Yosemite rock climber gets life sentence for sexually assaulting woman
YOSEMITE — A prominent Yosemite National Park rock climber was sentenced to life in prison for sexual assaults committed against a woman in the rock-climbing community, prosecutors said Tuesday.
The U.S. Attorney's Office Eastern District of California said in a news release that Charles Barrett, 40, was sentenced for two counts of aggravated sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact. He was convicted back in February 2024.
The acts were committed during a weekend at Yosemite in August 2016. The victim was in the park for a weekend of hiking and was sexually assaulted by Barrett three times, prosecutors said evidence showed at trial. Barrett had been living in Yosemite and working there with a private business.
Three other women testified during the trial that they were also sexually assaulted by Barrett. However, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, those incidents were not charged due to being outside of federal jurisdiction but were allowed to be admitted at trial as relevant to the three charges Barrett was convicted of.
Barrett, who was arrested for the current case in August 2022, made hundreds of calls while in custody for the current case. He repeatedly used threats of violence and lawsuits against the aforementioned victims while claiming they worked together to ruin his life, prosecutors said.
In 2017, Barrett knowingly went to a rock-climbing gym where the victim in the trial attended. She told the gym owner of Barrett's assault, and Barrett went on to harass and threaten her for several years, prosecutors said.
In August 2022, Barrett was also convicted of making criminal threats in January 2022.