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WILKES-BARRE — City police detectives refiled obstruction charges against two people in addition to charging two others for the alleged kidnapping of a man who claimed he was beaten in the basement of a Carlisle Street residence where the body of a woman was found buried earlier this year.
Jason Race, 43, and Faith Beamer, 40, each face charges of obstruction and preventing police from investigating a child abuse report.
Race along with Desiree K. Linnette, 43, are charged with kidnapping, terroristic threats, unlawful restraint and aggravated assault while Tafsir Ibn Harris, 30, is charged with aggravated assault and unlawful restraint.
The complex case involves an incident at 142 Carlisle St. on July 27, 2023, when city police responded to the house to investigate a reported child abuse complaint.
Police found a man with facial injuries in the area of Carey Avenue and Division Street. The man claimed he was held captive and assaulted in the basement after being accused of sexually assaulting a girl, according to court records.
The man claimed he escaped and ran away to summon help.
As officers sought to check on the girl’s welfare, Race and Beamer obstructed police saying the girl was not inside.
Race and Beamer were charged with obstructing police, and the charges were withdrawn by prosecutors in March with the pledge the case will be refiled.
After the obstruction case was withdrawn, city police detectives along with Luzerne County detectives charged Race, Beamer, Linnette, Sarai Kamalani Doyle, 24, and William Benjamin Wolfe, 54, for the torture and killing of Nicole Cuevas, 38, of Saginaw, Mich.
Cuevas’ decomposed body was found wrapped in a tarp buried in the dirt basement of the Carlisle Street residence on Feb. 28.
District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce previously said Cuevas was killed inside the residence in April 2023.
Cuevas traveled with Linnette from Michigan in February 2023, but soon wanted to return home, Sanguedolce previously said.
Cuevas was continuously beaten inside the house on allegations she sexually assaulted a child, Sanguedolce previously said.
Cuevas was handcuffed, assaulted over the course of several weeks and was killed when she attempted to escape, court records say.
Sanguedolce said Cuevas sustained a broken ankle and leg, nearly all her ribs were broken, slash and stab wounds on her arms, shoulders, torso and back, a broken hyoid bone in her neck and was missing a tooth.
Court records say Beamer used her fingers to gouge Cuevas’ eyes while being tortured.
Race, Linnette, Beamer and Harris have not been arraigned on the charges related to the July 2023, incident.
The previous owner of 142 Carlisle St., Debra J. Fox, 69, was found dead in a wooded area near Exit 1 of the North Cross Valley Expressway in Wilkes-Barre on March 26.
An autopsy was unable to reveal how Fox died as the cause and manner of death is listed as “undetermined.”
Fox was last seen in mid-January 2024.
Court records say Fox filed a petition for a protection-from abuse order against Race on Aug. 14, 2023, claiming she was starved, assaulted, shot with pellet guns, pistol whipped, denied personal hygiene products and had money stolen from her while she lived at the Carlisle Street house.