Jury convicts Iowa City woman of helping son flee country

IOWA CITY — A Johnson County jury convicted an Iowa City woman Thursday of helping her son flee the country to avoid being prosecuted for robbing and attempting to kill a woman on the University of Iowa campus in 2022.

Lima Khairi Mohammad Younes, 45, was found guilty of escape from custody, a felony, for aiding and abetting her son, Ali Younes, 20, to intentionally escape the GPS-monitored house arrest he was under as he awaited trial.

Ali Younes cut off his ankle monitor and fled to Jordan on May 6, according to authorities.

The jury deliberated over four hours Thursday following about two days of testimony.

Lima Younes faces up to five years in prison. Her sentencing is set for Sept. 21.

According to trial testimony, Lima Younes helped mislead police about the whereabouts of her son, who is charged with attempted murder, first-degree robbery and first-degree theft. Her husband, Alfred Ali Mohammad Younes, 49, faces the same charge.

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Ali Younes was accused of strangling a woman on the University of Iowa campus until she lost consciousness and then stealing her earrings, valued at $20,000, in April 2022. If convicted, he faced up to 60 years in prison.

UI police officers and others testified during the trial that Lima Younes and her husband 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 and Lima Younes left her phone at their home in Sutherland in northwest Iowa.

UI Police Detective Ian Mallory testified about tracking a GMC Arcadia that was missing from the Younes’ home after the ankle monitor was cut. He used the vehicle’s OnStar device to find it at a dealership in Omaha, Neb.

The dealer told Mallory that Lima and Alfred Younes had sold him the Arcadia 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 did not 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 saying her son was at home in Sutherland and that she and her husband were returning from Davenport.

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

According to court documents, 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 with escape from custody. His arraignment is Aug. 14.

Ali Younes couldn’t be extradited from Jordan because the United States doesn’t have an extradition treaty with that country, according to police.

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