been and where I will continue to keep my focus in this race."

Drazan didn't shy away from the reality of the daunting challenge ahead of her in winning over enough Oregon voters to become the state's next governor, but vowed to take her message all across the state all the way to election day.

"This is an opportunity for change in Oregon," she said. "I believe we've got a long ways to go. I'm going to have to work really hard between now and Nov. 8, and I'm committed to doing whatever it takes to get this across the finish line and really help support my fellow Oregonians."

North Dakota boy, 9, signs his home run ball for his grandpa and everyone's crying happy tears

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:08:10 GMT

When Felix Carrier-Damon hit a double home run and a grand slam on July 30, he wanted to sign the two all-important baseballs.

On one, he wrote, "Best feeling ever." On the other, the 9-year-old dedicated it to a very special someone - his grandfather.

It simply said, "I love you Papa."

91-YEAR-OLD GRANDPA SENDS LOVINGLY HILARIOUS TEXTS TO HIS SINGLE GRANDDAUGHTER

Felix wanted to surprise his grandfather, Bruce Carrier, by giving him a ball as a gift.

So, after the game, he went to Papa's house and presented the prized possession.

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In a now-viral video viewed 4.6 million times, both Felix and Carrier become emotional during the exchange. This was in part due to the close relationship they share, Felix's mom, Melissa Carrier-Damon of Sioux Falls, told Fox News Digital.

"My dad has spent a lot of time with all our kids and that includes playing catch, helping with batting and coming to their games," said Carrier-Damon, who is Carrier's daughter.

Carrier-Damon described her father as a "lifelong" Los Angeles Dodgers fan. He is also a retired school superintendent, she said.

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"He still has people comment about what he meant to them when they were in school with him," she added. "He's just always been so caring and loving and his family is everything to him."

As for Felix, "he could feel how much his papa loves him," Carrier-Damon said.

More than 7,000 people commented on Carrier-Damon's video – many of them sharing how the moment between grandson and grandfather touched their hearts.

"How I wish everyone could have a grandpa like this!!" one person wrote.

"This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," another chimed in.

"It's been amazing to see the outreach and the absolutely incredible comments that people have left," Carrier-Damon said.

"I think we need all of the kindness and happiness we can get right now," she added.

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Oklahoma lawmakers raise questions about defendant's guilt in death penalty case

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:06:26 GMT

More than 60 Oklahoma lawmakers, including many Republicans who support the death penalty, urged the state attorney general to join their request for a new evidentiary hearing in the case of death row inmate Richard Glossip.

The group of 61 state legislators sent a letter last week to Attorney General John O’Connor following an independent investigation by a Texas law firm that raised questions about Glossip’s guilt.

"The report concluded that no reasonable juror who heard all the evidence would find Mr. Glossip guilty," the letter stated. "As elected officials representing the citizens of this great state, we believe it is vitally important to conduct a serious review of this case so that the truth might be conclusively found."

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The report by the Houston law firm Reed Smith did not find any definitive proof of Glossip's innocence, but raised concerns about lost or destroyed evidence and a detective in the case asking leading questions to Glossip's co-defendant, Justin Sneed, to implicate Glossip in the 1997 killing of Glossip's boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese. Sneed, who admitted killing Van Treese but said he did so at Glossip's direction, was sentenced to life in prison and was a key witness against Glossip.

OKLAHOMA DEATH ROW INMATE'S CASE TO BE REVIEWED BY OUTSIDE FIRM AFTER LAWMAKERS RAISE DOUBTS ABOUT HIS GUILT

O'Connor's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but prosecutors in his office have urged the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to reject Glossip's request for an evidentiary hearing, suggesting it's a delay tactic.

"The appellant's actions in this sense are dilatory and only prolong the wait for justice for the victim, Barry Van Treese, and his family in this case," the state wrote in response to Glossip's objection to setting an execution date.

DEATH ROW INMATE RICHARD GLOSSIP'S 4TH EXECUTION DATE SET AS LAWMAKERS SEEK NEW HEARING TO PROVE INNOCENCE

Glossip, now 59, has maintained his innocence and has been scheduled to be executed three separate times, only to be spared shortly before his death sentence was carried out. He was just hours from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they had received the wrong lethal drug, a mix-up that led in part to a nearly seven-year moratorium on the death penalty in Oklahoma.

Feds move to seize Russian billionaire's $90 million private airplane

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:05:53 GMT

Federal prosecutors obtained a warrant to seize a $90 million airplane owned by Russian billionaire and politician Andrei Skoch, who has been the subject of sanctions since 2018.

Skoch, whose net worth is pegged at $6.2 billion by Forbes, is the beneficial owner of the Airbus A319-100 through multiple shell companies tied to his romantic partner, according to the warrant.

