Iowa City, Iowa — A police lieutenant testified Tuesday that the Sutherland mother of a man charged with attempting to rob and kill a woman last year on the University of Iowa campus helped sell the family vehicle before taking her son to a Chicago airport to skip the country — a week before his trial was set to start in Johnson County.
UI police Lt. Travis Tyrrell said police were alerted that the GPS ankle monitor of 20-year-old Ali Younes had been cut May 6, 2023, in O’Brien County, where he lived with his parents, Lima Younes, who is on trial this week, and Alfred Younes, who is charged separately in the case.
Lima Younes is charged with escape from custody, a felony. She is accused of aiding and abetting her son to intentionally escape the GPS-monitored house arrest. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison. The trial is expected to last all week.
When authorities arrived on May 6th in Sutherland to check on the alert, no one was home and the family’s vehicle, a GMC Arcadia, was missing.
Tyrrell, the only witness called Tuesday following jury selection, said investigators later found the Arcadia had been sold to a dealership in Omaha, by Lima and Alfred Younes. Police received surveillance video showing that the family instead was driving a rented white Chrysler Pacifica van.
Police say Lima and Alfred Younes, cut off Ali’s GPS-monitoring ankle bracelet while he was under house arrest in O’Brien County and drove him to Chicago, where he flew to Jordan.
Alfred and Lima Younes were both arrested on May 9th. Alfred was taken into custody while attempting to board a flight at the Omaha airport; Lima Younes was arrested in Orange City.
Ali Younes remains a fugitive because Jordan doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States. Tyrrell, under cross-exam, said he was allowed to live in Sutherland with an ankle monitor while on house arrest.
According to a criminal complaint, Ali Younes on April 25, 2022, allegedly followed a woman on foot, tackled her near the UI Art Building West, strangled her until she lost consciousness, and stole her earrings valued at $20,000. He was facing trial on attempted murder, first-degree robbery, and first-degree theft charges.
Story courtesy The Gazette, Cedar Rapids. Click here for the original story, which includes more details about the case.
