Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Six months after Baptist minister Matt Baker’s murder arrest in the April 2006 death of his wife, McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest said Tuesday that there’s not enough evidence to seek an indictment.
“Based on what has been presented to us, that matter is not suitable for presentation to a grand jury,” Segrest said in the wake of an order issued Tuesday to dismiss the “criminal accusation and prosecution” of Baker and to refund the $200,000 cash bond that was put up to secure his release from jail in October.
Baker’s attorney, Guy James Gray, of Kerrville, filed an application for writ of habeas corpus last week, seeking the return of his cash bond and alleging that the former Central Texas minister from Hewitt was unlawfully arrested and detained in the death of his wife, Kari.
Because he wasn’t indicted within 180 days of his arrest, Baker, 36, was entitled by law to have his cash bail bond refunded. Therefore, there was no reason for a hearing, which Judge Matt Johnson of Waco’s 54th State District Court had set for April 4 and canceled Tuesday with his rejection of Gray’s application.
“It wasn’t a discretionary act,” Segrest said, speaking of his office’s agreement to an order issued Tuesday by Justice of the Peace Billy Martin to discharge Baker’s bail bond. “It was an act based solely on the passage of time. It does not dispose of the criminal charges in the least. Those matters are still under consideration by this office.”
Hewitt police, who obtained an arrest warrant for Baker with the cooperation of the Texas Rangers, alleged that Baker, who reportedly had a mistress, rendered his wife unconscious with sleeping pills, then suffocated her with a pillow from their bedroom as their two daughters slept down the hall.
Baker, who has denied he killed his wife and said he wasn’t having an affair with a woman from his church in Lorena, told Hewitt police that his wife committed suicide because she remained despondent over the death of a daughter in 1998 from cancer.
A friend of Kari Baker and her counselor both have said that she told them she feared her husband would try to kill her after she found crushed pills in his briefcase.
Segrest declined additional comment about the case. However, Hewitt police Capt. Tuck Saunders and Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon both said Tuesday that the district attorney’s office has not asked them to conduct additional investigations in the case since Baker was arrested in Kerrville in September.
“We are waiting to hear back from them, but we haven’t heard anything. Not yet,” Saunders said. “We will discuss it with them. If they need something else, then we definitely are going to check into it.”
Gray, a longtime prosecutor in Jasper before retiring and moving to Kerrville, said he’s pleased that Baker will be getting his cash bail bond back. He added that he isn’t surprised by Segrest’s current assessment of the case.
“I think Mr. Segrest is a man of integrity,” Gray said. “I think what anybody would say is that there is insufficient technical evidence to make the elements of the case. That may change in the future, it may not. I know this doesn’t rule out a future indictment if the evidence changes, but I think it is a statement that the current evidence is insufficient.”
Kari Baker’s mother, Linda Dulin, said Tuesday that she remains hopeful her former son-in-law will be prosecuted.
“This is routine,” she said of the bail motion. “After 180 days, you get your money back if you haven’t been indicted. I have been assured that the DA’s office is working on this case, and I have every reason to believe that it will go to the grand jury and eventually to trial.”
The Dulins, who pressed Hewitt police to reopen the investigation into Kari’s death, refiled a wrongful death lawsuit against Baker last week to preserve their right to do so before the two-year statute of limitations expires April 7.
The suit alleges Baker killed their daughter, then made her death appear as a suicide. The Dulins dismissed the suit after Baker’s arrest, saying they didn’t want their suit to interfere with criminal prosecution of the case.
twitherspoon@wacotrib.com
757-5737
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Comments
By anonymous
Apr 3, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this
Goody TwoShoes has made it to the Trib site again, we see. Passing out saccarin compliments won't cause professional journalists to take it easy on Matt Baker when the trials commence.
By null
Apr 1, 2008 8:18 AM | Link to this
I have not been on this site for several days, so thought I would see what "direction" the comments have been going. Once I read the last several it became obvious why no one has bothered to say anything. It had taken on a weird personality.
I would like to bring it back around and say to the DA in Waco that his office did their job very professionally, and they should be commended on a job well done. They must have felt like they were taking hits most of the time, but they stayed within the law and went with evidence. They went with the ME and the cause of death, "undetermined". Went with the ME saying that nothing externally had caused her death. They could not say that the combination of drugs caused it, but they could say that no one, or nothing externally caused it.
And to Tommy Witherspoon, the last several articles you have written about this case have been written very well. You make newspaper writers proud.
