Serial Rapist Gets 107 Years in Prison

Originally posted at 12:29 p.m. May 23, 2014. Edited with new details. 

By PAUL ANDERSON
City News Service

A 31-year-old mechanic convicted of twice raping an Irvine woman and trying to rape a Newport Beach woman after breaking into their homes was sentenced today to 107 years to life in prison.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson said Travis Dewayne Batten Jr., 32, of Irvine,  carried out his attacks with "planning, sophistication and professionalism.

Batten was convicted in March for carrying out the attacks, which date back to 2005.

"You took from these victims something incredibly sacred to them, their right to be safe in their own home," she told the defendant, who said said "poses an immense danger to the community."

Defense attorney Peter Schlueter objected to the judge's decision to make Batten serve his punishment on each count consecutively, arguing that all or most of the counts should be served concurrently.

Hanson disagreed and also ordered the defendant to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Batten, a former mechanic at Fletcher Jones Motorcars in Newport Beach, was convicted of two counts of rape and one count each of kidnapping to commit rape, assault with intent to commit rape, digital penetration, sodomy, and assault with intent to commit rape during a residential burglary.

Jurors also found true sentencing enhancements for committing sexual offenses during a burglary and tying up or binding a person.

Charges involving a third woman were dismissed before trial because she had moved back to Japan and did not want to return to Orange County to testify, according to Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky.

The sexual assaults, which date back to 2005, stumped Irvine and Newport Beach police until Batten's car was spotted around an Irvine apartment complex where there had been several reports of peeping, Bokosky said.

Police put Batten under surveillance, but could not make a case against him without his DNA, the prosecutor said.

Irvine police pulled Batten over in July 2011 for having tinted car windows and convinced him to voluntarily blow into a straw that tests drivers for alcohol, Bokosky said. From there, investigators were able to link his DNA to evidence collected from the victims, the prosecutor said.

The mask-wearing defendant broke into the homes of his victims and watched them before he attacked, Bokosky said.

Batten burglarized the Newport Beach victim's home while she was away on May 20, 2005, Bokosky said. When the 40-year-old woman got home from the gym that night, he tackled her and forced her into her bedroom, where he taped up her hands and mouth and molested her, Bokosky said.

Batten stopped short of raping the woman when he broke his hand punching her twice in the head, the prosecutor said.

About 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2006, Batten broke into the Irvine apartment of a 21-year-old woman as she showered, Bokosky said. When she got out of the shower and answered her cell phone, Batten jumped out from a hallway, tackled her, tied her up and raped her twice before fleeing, Bokosky said.

A then-24-year-old woman was raped in the same Irvine apartment complex on July 8, 2010, but she did not wish to testify in the trial, Bokosky said.

Police found videos on an external hard drive Batten took of women studying, showering, watching TV and other mundane activities, the prosecutor said.