A 39-year-old skilled rock climber was discovered responsible by a federal jury for the aggravated sexual assault of a lady in Yosemite Nationwide Park.

Charles Barrett was convicted of repeatedly raping a lady in August 2016 whereas he labored and lived on the nationwide park, the U.S. attorney’s office announced in a news release. A jury reached a unanimous choice Tuesday after a seven-day trial in Sacramento federal court docket, discovering Barrett responsible of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one depend of abusive sexual contact.

For the document:

2:58 p.m. Feb. 17, 2024An earlier model of this text misspelled Charles Barrett’s final title as Barret.

He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Might 21 and faces a most penalty of life in jail and a $250,000 positive, in response to the U.S. lawyer’s workplace.

In an e-mail, Barrett‘s lawyer Timothy Patrick Hennessy relayed a message from his consumer that mentioned, “I’ve been wrongly convicted. I’ll proceed to battle to clear my title.”

Prosecutors mentioned Barrett would journey throughout the nation to pursue mountaineering, visiting totally different areas based mostly on the season. Barrett‘s protection attorneys mentioned he was a sponsored climber and well-known within the rock-climbing neighborhood.

The federal government’s case described Barrett as aggressive and violent towards his former companions and others.

Mono County Sheriff’s Workplace reserving photograph of Charles Barrett from Jan. 7, 2022.

(Mono County Sheriff’s Workplace)

On the evening of the assault, he invited his sufferer to look at a meteor bathe in a distant a part of the park, the place he strangled and raped her, in response to court docket paperwork.

Out of worry of additional hurt, she didn’t attempt to flee and was repeatedly sexually assaulted over that weekend, in response to prosecutors.

After the lady left the park. , Barrett later informed her in a textual content message that he wished to see her once more. However she informed him that he had raped her and he or she by no means wished to see him . Barrett denied raping the lady and wrote in a later message, “Can we be mates? I miss you.”

She replied, “I discover it arduous to be mates with guys who rape me.”

He continued to message her concerning the assault, in response to prosecutors, however she didn’t report the incident till April 2020. Inside days of her going to police, she began to obtain mysterious textual content messages and telephone calls from an unknown quantity, as if Barrett knew she had spoken to authorities, court docket paperwork present.

In a separate string of textual content messages, Barrett wrote to a number of mates that he deliberate to kill the dual daughters of a ranger who had beforehand stopped him for driving below the affect “as a result of [the ranger] ruined [his] life,” in response to court docket paperwork.

He additionally informed his mates that he had a .44 magnum and a .45-caliber firearm. He then wrote to his mates that he would “die along with her,” but it surely was unclear whom he was referring to after which mentioned he was going to go to jail for the remainder of his life and he had nothing to reside for, court docket information present. It wasn’t till years later that Barrett admitted to investigators that he was afraid to face jail time if his sufferer informed authorities concerning the rape.

A couple of month after the assault, he retreated into the woods within the Tuolumne Meadows portion of Yosemite and was threatening to take his personal life when he was taken into custody, a federal agent testified. Barrett informed officers he had loaded firearms and refused to come back out of the woods, however he was ultimately taken to a medical heart in Fresno and positioned on a psychiatric maintain for analysis, in response to court docket information.

On the time, authorities weren’t conscious of the sexual assault. Barrett was later launched.

Throughout their investigation, federal brokers realized that Barrett stalked his assault sufferer and unfold false details about her at a restaurant the place she was looking for work in 2019. Barrett additionally took to Instagram round that point and in contrast himself to Johnny Depp, claiming he would sue his victims for defamation of character, in response to court docket information.

Barrett was arrested in August 2022 in Mammoth Lakes. He was repeatedly labeled a flight danger and a hazard to his victims by the federal government’s attorneys.

Throughout his trial, jurors listened to testimony from three different ladies who mentioned that Barrett sexually assaulted them in an analogous method, however on account of jurisdictional challenges these incidents weren’t a part of the prosecution’s case in opposition to him within the Japanese District of California.

“This defendant used his renown and bodily presence as a rock climber to lure and intimidate victims who had been a part of the rock-climbing neighborhood. His violent sexual assaults had been devastating to the victims, whom he later threatened within the lead-up to trial,” U.S. Atty. Phillip Talbert mentioned in an announcement.

The Occasions usually doesn’t publish the names of sexual assault victims except they arrive forth publicly.

Throughout a jailhouse name with a good friend in October 2022, Barrett mentioned that one thing would occur to the victims and anybody else he believed harmed him.

His good friend mentioned, “Yeah, effectively don’t say stuff like that, that’s gonna get you in hassle instantly and extra so and make everybody consider that you’re able to the issues you might be accused of. So that you principally can’t suppose like that.”

Barrett replied, “Properly, if I don’t get out of right here I acquired folks in right here that I made contact with as a result of they f— put me in right here with murderers.”

Throughout one other jail name, Barrett and a good friend talked about forging one of many sufferer’s signatures on a observe that would undermine her claims in opposition to him, prosecutors mentioned.


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