A former Sacramento police officer who has been convicted of raping a 75-year-old stroke victim in her apartment has now been sentenced to life in prison.
He was convicted in July of nine charges relating to the case, including rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery and burglary.
On Tuesday, Gary Dale Baker was sentenced to 62 years to life, meaning that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars, a spokeswoman for Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said.
The woman, now 77, was recovering from a stroke in a senior living complex in South Sacramento when the attacks began, prosecutors said.
She struggled to communicate to her family what had happened, and initially, even though DNA evidence confirmed the rape, investigators were not able to link it to any known suspects, prosecutors said.
But in late 2012, after Baker attempted a third assault, a Sacramento police detective suggested that the woman’s family install a motion-activated camera.
When Baker came back again, police officers reviewing the footage immediately recognized him. Baker, who was then an active officer on the Sacramento police force, was arrested and fired from the department.
‘You tarnished the badge for police officers everywhere,’ Sacramento Superior Court Judge Ernest Sawtelle said as he sentenced Baker, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported on Wednesday. ‘For your crimes, you will be sentenced to life in prison.’
Sacramento County jail records show that Baker remained in custody on Wednesday, with no listed release date. A request by his attorneys for a new trial was denied on Tuesday, records show.
Read More: Life sentence for ex-Sacramento cop in rape case
