A jury took just 90 minutes to find a youth pastor guilty of abusive sexual contact with a teenage girl during an Alaska Airlines flight from Burbank, California, to Seattle, following a three-day trial that wrapped up on Thursday.
Justin Baker, 41, was immediately taken back into custody following the guilty verdict and now faces the threat of up to two years in federal prison. Baker is due to be sentenced on January 21, 2025.
The jury was told that Baker was sitting in the middle seat next to the unnamed 18-year-old victim, who was hemmed into a window seat during the two-hour flight on March 14.
After deliberately bumping his knee into the victim in order to get her attention, he started to scroll through text messages on his phone until he found a conversation between him and his wife that contained sexually explicit messages in which he talked about his genitalia, oral sex and which sex positions he preferred.
Baker allegedly placed his mobile phone on his leg so that the victim could see the messages before briefly touching her thigh.
The victim moved her leg away but didn’t dissuade Baker, who draped his jacket over her lap and proceeded to start rubbing her thigh and groin under the jacket.
Court documents reveal that the victim explicitly told Baker ‘No’, telling him that she did not consent to his touching. Despite her objections, however, Baker then allegedly touched her breast over her clothing “multiple times.”
When the Captain then came on the intercom to announce that the plane would shortly be making its descent and that this was the last opportunity for passengers to use the restroom, the victim used this as an excuse to get out of her seat and escape Baker.
The victim headed straight to the galley, where she told the flight attendants what had happened. The crew then moved the victim to a different seat away from Baker and radioed ahead for the Port of Seattle Police to meet the aircraft on arrival.
After being detained, Baker admitted to showing the victim the sexually explicit messages but claimed that the victim had consented to his touching.
During the trial, Assistant US Attorney Kristine Foerster said Baker “saw the word ‘No’ as a speedbump, not a stop sign.”
The jury heard evidence from a different victim who, in 2004, was molested by Baker in a similar fashion.
