Citing this week’s news reports of their client’s alleged history of infidelity, attorneys for Matt Baker on Friday filed a request with a Waco court for a change of venue in his murder trial, set to begin Tuesday.

Judge Ralph Strother of Waco’s 19th State District Court acknowledged Friday that his court received the motion, but it will not officially be filed with the district clerk’s office until Monday.

At 1:30 p.m. Monday, Strother will hear the defense’s claim that a change of venue is needed as well as possibly another motion to stop potential jurors from hearing about other offenses that 38-year-old former pastor Baker has allegedly committed. Jury selection is expected to begin Tuesday, with testimony beginning Wednesday.

Along with this week’s news reports detailing prosecutors’ intent to show that Baker had not only killed his 31-year-old wife but was having an affair and had sexually harassed at least a dozen women, Strother said the lawyers cited excessive media coverage in the motion.

In addition to local and state news coverage, the Baker case has attracted the interest of national TV news magazines “20/20” and “48 Hours.” It was Guy James Gray, a Kerrville attorney who is co-representing Baker, who invited local, state and national media to interview Baker in December 2007. Gray told the Tribune-Herald that no questions for his client were off-limits. Baker discussed, in detail, the night of his wife’s death, allegations of infidelity and researching online how to kill someone with sleeping pills.

Gray confirmed Friday that he had filed a motion requesting the change of venue but declined to comment on it, citing the gag order that was placed upon lawyers and witnesses by Strother.

Prosecutors say Baker killed his wife with sleeping pills the evening of April 7, 2006, smothered her face with a pillow and tried to make it look like a suicide. Next to her body, police found a typed, unsigned note indicating that she wanted to be with the couple’s middle daughter, who had died seven years earlier.

Hewitt police and Justice of the Peace Billy Martin initially ruled Kari Baker’s death a suicide. At the insistence of her family and friends, Kari Baker’s body was exhumed and the case reopened three months after her funeral.

Last week, Strother denied a request from Gray and attorney Harold Danford to let them withdraw from the case because “a serious material breach of confidence has developed” between them and Baker. While the lawyers did not go into detail about what prompted their request, they said it was not a delay tactic.

equinn@wacotrib.com

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