Man sentenced to seven years for raping mentally ill women

A judge on Friday sentenced a 75-year-old Las Vegas, N.M., man to seven years in prison for raping three women who were living in a halfway house after they were released from the state psychiatric hospital.

Managers of the home testified during a preliminary hearing earlier this year that Benjamin Baca for years had been cruising the streets of Las Vegas in his gray Ford pickup, befriending and sexually assaulting mentally ill women.

Four women made accusations against Baca, who originally faced six counts of criminal sexual penetration, four counts of criminal sexual contact, two counts of indecent exposure and one count of kidnapping.

He pleaded guilty to the sexual assaults as part of a plea deal with the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which limited his prison exposure to between two and seven years.

District Judge Matthew Sandoval sentenced him to the maximum allowed under the plea deal, calling Baca a “dangerous person and a predator who preyed on vulnerable people,” according to Deputy District Attorney James Grayson, who prosecuted the case.

Grayson said he agreed to a plea deal in the case to keep the victims — whom he said where traumatized from having to testify during a preliminary hearing — from having to testify at trial.