Arraignment is scheduled Tuesday for a 61-year-old man and his girlfriend, who are accused of torturing his sister and locking her in a Lancaster storage shed.
Elias Abdurahman and Sara Kebede Tadesse, 50, are both charged with one count each of false imprisonment by violence, torture, assault with a deadly weapon and dependent adult abuse, along with an allegation that they personally inflicted great bodily injury.
Tadesse appeared in court Monday but Abdurahman, who is being held on more than $1.1 million bail, did not. The court clerk said sheriff’s deputies did not provide a reason for the defendant’s absence.
The judge postponed the hearing until Tuesday so that the two could be arraigned together.
On Sept. 22, sheriff’s deputies investigating reports of screaming found 54-year-old Samia Abdurahman locked in a shed in the backyard of a house in the 45000 block of East Second Street. Prosecutors said she was frail, malnourished and had both fresh and older wounds.
The couple assaulted Samia with a cane and tortured her “for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose,” the criminal complaint alleges.
The defendants face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted as charged.
— Wire reports