A federal jury in Oregon found a man guilty of kidnapping and raping two women. They said he held one of them in a homemade cell in his garage while his wife and child were inside the house.
Positive Zuberi, 30, was found guilty of kidnapping, transporting a victim for sexual behavior that was illegal, and having a gun and ammunition while being a convicted felon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon said Friday.
According to the police, the suspect has lived in at least 10 states in the last 10 years and has gone by different names, such as “Sakima,” “Justin Hyche,” and “Justin Kouassi.”
A woman from Washington State led police to the defendant’s old cell, which was at a house in Klamath Falls, which is close to the border between Oregon and California.
The defendant was then arrested. But even though she may be the last person who has been accused, police don’t think she’s the first by any means.
In a news release, Stephanie Shark, assistant special agent in charge at the FBI Portland Field Office, said, “While she may have helped protect future victims, we have now linked Zuberi to additional violent sexual assaults in at least four states, and there could be more.”
Police say that Zuberi approached the woman in question in Seattle on July 15, 2023, saying that he was looking to buy sex.
Once the man who was going to kidnap the woman had her alone, he claimed to be an undercover police officer and arrested her by standing over her with a Taser-like device and putting her in handcuffs and leg irons.
The woman said that Zuberi then put her in the back of his car and raped her while driving her 450 miles back to the cell that was built in the Klamath Falls garage.
Law&Crime got a copy of the federal criminal complaint that was made in the case and says that the woman went on to say that the makeshift cell had a metal door that could only be opened from the outside.
The document says that Zuberi left at one point, telling the woman that he had to go “do paperwork.”
The complaint says, “[The woman] briefly slept and awoke to realize that she would likely die if she did not attempt to escape.” “[She] hit the door over and over and was able to break it open and get out of the room.”
Once she was outside the cell, she saw Zuberi’s car sitting in the garage. She opened the door, saw the gun, took it, and ran away. She asked a passing driver for help, and that person called 911.
The woman claims that she climbed over Zuberi’s wooden fence to get away, and the cops noticed blood on the fence, according to the complaint.
The police then talked to neighbors and Zuberi’s wife, looked through different records to make sure they were who they said they were, and got a search warrant for the house’s interior.
The lawsuit says that’s where the makeshift cell and a notebook with a disturbing plan were found by the police.
The scribbled note says, “Operation Take Over.” “Do not bring your phone with you.” Make sure they don’t have a lot of people in their life. The police shouldn’t look into anything.
It looks like a second page explains how to get rid of bodies: “Make a hole 100 feet deep and straight down.”
It says in the lawsuit that police later used GPS to find the defendant in a Walmart parking lot in Reno, Nevada.
After a standoff in which he is said to have cut himself and started to bleed “profusely,” Zuberi finally gave himself up to the police.
The FBI said in a department-wide information page that Sakima has many ways to control his victims, such as giving them drugs in their drinks, pretending to be a police officer, or hiring sex workers and then sexually attacking them violently.
“Some of the encounters may have been filmed to make it look like the assault was voluntary.” The victims are warned that they will be hurt if they call the cops.
The police say that Zuberi has lived in at least California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Florida, New York, New Jersey, Alabama, and Nevada since August 2016.
Over the course of about eight years, from 2016 to 2023, he is thought to have sexually attacked many women, mostly sex workers and roommates.
In a new indictment that was brought in February, agents described a horrible kidnapping and sexual assault that happened about six weeks before what happened in Seattle.
According to the lawsuit, Zuberi went up to a woman outside of a Klamath Falls bar who was lost and didn’t have a ride.
He walked with her while she looked for friends, and the next thing she knew, she was in his car, “not knowing how she got there.” He told her he was taking her to her friend’s house, but he ended up taking her back to his house.
She tried to get out of the car, but he sped up. It said that he drove to a remote area, pulled over, and used a Taser on her. He then bound her wrists and legs together.
He then drove home and locked her in the car in the garage, which was next to a pile of cinderblocks that would be used to build the cell. After that, Zuberi asked her to have sex. No, she said.
“I’m in the back of your car handcuffed.” I need to leave. This is not fine. The lawsuit says she said, “You can’t just take people.”
He raped her more than once. He took a picture of her ID and told her he would kill her and her family if she called the police. Zuberi also said that he would use her as a shield if the cops came after him. He finally let her go after the victim finally talked him down.
The accusation also said that Zuberi wanted to “raise an Army” by making several women have his children against their will.
If Zuberi is found guilty, he will spend the rest of his life in jail.
