The state’s highest criminal court refused to consider an appeal of Matt Baker’s murder conviction and 65-year sentence for the April 2006 death of his wife at their home in Hewitt.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, without comment, on Wednesday denied the former Central Texas Baptist minister’s petition for discretionary review, which asked the court to consider his appeal in the drugging and suffocation death of Kari Baker.

The Waco-based 10th Court of Appeals upheld Baker’s conviction and sentence in June.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, without comment, on Wednesday denied Matt Baker’s petition for discretionary review.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

A 19th State District Court jury in January 2010 convicted Baker of murder.

Kari Baker’s death initially was ruled suicide by sleeping pill overdose by Justice of the Peace Billy Martin.

But Kari Baker’s parents, Jim and Linda Dulin, never believed she took her own life and exhumed their daughter’s body for autopsy.

They later discovered that Baker had a mistress, who testified at his trial that Baker told her he drugged his wife and suffocated her with a pillow while their two daughters slept down the hall.

Baker then typed a fake, unsigned suicide note and put it next to the bed with a wine cooler and sleeping pill bottles, his mistress, Vanessa Bulls, told the jury.

Baker, 40, must serve at least half of his term before he can be considered for parole.

Retired prosecutor Crawford Long, who prosecuted Baker with former prosecutor Susan Shafer, said he was pleased with the court’s decision.

“We tried the case very carefully, and we believe Judge (Ralph) Strother made the correct rulings,” Long said. “That was borne out by the rejection of the PDR by the Court of Criminal Appeals. We feel Mr. Baker received a fair trial and was correctly found guilty and deserved the sentence he got.”

In Baker’s appeal to the Waco intermediate appellate court, his appellate attorney, Stan Schwieger, argued Baker deserved a new trial because Strother allowed the alternate juror to sit in while the other 12 jurors deliberated.

Baker also claimed that his trial lawyers were ineffective for not objecting to the judge allowing the alternate inside the jury room, although she was instructed not to participate in the deliberations and has said she did not.

“I was truly hoping that the Court of Criminal Appeals would examine the issue concerning the presence of the alternate juror during jury deliberations,” Schwieger said Wednesday.

“I am disappointed in their decision not to grant review of the case.”

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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