Friends testify that minister was cozy with another woman at party 2 weeks after wife’s death

Murder suspect quickly banished dead wife’s photos

WACO, Texas — Two weeks after a teacher was found dead, her pictures were gone from her home and her minister husband was cozy with another woman at his daughter’s birthday party, witnesses testified Thursday at his murder trial.

Jennifer Monsey, who knew the couple through church, said she was uncomfortable at the party two weeks after Kari Baker’s death, which had been ruled a suicide. Monsey said there were no pictures of Kari in the house, but she saw photos of another woman who was at the party.

Monsey said she left after seeing the woman’s head in Matt Baker’s lap as his daughters and other girls were watching a movie.

“It just didn’t seem right,” Monsey testified. “There were pictures of (the woman) and her kids where there had been pictures of Kari.”

Baker faces up to life in prison if convicted. He is accused of drugging his wife with sleeping pills then smothering her with a pillow.

He has repeatedly denied killing her, saying she was despondent over the 1999 death of one of their children.

Defense attorney Guy James Gray told jurors Wednesday that Baker was having an affair. Gray said Kari Baker’s friendly, outgoing personality masked deep depression — not only about her middle daughter’s death but about her own weight gain and her husband’s infidelity.

Todd Monsey, Jennifer’s brother who also attended the birthday party, said he noticed that Kari’s closet was almost empty. He said that when he asked about it, Baker told him that it was best for his grieving daughters “not to be reminded so much” of their mother.

Todd Monsey, a teacher who worked in some churches where Baker had been a pastor, said that he also was close with Kari, who had been his youth minister. Monsey said she never told him of any problems in her marriage.

Monsey said that on the day of her death, he saw her at his school where she had a job interview. He said she was so excited that the two of them joked about being named co-teachers of the year and then appearing on a national talk show.

The next morning when he heard Kari Baker had died, he was so shocked that he kept calling her cell phone, Monsey testified.

Earlier, prosecutors played part of a videotaped deposition and some clips from news programs where Matt Baker discussed his wife’s death. He told “48 Hours” that “I never thought in a million years my wife would do this.”

In one interview, he said his wife was awake before he left about 11:10 p.m. to get gas and rent a movie. In another interview, he said she was asleep.

He called 911 about midnight to report finding his wife dead with a suicide note nearby.

Dr. Reade Quinton, a medical examiner with Southwest Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas, testified Thursday that there was no way to determine the levels of drugs found in her system: the prescription sleeping aid Ambien, a weight-loss drug and another drug found in over-the-counter medicines such as Unisom, another sleeping aid.

The autopsy was done three months after her death after authorities reopened the case at her parents’ insistence. Medical examiners had to test muscle tissue because the body had been embalmed, he testified.

Quinton said it was difficult to determine how many pills could kill someone, but said he thought numerous pills crushed into a drink would be easy to detect. He also testified that in smothering cases, he has never seen fibers found in the victim’s throat.

Dr. Chris Hartsell, who did toxicology tests for the autopsy, testified that even one Ambien could make someone go to sleep, and that a few pills crushed in a drink may not be detected.