The Treasury Department originally sanctioned him in April 2018 due to his "longstanding ties to Russian organized criminal groups, including time spent leading one such enterprise."

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Treasury Department slapped him with additional sanctions for "support[ing] the Kremlin’s efforts to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity."

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Skoch has a significant stake in USM Holdings Limited, a Russian company with assets across the metals, mining, and telecoms industries, according to the warrant.

"Today’s action demonstrates that the U.S. government will be relentless in our efforts to bring to justice those that are enabling Putin’s heinous war against Ukraine," Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod said in a statement on Monday.

Skoch also owns a 324-foot, $156 million yacht that has been flagged as blocked property by the Treasury Department.

The investigation was spearheaded by Task Force KleptoCapture, the Department of Justice's interagency operation that is enforcing sweeping sanctions against the Russian economy and officials close to the Kremlin in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

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"The sanctions levied by the U.S government and the work of this task force demonstrate to these offensively wealthy oligarchs who support Russia’s military aggression that they are not untouchable, and we are dramatically impacting their way of life," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll said in a statement.

John Travolta honors Olivia Newton-John: 'My dearest Olivia'

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:04:04 GMT

John Travolta paid tribute to his "Grease" co-star Olivia Newton-John after her death was announced Monday.

"My dearest Olivia, you made all of our lives so much better," Travolta wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of the actress. "Your impact was incredible. I love you so much. We will see you down the road and we will all be together again. Yours from the moment I saw you and forever! Your Danny, your John!"

Newton-John's death was announced on her social media.

"Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer," the statement read.

"Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that any donations be made in her memory to the @onjfoundation."

Anne Heche's relationship with Ellen DeGeneres: A look back

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 20:03:55 GMT

In the wake of Anne Heche's horrific car crash, which destroyed a home and left the actress with severe burns, there is resumed interest in her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres.

The pair dated from 1997 through 2000, and did not initially go public with their romance.

Their seemingly solid relationship, bolstered by talks of having children together and getting married if the Civil Unions law passed in Vermont, came to an unexpected ending, according to friends.

A TIMELINE OF ANNE HECHE'S CAR CRASH: HOW STAR'S FIERY CRASH LANDED HER IN CRITICAL CONDITION

On Aug. 18, 2000, the couple issued a joint statement announcing they were no longer in a relationship. Just a day after the breakup announcement, Heche displayed bizarre behavior, abandoning her SUV on the road and subsequently walking 1.5 miles to a stranger's house.

The stranger, who initially let Heche into her home, grew more weary as the actress made no plans to return to her car, and called the sheriff’s department.

When the authorities showed up, the stranger told People Magazine, "Heche told them that she was 'God, and was going to take everyone back to heaven … in a spaceship.'"

Heche was taken to a hospital and released a few hours later but continued to struggle in the years ahead.

In an interview with Page Six, Heche claimed her relationship with DeGeneres made it difficult to find work. She says, "I didn’t do a studio picture for 10 years. I was fired from a $10 million picture deal and did not see the light of day in a studio picture."

She got back to work with the film "Six Days, Seven Nights," costarring Harrison Ford. And while Heche says nobody else wanted to work with her, she credits Ford for asking her to star in the film with him. Heche calls him her hero, revealing that he told her, "Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn who you’re sleeping with."

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Heche and DeGeneres have continued to stay predominately quiet about their relationship, with DeGeneres telling the Los Angeles Times just a year after their split, "She walked out the door and I haven’t spoken to her since. I don’t have the answers … I’m left with everybody else wondering what happened."

DeGeneres has not shared any comment since Heche's car crash, though Heche's other exes, including James Tupper and Thomas Jane, did share positive thoughts.

Matt Gaetz urges Jim Jordan to run for House speaker, questions McCarthy's leadership

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 19:59:47 GMT

EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Matt Gaetz is urging Rep. Jim Jordan to run for speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives if Republicans win back the majority this November.

Gaetz, R-Fla., said the Ohio Republican is not only trusted by the conservative grassroots, but could also unite the disparate factions within the House GOP.

"For my money, the best person to be speaker of the House would be Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio," Gaetz said during an interview with Fox News Digital at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas. "Our base trusts him. He's the hardest working, most talented member."

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Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, is a conservative stalwart within the House GOP. A one-time chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Jordan was a top opponent of the Republican leadership under Speaker John Boehner during the early 2010s.

After the 2018 elections, Jordan ran for House minority leader against then-GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy of California. McCarthy won the race by a large margin.

Since the contest, the GOP conference has shifted to the right under McCarthy's leadership. At the same time, McCarthy has worked to bring Jordan into the leadership fold as an adviser.

Jordan has stated previously that he would back McCarthy if Republicans retook the majority, and his office did not comment on Gaetz's CPAC comments to Fox News Digital.

