Former Central Texas Baptist minister Matt Baker is asking a judge to throw out a wrongful death lawsuit against him, claiming there is no evidence to support allegations that he killed his wife and tried to make her death appear to be a suicide.

Judge Ralph Strother of Waco’s 19th State District Court has set a hearing for Thursday to consider the motion. A trial date is set for April 6.

Baker, 37, who has denied killing his wife, was arrested in September 2007 on murder charges in the April 2006 death of his wife, Kari, an elementary school teacher and the mother of his two daughters.

Her death initially was ruled suicide by sleeping pills, and she was buried without an autopsy or further investigation. But after her parents, James and Linda Dulin, questioned the suicide ruling, her body was exhumed for autopsy, the investigation was reopened and Justice of the Peace Billy Martin subsequently changed his ruling to “undetermined” cause of death.

Baker, who has moved with his children to Kerrville and made himself available for extensive media interviews, remains free on bond but lost his teaching job after his arrest. He is represented in the civil suit by Kerrville attorney Richard L. Ellison.

“He didn’t do it, and they have zero evidence,” Ellison said. “It is just really their opinion and suspicion. If they have any evidence, they have to show us that there is enough to keep this thing in court. Otherwise, it has to be dismissed. He is absolutely innocent, and this lawsuit should have never been filed.”

The Dulins’ attorney, Bill Johnston, says he believes he has done just that. Johnston filed an 88-page response to the summary judgment motion this week that included statements from forensic experts, psychologists, investigators, a computer expert and a jewelry store clerk who says she saw Baker and a woman shopping for engagement rings less than a month after his wife’s death.

Linda Dulin says she is not deterred by Baker and his attorney seeking to dismiss the lawsuit for lack of evidence.

“I would expect Mr. Ellison to make such a claim,” she said. “He is defending Matt Baker. However, there is strong evidence and expert opinion that link Baker to the crime. I have faith that the judge will allow this trial to move forward. Justice is about setting things right. All we want is an opportunity to share the facts and evidence with a jury.”

In Johnston’s response to the dismissal motion, he alleges that Baker, who served as minister at several churches in Central Texas and as youth minister at the Waco Center for Youth, killed his wife while pursuing a relationship with another woman.

He conducted Internet searches concerning sleeping pills and overdoses and ordered medication from online pharmacies, according to the response. Kari Baker suspected that Matt Baker was having an affair and found crushed pills in his briefcase four days before her death, the response claims. It adds that “her husband’s explanation regarding the pills was nonsensical.”

Kari Baker told a counselor three days before her death that she thought Matt Baker was going to kill her.

On the night she died, Matt Baker says he left their Hewitt residence about 11:15 p.m. to get a movie and some refreshments. He has said that she was awake and talking to him when he left, according to the court documents.

He has said he returned about 45 minutes later to find his wife dead. Baker has said that he found a typed, unsigned note by her bed and that he tried to resuscitate her before dressing his wife’s nude body in the “approximately three minutes which passed before medical personnel arrived,” the response alleges.

Johnston’s response also includes statements from experts and other witnesses who reportedly will testify that:

* Kari Baker did not die of a drug overdose.

* Kari Baker had been dead “significantly longer” than Matt Baker’s story would allow.

* Matt Baker did not dress Kari Baker before her body was found.

* Matt Baker performed Internet searches at work for death by overdose and Ambien, a sleeping aid found in Kari Baker’s system.

* Kari Baker’s behavior was not consistent with someone contemplating suicide.

While the civil lawsuit is proceeding, the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office continues work on the criminal case, which District Attorney John Segrest has said was “not suitable” to seek an indictment as initially presented to his office by Hewitt police.

“Because there was no autopsy done on the cause of death as is customary in a criminal case, our office is having to go back and look at things that were left undone at the time,” said Crawford Long, Segrest’s first assistant. “We are currently awaiting the results of forensic evidence that is being tested as part of this investigation.”

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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