Jury convicts man in rape of jogger in Eastview Park

A Sedgwick County jury has convicted a Wichita man of sexually assaulting a jogger he snatched off a walking path at Eastview Park on a summer afternoon last year.

Benton Baskin faces prison time for the June 13, 2014, attack when he is sentenced Oct. 23 by District Judge Terry Pullman. He was found guilty as charged by a seven-man, five-woman jury shortly before noon Friday.

He was convicted of one count each of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and kidnapping.

Baskin will remain in jail while awaiting sentencing. After the verdict was read, Pullman revoked the 45-year-old’s $100,000 bond at the request of Sedgwick County Assistant District Attorney Monika Hoyt, who prosecuted the case.

Baskin, who pleaded not guilty to the accusations, said the woman and he had consensual sex beneath a tree after meeting in the park.

But the woman, in testimony Tuesday, described Baskin as a stranger who approached her on a bicycle, grabbed her and forced her off the path at knife point.

“He said, ‘I have a knife and if you don’t come with me I’m going to cut you,’” the woman said.

“I was scared to death. I was so helpless.”

The Eagle is not naming the woman because she is a victim of sexual assault. She was 31 at the time of the attack.

The woman told jurors that she first noticed Baskin looking at her while he was riding a bicycle north on Governeour, which is adjacent to Coleman Middle School and between Woodlawn and Rock Road, not long after she arrived at the park at 1:45 p.m.

According to her testimony, when he detoured to the walking path, she deflected his attempts to talk to her, saying she had no money when he asked for a dollar and that she was married when he wanted her name.

He rode away briefly, then approached her again.

“I heard the bike coming up on me really fast,” she said. Baskin, she said, jumped off the bicycle, ran up to her and grabbed her shoulders. He forced her through some brush toward a tree.

The knife was pointed toward her ribs, she said.

“He said, ‘My name is John. Now shut up, and do what I tell you,’” she said. He pushed her down and shoved the knife in the ground beside her.

The woman testified that she tried to fend off her attacker but when she resisted he threatened her with the knife. Baskin repeatedly assaulted her, she said.

When he finished, she pushed him away and ran.

“I didn’t look back because I was afraid he might be chasing me,” she said. Her testimony was broken by trembling and sobbing.

A mother who had taken her children to Eastview Park to play that day called 911. Collette Smalling testified that as she was helping her 2-year-old near her vehicle she heard someone screaming for help in the distance.

“I thought it was kids, but as I stood up I saw someone running,” Smalling said. The woman, she said, was half-clothed and screaming “‘I’ve just been raped! I’ve just been raped!’”

Baskin voluntarily submitted to a DNA swab after someone called 911 to report a suspicious character in Eastview Park a week and a half later. That linked him to the attack.

Hoyt, the prosecutor, said the woman identified Baskin in a photo lineup when she was interviewed by law enforcement. He was arrested and booked into jail on July 7, 2014, according to statements made in court and Sedgwick County Jail’s online inmate records.

Baskin’s defense attorney, Gary Owens, this week acknowledged that the DNA found on the woman belonged to Baskin. But, he argued on behalf of his client, the sex was consensual. The woman, he said, showed no signs of a specific type of injury commonly seen on rape victims.

Baskin’s sentence in the case depends largely on his prior criminal history, which will be determined and presented to the court in the coming months.

According to Kansas’ sentencing guidelines, he faces from 12 years, 3 months to more than 54 years in prison on the rape and aggravated criminal sodomy charges.

Kidnapping carries a presumptive prison sentence of 4 years, 7 months to just short of 21 years.

An aggravated sexual battery conviction can lead to a 31- to 136-month prison term.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Jury convicts man in rape of jogger in Eastview Park."