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A man has been convicted of kidnapping and raping two women, including holding one of the victims hostage in a soundproof cinderblock cell while his wife and child were at home.
Negasi Zuberi, 30, of Klamath Falls, Oregon, was convicted of two counts of kidnapping, transporting a victim for criminal sexual activity and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition as a felon prior to his conviction, according to a statement from the Oregon District Attorney’s office. .
He faces up to life in prison at his sentencing.
Zuberi, who operates under three separate aliases – “Sakima,” “Justin Hyche,” and “Justin Kouassi” – and lives in 10 different countries, described the exciting plan in a collection of writings and drawings in a booklet titled “Operation Take over,” the trial heard.
One of the victims claimed that Zuberi told them that his plan was to force women to have children so that he could “raise an army.”
The serial rapist kidnapped a woman who worked as a prostitute in Seattle after becoming a police officer on July 15, 2023, according to the FBI.
Pointing a taser at him, the father-of-two shackled the victim in handcuffs and leg irons before bundling him into the back seat of his car and driving him 450 miles back to his place in Klamath Falls. Zuberi is said to have made several stops to attack the victim.
The woman was then locked in a dungeon that Zuberi built on purpose in the garage of his home on North Eldorado Avenue.
All the while, his wife and children were at home, according to him Law and Crime.
The makeshift cinderblock cell is accessed through a metal door that can only be opened from the outside, according to the victim’s description of the criminal complaint.
After a brief nap, the woman awoke with a clear realization — “she was going to die if she didn’t try to escape,” according to the complaint.
The woman started beating on the door with her hands until they were bleeding but eventually broke through, according to a statement from the Klamath Falls Police Department in August of last year.
As he fled, he grabbed a handgun from Zuberi’s vehicle before flagging down a passing motorist who called 911, according to the DA’s office.
Reno Police Department and Nevada State Patrol officers track a suspect into a Walmart parking lot in South Reno, Nevada, on July 16, 2023.
He was arrested after a 45-minute standoff that saw him cut himself with a knife and bleed “profusely,” the complaint said.
Officers discovered a makeshift dungeon while searching Zuberi’s property.
“Leave the phone at home. Make sure he doesn’t have a lot of ppl in his life. You don’t want that type of investigation,” a handwritten note found in the search read.
“Dig the hole straight down 100ft,” another note said along with the diagram.
The FBI praised the woman for her “quick thinking and will to life” which “may have saved other women from the same nightmare,” according to a statement made less than a month after Zuberi’s arrest.
He was charged with kidnapping and transporting a victim with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity by a Medford grand jury on August 2, 2023.
While investigating the first victim, the FBI found another victim six weeks before the July 15 abduction.
Zuberi approached a woman at a Klamath Falls bar celebrating Cinco de Mayo stranded without a ride on May 6, 2023. Zuberi offered to drive her to a friend’s house before binding the woman by the wrists and ankles, according to the amended indictment.
After the victim refused to have sex with Zuberi, he raped her several times which was recorded, prosecutors said. “Your body will never be yours again,” Zuberi said on the recording, according to the victim’s testimony 22 years ago in a Medford court.
The victim saw a pile of cinderblocks in Zuberi’s garage that would later be turned into a dungeon where other victims were held.
Zuberi eventually released the victim and said he told police he was going to kill his family and released the tape.
“I really thought I was going to die,” the witness told jurors.
On February 15, 2024, a second count of kidnapping and charges of illegal possession of firearms, ammunition, and attempted escape were added to the superseding indictment.
The FBI said last August that it has linked Zuberi to other violent sexual assaults in at least four states. “There may be more,” the bureau warned at the time.
