Dartmouth woman sentenced to prison in Fall River after sexually assaulting pre-teen up to 50 times

A 30-year-old Dartmouth woman was sentenced to state prison after being convicted last week of repeatedly raping a pre-teen girl, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced.

Kayla Baumgardner pleaded guilty on September 21 in Fall River Superior Court to indictments charging her with three counts of statutory rape, three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person under the age of 14, and one count each of providing obscene material to a minor and unnatural acts of a child under the age of 16.

Baumgardner worked with the child’s mother as a CNA. The victim initially began visiting the defendant to see the defendant’s dogs. As time went by, the defendant began inviting the victim over more regularly. Between September 2017 and August 2020, the defendant began abusing the young child with the touching of her breasts. The sexual abuse escalated significantly during this time frame. It is estimated Baumgardner sexually assaulted the victim between 20 and 50 times, would often send the victim nude photos, convinced the victim to send her nude photos and shared pornography with the child. The defendant even attempted to convince the victim that she was her real mother.

Tragically, the victim’s sibling was also the victim of sexual abuse in a separate case prosecuted by this office. Baumgardner routinely accompanied the mother of the victim to court in that separate case at the same time she was regularly sexually assaulting her daughter.

Baumgardner was sentenced to serve up to 12 years in state prison.

The case was prosecuted by Second Assistant District Attorney Silvia Rudman and the eight to 12 years state prison sentence was imposed by Judge Susan Sullivan. Upon release from prison, the defendant will be placed on supervised probation with numerous conditions including GPS monitoring for an additional seven years.

“This is an egregious example of a breach of trust by the defendant against the victim and her family. It is particularly galling that the defendant was feigning her support of the family in another ongoing sexual abuse prosecution while at the same time repeatedly sexually abusing the victim. To say the least, a substantial prison sentence was warranted,” District Attorney Quinn said.