A 42-year-old California man was hit with a two-year federal prison sentence for groping an 18-year-old woman aboard a Burbank-to-Seattle Alaska Airlines flight, prosecutors said this week.
Justin Baker was convicted of abusive sexual contact charges for the sick assault on the victim during the March 14, 2024 flight, the US Attorney for the Western District of Washington said in a release.
Baker was busted right after the plane touched down in Seattle.
“This was a calculated and predatory sexual assault on an 18-year-old girl,” acting Assistant US Attorney Teal Luthy Miller said in a statement Tuesday.
“Mr. Baker underestimated the victim’s strength in testifying, as well as the commitment we have in the Western District of Washington to hold these aircraft offenders accountable,” Miller said.
According to the feds, Baker sat in the middle seat next to the victim, who was seated up against the wall of the plane, according to the criminal complaint.
Prosecutors said he first showed the victim sexually explicit messages on his phone, then placed his jacket over the woman’s lap despite her repeated pleas to stop.
“Despite the victim saying ‘no’ and moving away when he first tried to touch her, he continued to grope her genitals over her clothing,” prosecutors said in a press release. “Then he reached her top and groped her breast. Ultimately, the victim got out of her seat to contact the flight crew.”
Even then the California creep wasn’t done, and “groped her buttocks and pulled her back down,” until she “was able to leave and report the assault.”
The woman testified at Baker’s trial that the ordeal “shattered the trajectory of her life.”
Prosecutor Grace Zoller said at Baker’s sentencing Tuesday that he “treated the victim like an object” and “dehumanized her,” leaving her suffering from severe anxiety.
Federal records show that Baker, who has been in custody since a jury convicted him on Oct. 23, 2024, is currently being held at the SEATAC Federal Detention Center in Seattle.
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