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Bay Area horse molester sentenced to jail
A man who sexually molested horses at an equestrian center in the Marin Headlands was sentenced to 210 days in jail on Tuesday.
Koshaun Dion Baker, 23, was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life and stay at least 100 yards from the crime scene, the Presidio Riding Club, as well as other stables and barns.
“The brutality of this defendant’s act is reprehensible,” said Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli. “Whether the victim is a human being or animal, there is no place in our society for this kind of cruelty.”
Park rangers discovered the crimes at about 5 a.m. Sept. 21 after receiving a report of horses running loose at the club. Rangers learned that someone had broken into the building, vandalized it and released about 10 horses, according to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Video surveillance footage showed a man committing those crimes has well as standing on a stool and sexually assaulting a horse, the probation department said in a sentencing report.
Rangers found a vehicle crashed in a ditch near the riding club and arrested Baker about 200 yards away.
“During the interview with the defendant, he admitted to crashing his vehicle, breaking into the buildings to get tools to get his vehicle out, and sexually assaulting the horses,” the probation report said. “He further stated he wasunder the influence of mushrooms while the events occurred.”
A veterinarian examined the horses and found that four mares had signs of “physical trauma” in their genital areas, the report said.
The Marin County District Attorney’s Office filed charges of burglary, vandalism, animal cruelty and sexual contact with an animal. Baker accepted a plea agreement and admitted to the animal cruelty and bestiality counts.
Judge Paul Haakenson held the sentencing by teleconference on Tuesday afternoon. Two of the horse owners spoke about their distress over the crimes.
“I was in tears for two weeks straight,” said Jenny Seyranian, a Corte Madera resident. “This guy was the epitome of a predator. This selfish, disgusting act affected all of us.”
“I hope he gets locked up,” she said. “I will never forgive him.”
Baker made no statement during the hearing. His public defender, Kimberly Fitzgerald, noted that Baker had a “very troubled and terrible upbringing” that included sexual abuse.
Haakenson sentenced Baker in accordance with the plea agreement, even though the jail time initially struck him as “light.” But he said the maximum sentence would have been three years and six months, which Baker would served at half time under state law, and then been released with no supervision or treatment.
Haakenson’s sentence includes two years of supervised probation and therapy.
With credit for time served and half-time credits, Baker should be released from the Marin County Jail in about a month. But Baker, a native of Louisiana, also is wanted by authorities in the New Orleans area, where he is suspected of “unnatural sex acts” with two horses at a group of stables late last year, according to a police bulletin.
Baker also has an outstanding warrant from August in connection with a theft case in Waco, Texas, according to the probation report.
Source: Marin Independent Journal
