Convicted murderer Matt Baker is in a Huntsville state prison today after he was transferred Friday morning from the McLennan County Jail to begin his 65-year sentence for the killing of his wife, Kari.

The former Central Texas Baptist minister will spend the next few weeks to few months at the Byrd Unit, a diagnostic intake facility where he will go through the prison-classification process, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said.

As part of the process, staff at the prison will evaluate Matt Baker’s educational background, mental history, medical files and work skills, Clark said.

He’ll also be given necessary hygiene items and all-white prison clothes.

After the intake facility, he’ll be housed in a prison unit with other offenders in his decided “custody level,” Clark said.

Baker was convicted in January in the 2006 suffocation death of his wife at their Hewitt home. He has filed notice of appeal.

State District Judge Ralph Strother decided earlier this week to move the child-custody case involving Baker’s two daughters to Kerr County, where the girls have been living with his parents.

James and Linda Dulin, Kari Baker’s Waco-based parents, are seeking custody of their granddaughters, Kensi, 14, and Grace, 9.

With the custody case moving out of McLennan County, Strother notified the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday that Matt Baker was eligible to be transferred to state prison.

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