Former Baptist minister Matt Baker has a new lawyer to defend him against allegations that he killed his wife, and he is no stranger to high-profile cases.

Guy James Gray, the former district attorney in Jasper who prosecuted three men for dragging James Byrd Jr. to his death in June 1998, has filed a motion to replace Waco attorneys Gerald Villarrial and James Rainey as Baker’s attorney.

Gray, 58, moved to Kerrville, Baker’s hometown, three years ago after serving as district attorney in Jasper for 25 years and making an unsuccessful run for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2004.

His second order of business after filing a motion to substitute as Baker’s attorney was to challenge the strength of the evidence under which Baker is being held at the McLennan County Jail. He filed a motion for habeas corpus, which would order Baker to be brought before the court so prosecutors could justify his detention.

Baker, 36, remains jailed in lieu of $400,000 bond after his arrest Sept. 21 in Kerrville in the April 2006 death of his 31-year-old wife, Kari, the mother of his two daughters and a teacher at Spring Valley Elementary School in Hewitt.

Baker was substitute teaching at his alma mater, Tivy High School in Kerrville, when officials armed with a murder arrest warrant came to get him.

Baker’s arrest came after Kari’s parents, James and Linda Dulin, convinced Hewitt police to reopen the investigation into her death, which had been ruled a suicide by sleeping pill overdose without the benefit of an autopsy. The Dulins have said they never believed their daughter committed suicide.

An exhumation of the body, autopsy and inquest by McLennan County Justice of the Peace Billy Martin failed to determine a cause of death but persuaded Martin to change his ruling from suicide to undetermined.

After Baker’s arrest, the Dulins dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit they filed against Baker last year, alleging the former Baptist minister and Waco Center for Youth chaplain killed their daughter and made it appear to be suicide.

An affidavit to support his arrest filed by Hewitt police alleges Baker was having an affair and slipped his wife crushed sleeping pills and then suffocated her.

“I think there was clearly some form of undue pressure to arrest him,” Gray said Thursday. “From what I have looked at, there is not sufficient forensic evidence to support a murder charge.”

Hearing set

Judge Matt Johnson of Waco’s 54th State District Court has set a hearing for Oct. 26 to consider Gray’s motion for habeas corpus or a request for bond reduction.

Prosecutors will have to convince the judge that there was sufficient probable cause to support Baker’s arrest or Gray said he would seek his release. First Assistant District Attorney Crawford Long declined comment Thursday on the Baker case.

“I’m just beginning to get into it,” Gray said, “but right off the bat, you don’t have a cause of death, and it is extremely unusual to be prosecuting a murder case without a cause of death.”

Gray said the reference in the arrest warrant affidavit to Baker using a pillow to suffocate Kari is “pure speculation.”

“And going down the list, I began to question the credibility of the affidavit,” he said. “There were substantial prejudicial things emphasized in the affidavit, and that is kind of what caught my eye.”

Gray’s son died five years ago, and he said he and his wife moved from Jasper to Kerrville because they needed to change their environment. A lawyer in his office is friends with Matt Baker’s parents, who also live in Kerrville, and Gray decided to get involved in the case after reading about it in media accounts.

No stranger to publicity, Gray was in the center of the media storm as lead prosecutor in the three James Byrd Jr. dragging cases in Jasper. At least four books and a movie have been produced about the horrific crime that ignited a racial firestorm in the East Texas town.

After winning the three convictions, Gray was given the Attorney General of the United States Award for Exceptional Service by Janet Reno in 2000 and won the prosecutor of the year award from the State Bar of Texas the same year.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

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