Jim and Linda Dulin, of Woodway, should be awarded sole custody of their grandchildren because the two girls are being manipulated by their father, Matt Baker, and recent sexual abuse accusations against Baker’s father put them at risk, a court-appointed consultant reported.

Matt Baker arrives at court in Waco in 2009 with daughters Kensi, left, and Grace.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

The recommendation of Stephanie R. Trulson, who performed home studies on the Baker and Dulin homes, will be among evidence considered by a Kerr County jury in the ongoing fight for custody of Matt and Kari Baker’s daughters.

The custody trial is scheduled to begin this morning in Kerrville’s 198th State District Court.

The girls, Kensi, 15, and Grace, 10, have been living in Kerrville with Matt Baker’s parents, Oscar and Barbara Baker, since their son was convicted in January 2010 of killing his wife, Kari, in their Hewitt home in 2006.

Baker, a former Baptist minister, gave custody of the children to his parents before he went to prison.

The Dulins are seeking custody of the girls, saying it is the last remaining step in their long, uphill battle to win justice for their daughter, whose death initially was ruled suicide before the Dulins launched a crusade to reopen the investigation.

The Dulins also hoped to strip Matt Baker of his parental rights during the trial.

But Judge Rex Emerson granted a motion from the Bakers to remove that issue from the custody trial, which court officials expect to last two weeks.

The girl’s father, former Central Texas Baptist minister Matt Baker, is serving a 65-year prison term after his murder conviction for drugging and smothering his wife at their home while their daughters were sleeping down the hall.

Baker, 39, admitted he was having an affair with a member of his church, but he denied he killed his wife.

An intermediate appellate court in Waco upheld his conviction last month.

In a pretrial hearing last week, Emerson denied a motion from the Bakers to exclude the testimony of former foster children placed decades ago in the Baker home by the Buckner Baptist Benevolent Organization.

One of the former foster children told the Tribune-Herald in March that she is prepared to testify that she was sexually abused in the Baker home.

A motion filed by the Bakers’ attorney, Frederick L. Henneke, of Kerrville, sought to bar her testimony and that of seven other former foster children. The motion said, “plaintiffs have stated that these foster children will testify to alleged incidents of sexual abuse on the part of Oscar Baker and unnamed others” while in the group home.

Trulson, the home-study consultant, cites these allegations and the fact that Matt Baker and his parents continue to blame the Dulins for Baker’s incarceration as a reason for the recommendation that the Dulins gain custody of the girls.

Trulson said that while the woman’s claims have not been substantiated, she has no motive to lie.

“Her claim that Oscar Baker and another man sexually assaulted her and/or encouraged others in the home to sexually assault her and other children (including Matt Baker) in the foster home presents a risk to Kensi and Grace Baker that, while not validated, leads a prudent person to believe that there is a preponderance of evidence to suggest such risk exists,” Trulson wrote in her report to the judge.

“Given the current risk in the Baker home, the parental alienation and the unhealthy emotional environment in the Baker home, it would be advisable to have the children placed with the Dulins before the beginning of the new school year and to get them started with therapy immediately,” Trulson said.

She also recommended that Oscar Baker, 76, and Barbara Baker, 68, be supervised during visits with the girls, which she suggested should be two Saturdays a month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. She recommended that any contact or visitation with Matt Baker in prison be at the discretion of the children’s therapist.

She also said electronic communication with the girls should be monitored “for appropriateness” by the therapist. It is unclear in the report to whose communication with the children she is referring.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

757-5737

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