A man was recently sentenced to life in federal prison after being convicted by a jury for kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women. The man also locked one of his victims in a cinder block cell.
In a recent press release, the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon announced that 31-year-old Negasi Zuberi was “sentenced to life in federal prison” for “kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women, and holding one in a cell he constructed in his garage.”
Court documents claim that Zuberi “posed as a police officer and used a taser and handcuffs to detain his victim in the backseat of his vehicle” on July 15, 2023, in Seattle, Washington. The documents show that Zuberi transported his victim roughly 450 miles to his home in Klamath Falls, Oregon. During the process of transporting the female victim to his home, the 31-year-old sexually assaulted her.
“At his residence, the victim was moved from his vehicle into a cell he had constructed in his garage,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon said. “The woman repeatedly banged on the cell door until it broke open and she escaped.”
After escaping from the cell, the victim was able to retrieve a handgun from Zuberi’s vehicle, flee from the residence, and obtain the help of a passing motorist who contacted the police, according to court documents.
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Zuberi was arrested in Reno, Nevada, on July 16, 2023, by Nevada State Patrol officers and Reno Police officers.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon noted that during an investigation into Zuberi’s crimes, “federal agents discovered that approximately six weeks prior to the kidnapping in Seattle, on May 6, 2023, Zuberi kidnapped and sexually assaulted another victim.”
“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 United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon added.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon, a federal jury determined that Zuberi was guilty of all the charges against him on October 18, 2024.
“There is no place in civil society for this type of terrifying violence,” U.S. Attorney Natalie Wight said in the recent press release. “I sincerely hope Zuberi’s life sentence will bring some measure of comfort to his victims. Their courage and perseverance are an inspiration to us all.”
According to The Associated Press, prior to Zuberi’s sentencing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffery Sweet described Zuberi as “a serial predator who committed acts of evil” and “hunted women.”
Source: American Military News
