Kidnapping suspect Negasi Zuberi tried to break out of jail: Officials

Jun 15, 2023

The man accused of kidnapping a woman who later escaped from a homemade cinderblock cell himself tried to break out of an Oregon jail this week, officials said.

The man, 29-year-old Negasi Zuberi of Klamath Falls, Oregon, was caught on Tuesday trying to break through the window of his cell at the Jackson County Jail, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Zuberi, who authorities say has also gone by several aliases, was arrested in July after the FBI and local police say he posed as an undercover police officer and kidnapped a woman from Seattle. He's accused of sexually assaulting the woman and driving her hundreds of miles to his home in Klamath Falls, where he imprisoned her in a makeshift cell in his garage. Authorities say she managed a bloodied escape by pounding on the door and walls.

The FBI said it was searching for additional victims after linking Zuberi to sexual assaults in at least four other states.

An attorney representing Zuberi, Devin Huseby, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Officials said the woman broke out of the "makeshift" cell, which was made of cinderblocks and had a metal door that had been installed backward so it couldn't be opened from the inside. There was also an exterior door, and the cell had been built to be soundproof, Klamath Falls police said in a news release earlier this month.

She banged against the door, bloodying and bruising her hands, until she managed to break welds on the door, rip a metal screen off it and crawl out.

"The victim’s focus, actions and her will to survive triggered a law enforcement response that may have actually saved many other women from a similar nightmare," Stephanie Shark, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland field office, said.

Handwritten notes in Zuberi's rental home indicated planning went into his attacks. Zuberi and some of his aliases – including Justin Joshua Hyche, Sakima Zuberi and Justin Kouassi – have a history of assault and abuse allegations.

The FBI said investigators believe Zuberi has used different methods to "gain control" of victims, including drugging their drinks, impersonating law enforcement officers and soliciting sex workers before "violently sexually assaulting them."

Some of the assaults were filmed to make them appear consensual, and Zuberi would threaten women with retaliation if they reported the assaults to police, the FBI said.

"Sadly, we believe there are more victims," Shark said.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said Zuberi is being charged with second-degree attempted escape and first-degree disorderly conduct.

A maintenance worker outside the building heard a "suspicious noise" coming from one of the cells, and alerted deputies on Tuesday afternoon at about 12:45 p.m., the sheriff's office said.

Deputies found Zuberi "standing on his bunk bed near a chipped window in his cell." They also found an "improvised tool" they believe he used to damage the window during a search of the cell.

The window was made of reinforced glass and Zuberi was only able to damage the interior layer, the sheriff's office said. He was then moved to another cell with no exterior windows.