Charles Barrett, convicted of raping a woman three times during a weekend at Yosemite National Park in August 2016, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in California. (Inset of Barnett via Mono Sheriff’s Office; Image of Yosemite in 2019 via Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
A federal judge Tuesday sentenced a professional rock climber to life in prison after his conviction for aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact that occurred in 2016 at Yosemite National Park.
Charles Barrett, 40, raped a woman three separate times over a weekend at the park, prosecutors said. A jury convicted him in February after the woman, along with three other victims, testified Barnett had sexually assaulted them over the years. Barnett has a “long history of sexual violence,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California Phillip A. Talbert.
“He used his status as a prominent climber to assault women in the rock-climbing community, and when his victims began to tell, Barrett responded by lashing out publicly with threats and intimidation. This case is a testament to the courage of the victims who reported these crimes,” Talbert said in a statement.
In the days leading up to his sentence, Barnett’s jail calls revealed he had no remorse for the crimes in which he was convicted. He cast himself as a “victim of a false persecution.” He allegedly called the victims’ version of events that led to his conviction as “wild” and “crazy” and said the trial was just “random girls saying whatever they wanted,” a supplemental sentencing report said.
During a May 13 phone call with his uncle, Barnett read a portion of a book he wrote in which he claimed his victims were setting back the #MeToo movement. They are “single handedly setting back the work of the people, their families, their friends, who are working tirelessly to have a voice as actual victims and for justice to be served,” he reportedly wrote.
Barnett also claimed his case was a conspiracy because members of National Park Service “have it out for me,” the report said.
“Barrett’s jail calls continue to show a complete lack of remorse and a mentality of victimhood that cannot be rehabilitated,” prosecutors wrote.
According to court documents, the victim, identified in court documents as K.G., met Barrett during a weekend of hiking in August 2016. She was 19 years old at the time. On Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, Barnett forcibly raped and strangled the victim to the “point that she feared death,” prosecutors said. After the rape, the victim’s strategy was to “get to Monday as unscathed as possible.” However the next day, a Sunday, Barnett raped her on two separate occasions including once in the shower.
Following her return home, she reportedly confronted Barrett about the assaults to which he responded that she “liked it.” Over the ensuing years, Barnett continued to harass the victim, saying he knew her whereabouts and tried to prevent her from getting a job. He also accused the woman’s then boyfriend of slashing his tires and she continued to receive random hang up calls from burner phones, according to prosecutors.
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“Barrett also posted publicly on his social media, comparing himself to Johnny Depp and threatening [the victims] with lawsuits,” prosecutors wrote.
The victim reported the assaults to the National Park Service in 2020 and federal prosecutors charged him in 2022.
The three other victims testified at his trial that he raped them in 2010, 2015 and 2016. After one of the alleged assaults, he allegedly admitted to his crime telling the victim “I know I raped you” the morning after the incident.
Barnett was a well-known professional rock climber who worked for a business at Yosemite and lived on property. His attorneys described the life sentence as “quite harsh” and said they would be appealing the guilty verdict.
During the sentencing, the four victims often held hands and expressed relief, The Sacramento Bee reported.
“There is no recovering what Charlie [Barrett] did to me,” K.G. said, according to the newspaper.
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