KXXV-TV News Channel 25 - Central Texas News and Weather for Waco, Temple, Killeen | Baker murder trial rescheduled

Baker murder trial rescheduled

by Bruce Gietzen

WACO - Just before 3 pm News Channel 25 learned  Matt Baker's murder trial has been for more than three months and has now been rescheduled for January 12, 2010.  The former Waco-area pastor is charged with killing his wife, Kari, by drugging her with sleeping pills and then suffocating her with a pillow in the bedroom of their Hewitt home.

A spokesperson in Judge Ralph Strother's 19th District Court confirmed the schedule change, saying some of the witnesses in the case could not participate September 29th, when the trial was set to begin.  

Kari Baker's mother, Linda Dulin was surprised to hear about the delay, but said, "We've waited this long, we want it to be done right. We're seeking the truth, and we've waited this long to get it -- we'll just have to wait a little longer."

Baker was originally arrested for his wife's murder and then had those charges dropped because the District Attorney's office didn't indict him with six months.  But after a female acquaintance of the former pastor, Vanessa Bulls, testified before a McLennan County Grand Jury, Baker was arrested and then indicted for Kari Baker's murder.
 
Hewitt police found her body in their home in April of 2006, and the death was originally ruled a suicide.  But four months later, Justice of the Peace Billy Martin ordered her body exhumed and an autopsy performed at the urging of Kari Baker's parents, who insisted she was murdered.  That autopsy showed traces of sleeping pills and medicine in her muscle tissues.