By Grace
Mar 28, 2008 11:55 PM | Link to this
I couldn't be sure from your post whether you were referring your comments to me or someone else. No offense taken.
By Lane
Mar 28, 2008 10:38 PM | Link to this
Gee Grace--what I said wasn't meant as a criticism.
By Grace
Mar 28, 2008 9:25 PM | Link to this
Lane, please note that I used the word "category" only in quoting a previous post. If you'll read my previous posts, you'll see that I am well aware that sexual addictions do not fall into categories.
By Lane
Mar 28, 2008 7:50 PM | Link to this
There is no "category" of sex addicts. They are found in every single occupation and walk of life and yes, there are lots of them who are clergymen. If you didn't know this by now maybe you've been hiding under a rock. stopbaptistpredators.com
By Grace
Mar 28, 2008 5:17 PM | Link to this
To address something belatedly that "Questions" said earlier about Matt Baker's not fitting into the "category" of sex addict, all I can say is that where there's smoke, there's fire. Matt has had multiple allegations against him by women in many different locations, and one can only surmise that they are not all lying.
Like other addictions, sexual addiction is a progressive disease, and unless it's addressed, it will rear its ugly again at some point in the future (if it hasn't already done so). For the sake of Matt's children, if he does actually have a sexual addiction, I hope he gets help and gets help very soon.
By Grace
Mar 28, 2008 1:46 PM | Link to this
I DID read, null, that Kari led Bible studies at her church, and that alone implies that her faith was strong.
Furthermore, I never said that my father (or Matt Baker, for that matter) didn't have a strong faith, because in fact, he did indeed. His unfortunate struggle with sexual addiction was no different than any other type of struggle that Christians face. But he was a man of great faith, and by the way, a Biblical scholar.
As to what I said about wishing I'd known Kari, are you so desperate to defend Matt Baker that you feel you must absolutely pick my words apart, to the point of splitting hairs?
By null
Mar 28, 2008 1:19 PM | Link to this
to Grace, in response to your statement 4: " her other behaviors just don't indicate someone who would take her own life, especially someone whose Christian faith was as strong as Kari's apparently was." How did you know about her Christian faith? From being around her? From talking to her closest friends? From talking to her family? mother, brother, dad, husband, etc Or just reading media, which we all know prints what they want, with whatever slant they want. I have read in printed media about her happiness, and her sadness. Attending Baylor obviously wouldn't lend itself to her being a "baptist". Attending a baptist church does not guarantee any strong Christian faith, as you have said re: your own dad.
"It would have been a privilege to know her and an honor to have been a member of her family." The immediate family of Matt, Kari and daughters? Or the extended family of parents, aunts, cousins?
By Grace
Mar 28, 2008 12:46 PM | Link to this
To Questions:
1. Whether you believe it or not, I had no knowledge of this case before Wednesday, March 26th, 2008, so your assumption that I knew that Grace was the name of one of Kari's children is just flat-out wrong. All I knew was that Kassidy (sp?) was one of them, and I think she was the one who died. Had I known that Grace was the name of one of the other children, I would never have used it. Grace is a pseudonym I've used for years on the Internet, because I have a business with the word "Grace" in its title.
2. Even though I was a paralegal for 20 years, I never worked in the area of criminal law, but was a civil litigation paralegal. There are big differences in the two types of law, and thus, I know very little about criminal law. What I DO know, however, is that there is no statute of limitations on murder cases, so if Matt Baker isn't convicted of his wife's murder before he dies, at the very least, he will spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.
3. As to your remark that a university like Baylor "would not take a chance of ever covering up a story": ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Most parents would not send their daughters to a college where sexual harassment occurs with no regard for the victims, and universities like Baylor know it. The idea that the largest, most prestigious Baptist university in the world would not cover up the story that one of its students had sexually harrassed another student is ludicrous.
4. If I am so "well informed" about this case (as you stated), then why would I be mistaken about the number of years that had passed since the baby's death? Sorry, friend, but you're wrong about that, too. But regardless of whether it was seven years or eight, that's a very long timespan between the child's death and the mother's "suicide". And her other behaviors just don't indicate someone who would take her own life, especially someone whose Christian faith was as strong as Kari's apparently was.
It's irrelevant whether or not you believe me, because you don't know me or anything about me. I'm not one of Kari's friends or family members, but from what I've read about her, it would have been a privilege to know her and an honor to have been a member of her family.
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