A 40-year old San Diego
travel agent was convicted on Feb. 7 for sexually assaulting two UCSD medical
students in 2005 and 2006.

Teddy Baek, dubbed the “Asian male smoker rapist” by members
of the media, faces multiple life sentences for convictions on seven charges,
including multiple counts of forced rape. The sentencing will occur on March
14.

The attacks, which happened nine months apart in University
City, both took place in the early morning during
finals week. Baek entered by removing a window screen and climbing into the
victims’ apartments through the open window while they slept. The victims were
then blindfolded, and the second victim testified that her attacker pressed a
metallic object against her cheek.

“The similarities between all the attacks were so
extraordinarily unique that there was only one conclusion,” said Deputy
District Attorney Gretchen Means, who prosecuted Baek. “It was a very solid
case.”

Means said that Baek had a “particular type of female that
he seemed to like,” as the victims were all young Asian-American UCSD students.

Baek’s defense attorney, Marc Carlos, argued that there were
not enough links between the two cases to prove Baek’s guilt and that the
victims had conflicting physical descriptions. One of the victims told police
that her attacker had a Japanese accent, and a weapon was involved in only one
of the rapes.

Baek, who owns the “Travel-Land” agency in Kearny Mesa,
emigrated from Korea
in 1991. He lives in Carmel Valley
and is currently married with two children. Carlos described him as a hard-working
immigrant who came to the United States
“for the American Dream” and is well- respected in San
Diego’s Korean-American community.

However, both victims described their attacker as an Asian
male who smoked cigarettes, and the DNA obtained from the crime scenes matched
Baek’s, according to Mónica Muñoz, a spokeswoman for the San Diego Police
Department. The jurors deliberated for about a day before finding Baek guilty
on seven of the nine charges, but were unable to reach a verdict on two charges
of attempted burglary.

“His crimes showed an escalating pattern of violence, and
what his next step was going to be, nobody knows,” Means said. “He is a serial
rapist of the scariest type.”

In the months following the rapes, police swabbed the mouth
of any individual fitting the suspect’s description. In December 2006, another University
City woman heard noises in the bushes outside her
window one night and called the police. When the police arrived at the scene
they chased and caught Baek. He was placed under surveillance until the results
of the DNA test linked him to both rapes, leading to his arrest.

It is unknown why Baek’s victims were UCSD students, or
whether the pattern was even intentional, according to Means. UCSD does not
have a very high rate of sex crimes on campus. According to UCSD’s Clery
Report, a federally mandated compilation of crimes occurring on or around
university campuses, there were six instances of sexual offenses with the use
of force on and directly adjacent to campus in 2004 and 2005, and two in 2006.
Most rapes are committed by someone known by the victim, making Baek’s crimes
particularly threatening, Means said.

“He represented a unique predator, which made him very
dangerous,” she said.

Though Carlos said during the trial that Baek was innocent
and that there was still a rapist on the loose, the city police department
expressed satisfaction with the conviction.

“We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this case,”
Muñoz said. “It is a testament to the excellent work of our officers,
detectives and also the district attorney’s office staff who worked on the
case.”