Despite Jordan's support, Gaetz said he was unsold on McCarthy as speaker of the House.

"A question that I have gotten consistently at CPAC is, ‘Can we trust Kevin McCarthy to be in the battle with us and not be a valet for the lobbyists and special interests?’" he said. "I still think that's an open question."

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McCarthy, who has raised more than $100 million for GOP efforts to retake the House, is the heavy favorite for the speakership. The Californian has a strong base of support among mainline conservatives as well as moderate Republicans, who often make up the difference between having a majority or minority.

McCarthy's office did respond to requests for comment on this story.

Gaetz has previously floated the idea of former President Donald Trump being elected speaker, noting that the role does not officially require the presiding officer to be a member of the House.

"I did offer to President Trump the concept of the speakership and he had little interest in it," said Gaetz. "I think he's interested in a different job in our federal government, not speaker of the House."

Regardless of who winds up with the speaker's gavel, Gaetz said Republicans need a vision for how to govern when in the majority.

"I think we should convert every committee in the Congress to an oversight committee," he argued. "This is not time to hold hands in the warm spring rain with the Democrats and figure out if we can pass a spending bill or an infrastructure bill."

"If we don't fulfill those commitments to our voters, then we'll be wiped out in the subsequent elections. And this will all have been for naught," he added. "So I'm here to make sure we have a fighting spirit in the Republican Party, and that we deliver on those wins."

Kansas Jayhawks football looks for bounce back season as Lance Leipold enters his second season as head coach

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 19:44:15 GMT

Lance Leipold first walked into the head coach's office at Kansas, arguably the worst program in Division I football, amid terrible circumstances and during a time of the year that only made everything worse.

The Jayhawks were coming off a winless 2020 season under Les Miles, who had then resigned in ignominy amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations dating to his time at LSU. The scandal also led to the departure of athletic director Jeff Long, leaving the entire program in turmoil during a crucial recruiting period and all the way into spring practices.

Leipold never even conducted a practice with the Jayhawks until the start of fall camp last year.

So even though they proceeded to win just two games in his debut, extending their streak of losing seasons to unlucky No. 13, the point at which Leipold is starting off this fall is a whole lot better than where he stood a year ago.

"There's so many things that are different for the better," Leipold said. "We've said many times, player know the coaches, know what to expect. We still have a fair amount of new guys going through their first practice, and there's uncertainty and wandering around — Where do I go next? — everyone is understanding and we're in a much better spot."

The long-time small-college coach pauses for a moment and thinks back to last season.

"Last year, two or three weeks into training camp we were still evaluating," Leipold recalled. "We have an idea now. We still may be evaluating, but we're developing at the same time. That's a good feeling."

The challenge now is turning development into success.

KANSAS AGAIN NO. 1 SEED FOR WIDE-OPEN BIG 12 TOURNAMENT

Six coaches have failed to produce a winning season since the Jayhawks went 8-5 under Mark Mangino in 2008, and none managed more than one conference win. That includes Charlie Weis, who arrived in Lawrence flashing Super Bowl rings, and Miles, who won a national championship with the Tigers.

The 58-year-old Leipold is about substance more than style, though, and that could be exactly what the Jayhawks need to climb the Big 12 standings. He cut his teeth at his alma mater, Wisconsin-Whitewater, going 109-6 and winning six national titles in eight seasons at the Division III school, then turned around a lowly Division I program at Buffalo.

Leipold accomplished all of that by being the antithesis of so many young, hotshot coaches across major college football whose success is largely tied to their ability to recruit five-star prospects. He is a football coach in the truest sense, rather than the CEO of a corporation, and hangs his battered cap on his ability to take good players and make them great.

He'd rather be on the practice field with his hand in the dirt than poring over spreadsheets in his office.

"There's expectations, you know? There's really no gray. There's black and white," said Kansas defensive end Sam Burt, who is on his third coach after starting his career with David Beaty. "You can see he knows what he's doing. The whole coaching staff knows what it's doing. And like I said, there's no gray. It's always like this or that, if that makes sense."

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It makes perfect sense if you know Leipold's career arc.

He spent time at Doane, an NAIA school in Nebraska, and Nebraska-Omaha, whose football program no longer exists. And the two stints Leipold had at the Division I level were under two more consummate coaches: He was a graduate assistant to Wisconsin's Barry Alvarez in the early 1990s and worked with Frank Solich at Nebraska in the early 2000s.

"Where we're going, how we're doing it — that was Year 1," Leipold said. "Now I think this group has a determination about them in how they want to approach things and change the direction of this program."

There was unmistakable progress last season, highlighted by a dramatic overtime win at Texas, and a full recruiting cycle coupled with a productive spring program have only carried that momentum forward.

