SAN DIEGO -- A travel agent who raped two University of California, San Diego medical students in their University City apartments over a nine-month period was sentenced Friday to 90 years to life in state prison.

Teddy Baek, 41, was convicted Feb. 7 of seven charges, including three counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object and two counts each of oral copulation and forcible rape.

The defendant was also convicted of allegations that he used force during the sex acts, and that the sex acts involved tying and binding and multiple victims. Jurors also found true allegations that Baek entered the apartments with the intent to commit sex crimes.

Baek, who was married and lived in Carmel Valley at the time, was arrested on Dec. 4, 2006, after a third UCSD student working on her computer heard footsteps outside her apartment and called police.

Before sentencing was pronounced, Judge Charles Rogers denied a defense motion for a new trial alleging prosecutorial misconduct.

Defense attorney Marc Carlos unsuccessfully argued that prosecutor Gretchen Means backed Baek into a corner when she asked him to explain how his DNA got on the victims.

Carlos also alleged that Means committed misconduct by referring to Baek as a serial rapist.

Means told the jury that Baek assaulted one of his victims early on June 13, 2005. The woman had had sex with her boyfriend and had gone to bed around 3 a.m., after he left, Means said. A short time later, Baek came into her apartment through a bedroom window and put a rag over her mouth, the prosecutor said.

"He told her he only wanted her body," Means told the jury.

The assailant told the woman that if she didn't scream, she wouldn't get hurt, the prosecutor said.

Two cigarette butts were left at the scene, Means said.

Nine months later, on March 6, 2006, Baek broke into the apartment of a 24-year-old medical student who had just returned home from the library, Means said. The woman took a shower and was awakened about 3 a.m. by a male with a strong odor of cigarettes holding a cold metallic object on her, the prosecutor said.

"She was terrified," Means said. "She thought it was a knife."

The woman screamed and struggled as the attacker sexually assaulted her, but he told her "not to make me crazy" and pulled the bedsheets over her head, Means said.

She said both sexual assault victims were Asian women in their early 20s who were enrolled in UCSD's medical program.

Both attacks happened during finals, in ground-floor apartments. In both cases, the victims were blindfolded, the lights were turned on and some sort of latex gloves were used, Means said.