Vanderbilt rape survivor's testimony helps convict attacker

On the witness stand, Taylor Walker found it more difficult than she expected to put words to what happened to her inside a Vanderbilt University parking garage one Friday night in 2012.

She hesitated more than once during the toughest memories and, at one point, came clean to the jurors: "I'm having a hard time talking about it," she told them, "a harder time than I anticipated."

But Walker, who has become an outspoken advocate for sexual assault survivors since graduating from Vanderbilt, did find her words. And what she said in court this week helped convict the stranger, Tyrone Batts, 29, who ambushed, raped and robbed her on Feb. 10, 2012.

The jury of six men and six women took little more than an hour on Tuesday to convict Batts of two counts of rape and additional counts of attempted rape and robbery. At sentencing in May he'll face a minimum eight-year prison sentence and a potential for 36 years.

"She was very brave," Assistant District Attorney Amy Hunter said of Walker. "We're really thankful that she came forward."

The Tennessean does not name sex assault victims as a matter of policy. But Walker chose to share her story with The Tennessean in 2013 as alarm mounted about sex assaults on college campuses.

Now 24, Walker testified for 35 minutes while her attacker kept his head down and incessantly bounced one knee in a Davidson County courtroom.

"It was a Friday so I was very happy that the school week was over," Walker began.

But outside her red car on the seventh floor of the garage an ominous presence changed everything.

"I knew something was wrong," she said, as Batts was suddenly upon her from behind.

Shocked and scared, she said she tried to reason with him.

"It was an out-of-body experience. And I just didn't want to be there," she testified.

Walker's testimony on Monday matched closely with what she first told police — even three years later. Her case plodded through the court system in part because Batts was hospitalized and tested to determine his competency to stand trial.

"The legal system does not move quickly, and I know I'm not the only one that's happened to," Walker said after the trial. "I just kept reminding myself that I don't want to let him to be able to do this to other people.

"It can help you heal. You're seeing something through," she said.

Batts also faces multiple felony charges in other cases in what police described as similar attacks on three other women during the same weekend that he raped Walker. At the time of the parking garage cases, he was out on bond on 2011 charges of robbery and attempted rape.

In early 2014, Batts declined a plea deal, setting in motion the jury trial that required Walker to take the stand this week.

She testified that in the typically busy garage no one passed by for several minutes. Batts eventually demanded money and left her in the car.

Walker immediately called police and then went to the hospital, and DNA evidence bolstered the case against Batts.

But Walker's unequivocal identification of the man in a photo lineup — three days after the attack and months before forensic test results — proved critical, Hunter said.

"Even if we didn't have DNA testing in this case, which we do, if you believe Taylor Walker beyond all reasonable doubt, then you believe that this defendant is guilty," Hunter told jurors.

Public defenders for Batts had asked jurors to consider whether Walker could have seen him clearly during the terrifying ambush. And in her final question on the stand a defense attorney pressed her about how sure she was.

"My degree of certainty," Walker testified, "is 100 percent."

Reach Tony Gonzalez at 615-259-8089 and on Twitter @tgonzalez.