Man sentenced 41 years for raping woman in east Wichita park

A Wichita man convicted of raping a jogger in Eastview Park last summer was ordered Friday to spend 41 years in prison — the maximum sentence he could receive for his crimes under Kansas law.

Benton G. Baskin, 45, was convicted by a jury in August of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and kidnapping in the June 13, 2014, attack. He was found guilty of approaching a 31-year-old woman who had gone to the park that day and forcing her off of a running path into a brushy area by knife point. There, he repeatedly assaulted her, according to the woman’s testimony at trial.

The woman, whom The Eagle is not naming because she is a victim of a sex crime, eventually pushed Baskin away and ran for help. She did not know him.

The assault took place in the middle of a Friday afternoon. The park is next to 13th and Governeour, which is adjacent to Coleman Middle School and between Woodlawn and Rock Road.

The woman stood Friday in court, trembling slightly, as she recounted details of the assault. Calling Baskin an “evil, ruthless predator” who showed no remorse, she asked Sedgwick County District Judge Terry Pullman to hand down the longest prison sentence available on each count and ordered they be served consecutively.

“Before the assault, I had always been a happy, cheerful, smiling person enjoying life and had the utmost trust in everyone around me,” the woman said. “But now I suffer from nightmares, flashbacks, am withdrawn from my peers and have to look over my shoulder every time I go out.

“I was assaulted and raped in broad daylight in a public park. This is something that no one else should ever have to go through. The jury did their job finding him guilty. Your honor, I ask that this predator, Benton Baskin, to be incarcerated for the maximum amount of time.”

Police arrested Baskin after a DNA swab he voluntarily submitted linked him to the jogger’s rape. Authorities collected the sample after someone called 911 to report a suspicious character in Eastview Park a week and a half after the attack.

Baskin, who on Friday asked for leniency, has maintained the sexual encounter was consensual. Dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and shackles, he stared down, expressionless, as his punishment was announced.

Pullman imposed a total sentence of 492 months in the case, saying the crimes were a “significant violation of people’s perception of a safe space and safe hours.”

He called Baskin’s actions “brazen, callous (and) calculated.”

“The effect of this action, I have to believe, is far beyond” the victim, Pullman said, but also affects “all women who use that park and possibly other parks.”

Baskin’s defense attorney, Gary Owens, had argued that his client should receive no more than half the sentence ultimately imposed because of his age and because his prior convictions didn’t include violent felonies or sexually motivated crimes. He also noted that perpetrators of more severe crimes — murder, for example — often get shorter prison terms than prosecutors were asking Baskin to serve.

Sedgwick County Assistant District Attorney Monika Hoyt countered by saying the attack the victim endured “is what most people would say is there worst nightmare come true.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Man sentenced 41 years for raping woman in east Wichita park."