Jury convicts former Texas minister of killing wife whose death was first ruled a suicide

Former Texas minister convicted of killing wife

WACO, Texas — A former Texas minister was convicted late Wednesday of slipping his wife sleeping pills, smothering her to death with a pillow and faking her suicide note so he could be with his mistress.

Jurors deliberated more than seven hours before convicting Matt Baker, 38, of murder in his wife’s 2006 death, which initially was ruled a suicide.

Baker did not testify during the seven-day trial and showed no emotion when the verdict was read, but relatives of his wife, Kari, began to cry. After the judge revoked Baker’s bond, he shook his attorney’s hand and said “thank you” as a sheriff’s deputy took him into custody.

Kari Baker’s mother, Linda Dulin, sobbed loudly as she hugged prosecutor Susan Shafer and said “we did it” as she left the courtroom.

Baker faces up to life in prison at sentencing, which was set for Thursday. A gag order on attorneys in the case remained in effect until after sentencing.

Jurors were instructed that to find Baker guilty, they had to agree on two things: that Baker drugged his wife and that he suffocated her with a pillow.

Earlier Wednesday, jurors asked whether they could find Baker guilty without agreeing he smothered her. State District Judge Ralph Strother told them in a note to follow the original instructions, but he did not repeat the wording.

Jurors also found themselves at odds over the testimony of Vanessa Bulls, Baker’s former mistress.

They had sent the judge a note saying there were disagreements about her testimony regarding “what went on” between her and Baker at his daughter’s birthday slumber party two weeks after his wife’s death, and what she told investigators last year.

Bulls testified Tuesday that during the party, she stayed up all night talking to the girls and did not have sex with Baker. Bulls later testified that she told investigators last year that she and Baker had sex that night.

Jurors were provided that part of the trial transcript as they had requested.

Shafer, the prosecutor, said during closing arguments that Baker had told a “web of lies” since his wife’s death. She said Kari’s upbeat e-mails about a new job just before her death contradicted Baker’s story that she killed herself because she was depressed over their middle daughter’s 1999 cancer death.

Bulls testified that Baker told her he slipped his wife the prescription sleep aid Ambien, handcuffed her to the bed under the guise of spicing up their marriage, and smothered her with a pillow after she fell asleep. Baker then typed a suicide note and rubbed his wife’s lifeless hand over it in case authorities tested for fingerprints, Bulls testified.

The medical examiner overseeing the autopsy testified that it was hard to detect signs of smothering and that he did not see any trauma to Kari’s body. But another medical examiner who only reviewed the autopsy report said he saw an abrasion on Kari’s nose that was consistent with being smothered.

Shafer also urged jurors to note Baker’s contradictory statements in his deposition and his interviews to “48 Hours” and “20/20.”

“She was in the way of the life that he had envisioned for himself, and he was a Baptist preacher and he couldn’t divorce; he’d lose his job, and he’d have trouble getting another one,” Shafer told jurors.

Defense attorney Guy James Gray said Baker was on trial for murder only because he had lied about having an affair.

An autopsy report listed the cause of death as undetermined, and the partial palm print on the suicide note could have been Kari’s because an expert ruled out Baker and investigators who may have touched it, Gray said.

Kari Baker’s fingerprints and palm prints could not be obtained. Her body was exhumed for the autopsy three months after her death amid suspicions she did not kill herself.

Defense attorney Harold Danford said many prosecution witnesses were brought in “to make you mad at Matt” and urged jurors not to vote with their emotions.

Gray also said Bulls was not credible and “may be pathological” because she repeatedly lied to police and others during the investigation.

Prosecutor Crawford Long said Bulls eventually told the truth about her affair and knowing about Kari’s death, even though “everything she said makes her look worse and worse, and that’s why you know it’s true.”