A man was caught last year after a woman got out of a makeshift cell made of cinder blocks where he was holding her. He was later found guilty of kidnapping and other crimes.
Negasi Zuberi was found guilty of two counts of kidnapping, two counts of having a gun and ammunition while being a felon, two counts of having ammunition while being a felon, and one count of transporting someone for sexual behavior while being a felon. In the case in the U.S. District Court for Oregon, some papers were sealed.
Zuberi, who is 30 years old, was caught in July 2023 when a sex worker ran away from his home in Klamath Falls and called for help. The FBI says Zuberi took the woman hostage while pretending to be a police officer. She threatened her with a stun gun, handcuffed her, and put her in the back seat of her car.
She was driven about 450 miles to his rental home in Oregon. The FBI says he is accused of sexually assaulting her along the way.
Police say the woman was locked up in Zuberi’s basement in a room made of cinder blocks with a metal door that could not be opened from the inside. The FBI says she was able to get away in the end and that a driver she flagged down called 911.
Zuberi was caught in Reno, Nevada, on July 16, 2023, after he and cops fought for 45 minutes.
The next month, FBI agents who were looking into Zuberi told the public that he might be linked to other sexual attacks and that he was after sex workers. The FBI said he lived in 12 states in the past 10 years and went by the names “Sakima,” “Justin Hyche,” and “Justin Kouassi.”
Officials say that investigators found a note at Zuberi’s house that showed he had plans for more attacks. The FBI said at the time that the part of the note that said “make sure they don’t have a bunch of people in their lives” was one of the scariest parts.
The U.S. attorney’s office for Oregon says Zuberi raped and abused a woman six weeks before the woman in the cinder block cell ran away from him.
“While being held by Zuberi, his first victim observed stacked cinder blocks in his garage that he later used to construct the cell where he detained his second victim,” the prosecutor’s office wrote.
Because of a new accusation in February, a second kidnapping charge was added.
They could spend the rest of their lives in federal jail if they are found guilty of kidnapping charges.
The lawyers listed for Zuberi did not reply right away to a request for comment. Based on his court calendar, a date for his punishment does not appear to have been set.
The mother of Zuberi’s two children told NBC News that he had threatened to kill her and that he had “hit,” “restraining,” and “beating” her, leaving her with bruises.
Source: Man found guilty of kidnapping after woman escaped from cinder block cell in Oregon