"It feels way different, just how we attack everything: the tempo, the pace, the excitement," Jayhawks safety Kenny Logan said. "We believe in what we’ve done this offseason. We don’t want to go through (another rebuild)."

Rather, the Jayhawks want to finish off this one.

That task continues Sept. 2, when they open their season against Tennessee Tech. Then comes back-to-back road games against Big 12 foe West Virginia and future conference rival Houston before another non-league game against Duke.

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Those four games should help to tell whether Leipold is on the right track.

"We’re not in the moral victory business and we understand that completely," Leipold said. "But we’re always looking at, whether it be individual improvement in certain things, how we’ve gone about our daily business and really how we’ve connected dots with our players about becoming better holistically, whether it be weight room or academically and better leadership, better teammates, that these things are going to stack upon themselves and help us on game day."

Joohyung Kim shoots 61 to win Wyndham Championship, now eligible for FedEx Cup playoffs

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 19:57:03 GMT

The last five weeks feels like three months to 20-year-old Joohyung "Tom" Kim, and for good reason. The South Korean kid who named himself after a cartoon train is on the fast track.

He got a rare PGA Tour start in the Scottish Open because of his standing on a Korean tour points list, hopeful of doing well enough to get a shot at the Korn Ferry Tour finals.

Now he's a PGA Tour winner who is No. 21 in the world and headed to the FedEx Cup playoffs, and he can probably count on a spot with the International team at the Presidents Cup.

All aboard with Tom the Train!

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"It's been a crazy month," Kim said.

He announced his arrival on the PGA Tour at the Wyndham Championship, where he began the tournament with a quadruple-bogey 8 and finished it with a 9-under 61 for a five-shot victory.

"I'm really, really happy for Tom," said Sungjae Im, who completed the rain-delayed third round Sunday morning with a one-shot lead and couldn't keep up with Kim, because no one could. Kim shot 27 on the front nine that left everyone in his wake.

"He's a great kid and to come out here and to win on tour as a nonmember and secure your card is really not an easy task and he achieved that," Im said.

Kim, who turned 20 in June, is the second-youngest winner on the PGA Tour since World War II. Jordan Spieth was two weeks away from turning 20 when he won 2013 John Deere Classic.

The victory gave Kim instant membership on the PGA Tour, making him eligible for the FedEx Cup playoffs that start next week. He is No. 34, assured of playing two postseason events and with a reasonable shot at getting to the finale at East Lake.

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Im had a 68 and tied for second along with John Huh (67).

Kim spent his developmental years in the Philippines and in Australia. He already had won three times on the Asian Development Tour and once in Korea before making his American debut at age 18 in the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park.

As for the name? He was a big fan as a young boy of Thomas the Tank Engine in the TV series "Thomas & Friends."

"You’re supposed to let your parents name yourself and I was like, ‘Nope, I’m to name myself Thomas.’ I loved the show as a kid. I haven’t watched it or anything, but apparently I really loved the train."

The other option — he was a big "Toy Story" fan — would have been Buzz Lightyear. That would have worked. The kid is creating quite the buzz, and he's light years ahead of others his age.

Only Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia were younger when they reached as high as No. 21 in the world ranking.

Kim finished third in the Scottish Open, the first time it was co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour, and his goal was to get enough FedEx Cup points to finish equal to the top 200 so he could earn his card through a series of Korn Ferry Tour events late in the summer.

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He earned special temporary PGA Tour membership when he made the cut at the British Open. He secured a PGA Tour card last week with a seventh-place finish in the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The stress gone, not even an opening quadruple bogey rattled him.

"It's been a five-week stretch for me, but it feels like three months," Kim said. "Yeah, it’s been a hectic month and a lot of things have changed, for sure."

He finished at 20-under 260.

It was plenty stressful for others, even those who weren't playing.

The heartbreak belonged to Justin Lower, who was poised to move into the top 125 in the FedEx Cup to reach the postseason and secure a full card for next season.

But on the final hole, Lower hit his 60-foot birdie putt a little too firm. That left him a 6-foot par putt that would have put him inside the top 125. He missed it to the right and was wiping away tears as he walked off the green.

"I don't really know what I’m thinking. It sucks to come up this short," Lower said. "Obviously had some help with the LIV guys and whatnot — I don't even know if I'm allowed to say that. But I don't know. There's positives. But right now, it just flat out sucks."

The tour has suspended players who signed on with Saudi-funded LIV Golf, and they did not count toward the top 125 in the FedEx Cup. Lower was the equivalent of No. 128 going into the final event of the regular season.

Rickie Fowler looked to be out of luck when he missed the cut on Friday at No. 123. But enough players faded on the weekend that Fowler gets to extend his season for at least another week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship next week.