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La Plata County man charged with sexual assault

27-year-old suspect is accused of forcing himself on a woman at knifepoint
Baty

A 27-year-old La Plata County man was formally charged Thursday for allegedly sexually assaulting his next-door neighbor, a 34-year-old La Plata County woman, at knifepoint.

The charges against Wayne Baty include several felonies, ranging from sexual assault, sexual contact without consent, sexual assault overcoming the victim’s will, burglary in the first degree and menacing. The charges also include misdemeanors: soliciting prostitution, criminal mischief and four counts of being a habitual criminal.

According to Baty’s arrest affidavit, La Plata County Sheriff’s Office deputies detained him at gunpoint July 18 southeast of Elmore’s Corner after a woman called dispatch saying her neighbor had broken into her house with a knife.

At the time he was arrested, Baty asked deputies “what was going on, and it was apparent that his speech was slurred and he was highly intoxicated.”

When Sheriff’s deputies arrived at her house, the woman told them that when Baty went to her house earlier that evening, he had shown her his prison tattoos. He left after she rebuffed his offer of $100 in return for sexual intercourse, according to the affidavit.

Minutes later, Baty returned to her home wearing two bandanas and carrying a knife. He entered the house without permission and forced himself into her bedroom, at which point he grabbed the woman, pressed the knife against her throat, threw her to the bed, cut off her clothes – slicing one of her shoulders in the process and leaving an abrasion on the other – and proceeded to grope her, according to the affidavit.

The woman told police that Baty started dragging her downstairs by the hair when her boyfriend showed up at the front door, interrupting the assault.

According to the affidavit, Baty then handed her the knife, telling her “to stab the man at the door.”

She refused, putting the knife down.

Baty snatched it back up, and he threatened to cut her again before fleeing the residence through the backdoor, she told police.

According to the affidavit, the woman said the knife was 3 to 7 inches long and possibly serrated.

Baty’s next court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 20.

Though Baty initially told law enforcement his name was “Wayne Phillips,” when deputies got a warrant to search his apartment, they found identification cards in his wallet under the name “Wayne Baty,” along with a serrated knife, a folding knife that was attached to a pair of jeans and two bandanas.

cmcallister@ durangoherald.com

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