Federal judge sentences serial rapist life in prison

Police started to notice a pattern in 2017 when sex workers in Albuquerque began reporting that a man held them captive in his vehicle for up to 20 hours and repeatedly raped and choked them.

Timothy Bachicha, 43, was sentenced last week to life in prison by U.S. District Judge Matthew Garcia. A federal jury found Bachicha guilty of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women following a five day trial in December 2023.

"The assaults were violent, cruel and prolonged, demonstrating a degree of sadism rarely seen in the federal criminal justice system," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last month in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

Police reports showed that in 2017 and 2018, Bachicha was a suspect in the rapes of six women, but only two of those cases ultimately came to trial. He was initially charged in state district court in both attacks, but prosecutors dropped those charges to allow his prosecution to proceed in federal court.

Bachicha committed at least two sexual assault after he was released from custody on an ankle monitor following his initial arrest in April 2018, federal prosecutors wrote.

The rapes followed a similar pattern, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a sentencing memorandum.

"The suspect would drive around Southwest Albuquerque and offer to give females a ride or proposition them for a 'date,'" prosecutors wrote. "He would then hold them captive in his vehicle for hours (ranging anywhere from 4 to 20 hours), where he would repeatedly strangle and rape them."

During the assaults, the suspect would often talk about his "perverse sexual fantasies, his ex-wife, and his daughter," prosecutors wrote.

Albuquerque police initially arrested Bachicha in April 2018 on state charges including sexual assault and kidnapping, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

The attack was reported by an Albuquerque business owner who saw a semi-tractor trailer parked behind his business. When the business owner approached, he heard a woman yelling for help, then saw her running naked from the truck, the complaint said.

Police later found the victim several miles away with injuries to her neck and reported that she had been held against her will, strangled and raped, prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum.

"She also reported Bachicha strangled her to the point that her body went 'numb' and everything became fuzzy," prosecutors wrote.

Bachicha was released from custody with a GPS ankle monitor a week after the attack, court records show.

In a subsequent attack, a then-21-year-old woman told police she was walking home from a bus stop on Oct. 30, 2018, when Bachicha forced her into his van near Indian School and San Mateo NE, according to 2nd Judicial District Court records.

The woman, listed in court records as Jane Doe 1, told police that Bachicha drove her to a parking lot behind the University of New Mexico Hospital, where he strangled and sexually abused her for about 20 hours.

She said Bachicha let her go after his GPS ankle monitor kept beeping. A probation violation report said the monitor was beeping because the batteries were getting low.

News reports of the attack prompted another woman, listed as Jane Doe 2, to report that several weeks earlier, Bachicha held her for 16 hours in his vehicle near Interstate 25 and Comanche NE, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Bachicha's GPS ankle monitor confirmed his presence at the time and location described by Jane Doe 2, the statement said.

Both women testified against Bachicha at his trial. Jurors also heard from two other women who suffered similar attacks by Bachicha in October 2017 and April 2018.