Jurors convict man described as serial rapist

A man described by prosecutors as a serial rapist was found guilty by a federal jury last week of kidnapping and sexually assaulting two women in 2018.

Timothy Bachicha, 41, was initially charged in state district court in both attacks, but prosecutors dropped those charges to allow his prosecution to proceed in federal court.

Jurors returned the verdicts Monday following a five-day trial in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

Bachicha faces a maximum of two life sentences. U.S. District Judge Matthew Garcia has not scheduled his sentencing hearing.

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.

An Albuquerque Police Department spokesman said in 2018 that Bachicha targeted “vulnerable” women and that the criminal cases fell apart after prosecutors lost contact with the alleged victims.

Victims in both federal cases were sex workers, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Mexico, which prosecuted the cases.

“Bachicha targeted vulnerable women, hoping that the public would not care about the lives of sex workers,” U.S. Attorney Alexander Uballez said in the statement.

The women fought their attacker and both testified against him at trial, the statement said. Jurors also heard from two other women allegedly attacked by Bachicha in 2017 and 2018.

“These four women courageously testified against their abuser in open court, and in doing so protected others from Bachicha’s serial sexual violence,” Uballez said in the statement.

In one case, 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.

Bachicha was on probation from an earlier arrest and was wearing a GPS ankle monitor at the time of the attack.

The woman told police that Bachicha drove her to a parking lot behind the University of New Mexico Hospital, where he 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.

The terms of Bachicha’s probation had required him to remain at home or at work, but Bachicha’s probation officer apparently was never alerted to the violations.

Bachicha also was convicted of a Sept. 25, 2018, attack in which a woman said Bachicha held her for 16 hours in the cab of a semi-tractor near Interstate 25 and Comanche NE, where he choked and sexually assaulted her, the U.S. Attorney’s Office statement said.