Two weeks after prosecutors created a mild controversy by trying to get a voluntary DNA sample from murder defendant Matt Baker, they now have asked a judge to order the former Central Texas minister to give a sample.

Judge Ralph Strother of Waco’s 19th State District Court has scheduled a hearing for April 24 to consider motions filed in Baker’s murder case.

The motion does not specify to which item the DNA sample, if ordered, will be compared, nor does it explain why prosecutors do not seek a warrant to obtain the sample.

Matt Baker makes his way to a hearing April 9 where a judge reduced his bond amount to $250,000. (Duane A. Laverty photo, file)

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Baker, 37, is charged in the April 2006 alleged drugging and suffocation death of his wife, Kari, at their Hewitt home.

Baker, who is free on bond and living in Kerrville with the couple’s two daughters, has denied he killed his wife, saying she committed suicide.

The motion filed by prosecutor Crawford Long asks Strother to order Baker to submit to a swab of the inside of his mouth “for the purpose of obtaining DNA for comparison to an item or items” gathered in the murder investigation.

Strother also will consider a motion from Baker’s attorney, Richard Ellison, who has asked for a copy of transcripts of testimony from grand jury witnesses, which are confidential unless ordered released by a judge.

Ellison also has asked Strother to appoint several experts to work with the defense at county expense. He has said that while Baker has hired him to represent him and arranged to post a $250,000 bail bond, Baker now is indigent and needs court-appointed experts, such as experts in psychology, pharmacology and crime scene reconstruction, to ensure he gets a fair trial.

Strother said he is waiting to see whom Ellison wants to hire and how much it will cost before considering the motion. The subject might come up at the April 24 hearing, the judge said.

Ellison criticized prosecutors in a motion earlier this month for trying to get a DNA sample from Baker while Baker was in the McLennan County Jail without first contacting Ellison to let him know about it.

Strother took up the complaint in private last week during another hearing in Baker’s case. The judge denied Ellison’s motion to sanction prosecutors Long and Susan Shafer for what Ellison called unethical conduct.

A gag order issued by Strother remains in effect in the case, preventing the attorneys on both sides from commenting.

Strother has set a tentative trial date in the case for the end of September.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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