Prison for Wichita man accused of plying Tinder date with vodka, sexually assaulting her
A 26-year-old Wichita man accused of plying his Tinder date with strawberry vodka during a January 2020 car ride to his west-side home, where the woman said he then threatened her life, choked and raped her, has been sentenced to 44 months in prison.
Joe Tamez was sentenced April 1 by Sedgwick County District Judge Tyler Roush, who also ordered him to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, said Dan Dillon, spokesman for the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the case.
Tamez pleaded no contest to one count of aggravated sexual battery and one count of aggravated battery on Feb. 4. In exchange, the DA’s office dropped five other charges, including counts of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, criminal threat and battery, a February court filing shows.
The woman told police Tamez, whom she knew only by his middle name, Dustin, picked her up from her home in a black Audi on Jan. 26, 2020, and gave her liquor that he pushed her to drink during on the drive to his house, according to an arrest affidavit released by the court.
She was 20, not old enough to drink legally. She told authorities she met Tamez on the dating app Tinder two years prior and had continued contact with him via Twitter.
The woman told police she informed Tamez that “she did not want to have sex with him” but he moved her to his bed anyway, the affidavit says.
She was “too intoxicated to move” or resist, according to the affidavit. Prosecutors have alleged she was too drunk to consent to sexual activity.
Tamez then forced her to have sex, slapped her and told her he’d “kill her” if “she didn’t shut up,” the affidavit states. He also “grabbed her by the throat and strangled her,” the document states.
She ran for help and police arrested Tamez the next day, on Jan. 27, 2020, according to an Eagle report.
Tamez’s lawyer, in a Feb. 20 motion asking the judge to depart from the presumptive prison sentence, argued that Tamez deserved probation because he felt remorseful, accepted responsibility, had no prior felonies and was willing to “abide by conditions set by the Court, including the participation in programs for drug treatment.”
Roush denied the request.
