It’s likely to be about three months before Justice of the Peace Billy Martin determines how a 31-year-old Hewitt teacher died.

Martin held an inquest hearing Wednesday afternoon to gather information from 11 people regarding the death of Hewitt teacher Kari Baker.

Kari Baker’s parents, James and Linda Dulin, requested the hearing after finding more information that they said contradicted the police’s original findings that their daughter’s April 2006 death was a suicide.

Hewitt investigators originally ruled that Baker had died of an overdose of sleeping pills. A typewritten “suicide-type” note was found, investigators had said. Pathologists had found traces of a diet pill, an antihistamine and a sleep aid in Baker’s system. Because of embalming, accurate blood concentration levels of the drugs could not be determined. Hewitt police have since reopened the case.

Martin chose to make his courtroom open to himself, a court reporter and one witness at a time. He heard testimony from Hewitt police investigators, paramedics, a Texas Ranger, a medical examiner, Baker’s husband and her parents.

The judge ordered each person who testified not to speak publicly about the case until he made his ruling.

Martin said he will review the notes from the hearing after they are typed up by the court reporter. “It’ll be awhile,” he said. “I say 90 days in general. I want to do it right.”

The Dulins filed a wrongful death lawsuit in July 2006 against Kari Baker’s husband, Matt Baker, alleging the former Baptist minister had been having an affair, killed the mother of his two young daughters and made her death look like a suicide. The Dulins also are fighting for limited visitation rights with their granddaughters.

Martin said his choice to conduct an inquest hearing was a combination of the Dulins’ and law enforcement’s urging. He said it is rare for a justice of the peace to hold an inquest hearing. This was his first in his nine years as a justice of the peace.

equinn@wacotnb.com

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