Serial rapist found guilty of holding woman hostage in soundproof dungeon while wife and children were at home

A man has been convicted of kidnapping and raping two women, including holding one of his victims hostage in a soundproof concrete block 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 illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition as a previously convicted felon, according to a statement from the Office of the Attorney General Oregon district attorney on Friday.

If convicted, he faces life in prison.

Zuberi, who operated under three separate names – “Sakima,” “Justin Hyche” and “Justin Kouassi” – and lived in ten different states, detailed his chilling plans in a collection of writings and drawings in a booklet titled “Operation Take Over ‘. ” his trial heard.

One of his victims claimed Zuberi told her his plan was to force women to have his children so he could “raise an army.”

According to the FBI, on July 15, 2023, the serial rapist kidnapped a woman who worked as a prostitute in Seattle after posing as a police officer.

The father of two pointed a Taser at her and chained the victim in handcuffs and leg irons before bundling her into the backseat of his car and driving her 450 miles back to his home in Klamath Falls. Zuberi allegedly made several stops to sexually assault the victim.

The woman was then locked in a dungeon that Zuberi purposefully built in the garage of his home on North Eldorado Avenue.

According to him, his wife and children were at home the entire time Law and crime.

The makeshift cell made of concrete blocks was accessed through a metal door that could only be opened from the outside, according to the victim’s description, according to the complaint.

After a brief sleep, the woman woke up with a grim realization: “She would probably die if she didn’t try to escape,” the complaint said.

The woman began punching the door with her hands until they were bloody, but eventually broke through, according to a statement from Klamath Falls police last August.

As she escaped, she grabbed a gun from Zuberi’s vehicle before flagging down a passing motorist who called 911, the district attorney’s office said.

Reno Police Department and Nevada State Patrol officers traced the perpetrator to a Walmart parking lot in South Reno, Nevada on July 16, 2023.

He was arrested after a 45-minute standoff during which he cut himself with a knife and “bleeded profusely,” according to the complaint.

Officers discovered the makeshift dungeon during a search of Zuberi’s property.

“Leave the phone at home. Make sure they don’t have a lot of people in their lives. You don’t want any investigation,” read a handwritten note found in the search.

“Dig a hole straight down, 100 feet away,” said another note next to a diagram.

The FBI praised the woman for “her quick thinking and will to survive” who “may have saved other women from a similar nightmare,” according to a statement issued less than a month after Zuberi’s arrest.

He was charged by a Medford grand jury on August 2, 2023, with kidnapping and transporting a victim with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

While investigating the first victim, the FBI discovered another victim six weeks before the July 15 kidnapping.

Zuberi approached a woman at a bar in Klamath Falls in honor of Cinco de Mayo who was stranded without a ride on May 6, 2023. Zuberi offered to drive her to a friend’s house before tying the women up by her wrists and ankles, according to the superseding indictment.

After the victim refused to have sex with Zuberi, he raped her several times, which he recorded, prosecutors said. “Your body will never be yours alone again,” Zuberi said on the tape, according to the 22-year-old victim’s testimony in a Medford courthouse last Wednesday.

The victim saw a pile of concrete blocks in Zuberi’s garage, which would later be turned into the dungeon where the other victim was being held.

Zuberi eventually released the victim, saying that if she told police, he would kill her family and release the tape.

“I really thought I was going to die,” the witness told jurors.

On February 15, 2024, a second kidnapping charge and charges of illegally possessing firearms, ammunition and attempting to escape were added, replacing the charge.

The FBI said last August that it had linked Zuberi to other violent sexual assaults in at least four states. “There could be more,” the agency warned at the time.