Iowa father sent to prison for helping fugitive son flee to Jordan

IOWA CITY — An Iowa man who helped his son flee to Jordan to avoid prosecution for robbing and attempting to kill a woman on the University of Iowa campus in 2022 was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison.

Alfred Ali Mohammad Younes, 49, pleaded guilty in September to escape from custody, admitting he aided his son, Ali Younes, 20, in escaping the GPS-monitored house arrest he was under before trial.

Assistant Johnson County Attorney Haley Huddleston recommended a prison term for Younes, saying his actions were a danger to the community when he helped his son avoid prosecution. Younes took the law into his own hands — as well as the right of the victim in his son’s case to be heard, Huddleston said.

Charles Paul, Younes’ lawyer, said his client was requesting probation, which is allowed for this Class D felony. Younes had no criminal history and considered “no risk” to reoffend, he said, and the crime wasn’t a violent offense. A sentence of probation would be “fair,” Paul argued.

Younes, during the hearing, declined to make a statement.

  Buy Photo

Sixth Judicial Associate District Judge Jason Burns said this crime impacted the community and Younes’ son remains at large as a fugitive. He said the appropriate sentence is the five-year prison term.

A Johnson County jury in August also found Lima Khairi Mohammad Younes, 45, Alfred’s wife and Ali’s mother, guilty of escape from custody for aiding her son to flee. She was also sentenced to five years in prison.

Ali Younes cut off his ankle monitor and fled to Jordan on May 6, according to court documents. He was charged last year with attempted murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree theft.

Ali Younes is accused of choking a woman on the UI Iowa campus until she lost consciousness and then stealing her earrings, valued at $20,000, in April 2022. The charge carries a sentence of up to 60 years in prison.

  Buy Photo

According to trial testimony, the couple helped mislead police about the whereabouts of their son.

UI police officers and others testified during the trial that Lima and Alfred Younes sold their vehicle and rented a van to take their son to Chicago so he could take an international flight to Jordan with his grandmother.

Police said they couldn’t track Ali and Alfred Younes’ phones because they were turned off. Lima Younes left her phone at their home in Sutherland, in Northwest Iowa.

UI Police Detective Ian Mallory testified about tracking a GMC Acadia that was missing from their home after the ankle monitor for their son was cut. He used the vehicle’s OnStar service to find it at an Omaha dealership.

The dealer told Mallory that Lima and Alfred Younes had sold him the Acadia for $42,000. They received a check for about $21,000 because they still owed half the loan from buying the vehicle in 2022.

The couple didn’t buy another vehicle and had arrived at the dealership in a white Chrysler Pacifica minivan, the dealer said. Police later found the couple had rented the minivan May 4.

Investigators also were able to track Alfred Younes’ cellphone after it was turned back on, and it showed the phone was traveling back to Iowa from Chicago, according to testimony.

Lima Younes also misled investigators and Ali’s probation officer by falsely saying her son was at home in Sutherland and that she and her husband were returning home from Davenport.

Investigators testified they obtained surveillance videos of Ali Younes and his grandmother in an O’Hare International Airport parking lot for international travelers, and also obtained records of them buying tickets for the flight to Jordan.

Lima Younes was arrested May 9 by UI police on a warrant with assistance from the Sioux County Sheriff’s Office and charged.

Alfred Younes also was arrested May 9 on a warrant by Omaha Police Department’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit and the Omaha Airport Authority while he was attempting to board a flight in Omaha, according to court documents. He was headed to Amman, Jordan. He was extradited to Johnson County in July and charged.

Ali Younes hasn’t been extradited from Jordan because the United States doesn’t have an extradition treaty with that country, according to police. His case remains pending.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com