A 29-year-old Klamath Falls man is accused of locking a woman inside this cell after kidnapping her from Seattle, according to the FBI.

A makeshift cinderblock cell in the garage of Negasi Zuberi's home in Klamath Falls, according to the FBI.

The woman was able to escape from the cell by repeatedly beating on a door and ripping through a screen with her hands until they bled, according to authorities.

FBI and Klamath Falls police said they found this cinderblock cell in the garage of Negasi Zuberi's home in Klamath Falls, where a woman he's accused of kidnapping, shackling and sexually assaulting had escaped from on July 15, 2023.

FBI and Klamath Falls police said they found this cinderblock cell in the garage of Negasi Zuberi's home in Klamath Falls, where a woman he's accused of kidnapping, shackling and sexually assaulting had escaped from on July 15, 2023.

Negasi Zuberi, in a current photo on left, and in an earlier photo, on right.

Police raided Negasi Zuberi's home in Klamath Falls with a search warrant in July and recovered handwritten notes and a cinderblock cell in his garage, according to an affidavit.

Police raided Negasi Zuberi's home in Klamath Falls with a search warrant in July and recovered handwritten notes and a cinderblock cell in his garage, according to an affidavit.

FBI asks public for help to identify other potential victims in the multi-state kidnapping and sexual assault case.

“Some cases alarm even the most seasoned investigators,” said Stephanie Shark, Oregon's assistant FBI special agent in charge, adding that Zuberi’s case is “that kind of case.”

The Washington woman had been locked in the cell, lit by a single overhead light bulb, for “at least a couple of hours” before she was able to rip through a screen on the cell and crawl through a small space, Klamath Falls Police Capt. Rob Reynolds said. “If she didn’t do what she did, we wouldn’t be here today,” he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Lichvarcik, the prosecutor who oversees the Oregon U.S. Attorney’s Medford and Eugene offices, said U.S. Marshals are working to bring Negas Zuberi back to Oregon, where he’ll face prosecution in federal court in Medford.

Oregon Senior Assistant Attorney General John Casalino, who is serving as interim Klamath Falls District Attorney, urged the public's help to identify other potential victims in the case.

Accused kidnapper Negasi Zuberi has been ordered to have no direct contact with the mother of his children without supervision after he divulged some of the names of his alleged victims in calls to her and urged her to create a public video calling them liars.

U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane said Zuberi’s calls to Alycia Westfall were “quite frankly, frightening,” in that he sounded “desperate to lash out at these victims” and his actions violated a protective order shielding the women’s names.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sweet called Zuberi’s actions a “flagrant violation” of the protective order, saying it was clear from his jail calls that his aim was “to harass, embarrass, exactly the kind of conduct that the protective order is designed to protect the victims from.”

Zuberi told the judge he did not understand the terms of the protective order.

Zuberi’s jail calls to Westfall were blocked after his disclosures on a phone call in late June were discovered, according to Sweet. Once blocked, Zuberi engaged in a three-way call with his mom that had Westfall patched into the line, the prosecutor said.

“My mom just did the three-way call,” Zuberi blurted out during the court hearing held by phone. “I never asked her to. I never asked her to do it.”

Attorney Amy E. Potter, one of Zuberi’s defense lawyers, said Zuberi subsequently instructed Westfall not to make any videos. “He tried to walk it back. So we’re not aware of any video having been made,” she said.

The judge ordered that Zuberi no longer have any private contact via phone, email or mail with Westfall and that any contact only be allowed in the presence of a member of his defense team.

“It’s clear that you are encouraging somebody to harass, if not tamper with, the witnesses in this case,” McShane said. “I’m concerned greatly about that.”

Zuberi, 30, has pleaded not guilty to an indictment that charges him with two counts of kidnapping, two counts of being a felon in possession of guns and ammunition, two counts of being a felon with ammunition and one count each of transportation for criminal sexual activity. A trial is set for October.

Zuberi is accused of abducting a woman from Seattle in July 2023, driving her to Klamath Falls and sexually assaulting her during the drive, then imprisoning her in a makeshift cinder-block cell in his home before she managed to escape by beating on a metal screen security door and ripping through it with her hands, leaving her hands bloodied, according to FBI agent Travis Gluesenkamp.

She ran out a garage access door, climbed over a five-foot-high fence and ran into the street, screaming for help. A motorist stopped and called 911, the agent has testified.

Zuberi was subsequently charged with kidnapping another woman outside a local bar, holding her in a car in his garage for 12 hours and sexually assaulting her in May 2023.

He has a prior assault conviction from 2021 after he was found to have solicited sex from a 16-year-old girl and then beat her in a remote area of Alameda County, California, according to court records.

-- Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X @maxoregonian, or on LinkedIn.

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