An Oregon man who kidnapped a Seattle woman and kept her in temporary custody is getting a life sentence

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – An Oregon man has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women in separate circumstances, including locking one in a cinder block cell.

Negasi Zuberi, 31, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Medford, Portland television station KGW reported. A judge found him guilty in October of kidnapping, transporting a sex offender, being a felon in possession of a weapon and attempting to break out of prison when he tried to break his cell window in August 2023.

“This is not a man who deserves to be with other people,” the victim said during the trial. “You show contempt and disregard for human life.”

The Associated Press rarely names victims of sexual assault.

“Nigasi Zuberi is a gangster who does bad things. He was preying on women,” said Assistant US Attorney Jeffrey Sweet before Zuberi was sentenced.

In July 2023, Zuberi lured a woman to a shop on Aurora Avenue in Seattle, authorities said. He told the woman he was an undercover cop, showed her his badge, pointed a Taser at her and put her in handcuffs and leg irons before putting her in the back of his car.

He then drove hundreds of miles to his home in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and locked the woman in a cell in his garage, according to the FBI. After the woman escaped after repeatedly banging on the cell door until it opened, Zuberi fled and was arrested in Reno, Nevada.

Federal authorities later linked him to a second kidnapping in May 2023, when he was convicted of kidnapping a woman outside a Klamath Falls bar. Prosecutors say he threatened her with a Taser, handcuffed her in the back of his car and sexually assaulted her.

Zuberi pleaded not guilty and continued to say that he was innocent during the sentencing hearing.

He waived his right to testify during the 11-day trial. He tried to testify on the last day of the trial but was denied because he simply waived that right.