A youth pastor has been sentenced to two years in federal prison after being found guilty of abusive sexual contact with a teenage girl during an Alaska Airlines flight from Burbank, California, to Seattle, Washington.
It took a jury just 90 minutes to return their verdict against Justin Baker, 41, following a three-day trial last October. Baker has been held in custody ever since while he awaited to hear his fate.
At a sentencing hearing in a Seattle courthouse, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour imposed the maximum sentence available, imprisoning Baker for two years. Once released, Baker will be registered as a sex offender and will be subject to five years of federal supervision.
During the March 14, 2024, flight, 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.
After deliberately bumping his knee into the victim 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.
“This was a calculated and predatory sexual assault on an 18-year-old girl,” commented Acting U.S. Attorney Miller following Baker’s sentencing. “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.”
The victim told the court that the assault had “shattered the trajectory of her life” and that she now suffers anxiety around airports and flying.
