A man arrested last year after a woman escaped from a makeshift concrete block cell where she was being held has been found guilty of kidnapping and other crimes.
According to the jury’s verdict, Negashi Zuberi was found guilty of two counts of kidnapping, two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, two counts of being a felon in possession of ammunition, and one count of transportation for criminal sexual conduct. . shape. Many documents in the case in U.S. District Court for Oregon have been sealed.
Zuberi, 30, was arrested in July 2023 after a sex worker fled her home in Klamath Falls and called for help. According to the FBI, Zuberi posed as an undercover agent, kidnapped the woman, threatened her with a stun gun, handcuffed her and forced her to sit in the back seat of his car.
According to the FBI, the man is accused of driving her about 450 miles to a rental home in Oregon, stopping along the way and sexually assaulting her.
Officials said the woman was kept in Zuberi’s garage in a room made of concrete blocks with a metal door that couldn’t be opened from the inside. She was eventually able to flee and the reporting driver called 911, the FBI said.
Zuberi was arrested in Reno, Nevada on July 16, 2023, after a 45-minute standoff with police.
The following month, FBI agents investigating Zuberi told the public that Zuberi may have been involved in other sexual assaults and accused him of targeting sex workers. The FBI said the suspect had lived in 12 states over the past 10 years and used the aliases “Sakima,” “Justin Heish,” and “Justin Quassi.”
Investigators found notes in Zuberi’s home indicating he had plans for other assaults, officials said. The FBI said at the time that one of the most “chilling” aspects of the memo was that it said “to be careful not to have large numbers of people in their lives.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon, Zuberi kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman in a cinder block cell six weeks before she escaped.
“While being restrained by Zuberi, the first victim witnessed cinder blocks being piled up in his garage, which he later used to construct a cell to hold the second victim,” the prosecutor’s office said. said.
A superseded indictment in February added a second kidnapping charge.
Kidnapping is the most serious conviction and carries a maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
Lawyers named for Zuberi did not respond to requests for comment. A sentencing date does not appear to be scheduled based on his court record.
NBC News previously reported that the mother of Zuberi’s two children claimed that Zuberi threatened to kill her and that she suffered bruises from Zuberi’s “hitting, restraining, and punching.” Reported.
