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Tennessean
April 10, 2015
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.
