12.Deadly.Little.Secrets.2012 (36 page)

The way he’d tell it, Baker and his mother convinced him otherwise, pushing him to sign back on as Matt’s attorney. “They pleaded and begged, and they didn’t let up,” says Gray. “I finally gave in, and said I’d take the case back.” Again, stressing why he felt compelled to represent Matt, Gray would say that the general opinion in Kerrville hadn’t changed; those who knew Matt viewed him as a martyr, a good man persecuted by a domineering mother-in-law who couldn’t accept her daughter’s suicide.

Once he took the case, Gray again considered the evidence. As he saw it, little had changed with one exception: Vanessa Bulls. “She’d talked to the grand jury, and they’d indicted,” he says. “So she must have told them something different than she told me.”

Yet he wasn’t as worried as he might have been because he had three tape-recorded interviews in which Bulls had denied knowing anything: the first with his investigator; the second with Hewitt PD; and the third, her initial talk with Rodriguez. “If she was telling a different story, she was contradicting her own words,” says Gray. “She would have lied not once but three times.”

There was one thing that did bother Gray, however: Matt wasn’t acting the way he’d expect when facing a possible life sentence. “It was odd. He didn’t appear worried,” says Gray.

T
he Baker case would fill 2009 for Shafer. “It was pretty much all I worked on,” she’d say later. “We had many of the pieces without Vanessa’s testimony, but we didn’t have the picture, like the one on a puzzle box that ties it all together.”

As they actively readied it for trial, Shafer sent the only physical evidence they had from the scene, the note and pill bottle, out for retesting. What they were looking for was DNA or fingerprints. Again, Matt’s fingerprints and DNA weren’t found, but there were interesting results. Most intriguing was that Vanessa Bulls was a possible contributor to DNA found on the Unisom bottle.

Again, Bulls was questioned. “We went at her hard about the DNA,” Long says. “She was steadfast that she wasn’t there, and we didn’t have any evidence to the contrary.”

In the end, the DNA numbers were so low that they were far from conclusive. “The findings weren’t solid,” says Long. “They were small numbers, meaning that they could have been from someone else. There wasn’t anything there we could use.”

For instance, Linda Dulin was a possible source of DNA found on the suicide note, but she’d never touched it. “All these numbers weren’t reliable,” he says. “But we knew Gray would make use in a courtroom of the fact that Vanessa was a possible contributor to the DNA on the bottle.”

Fall 2009 arrived, and Shafer got ready for trial, interviewing witnesses and studying the intricacies of computer records, so she’d be able to explain such complicated matters to jurors as the way drugs are purchased on the Internet. As the weeks counted down to the January trial date, she culled through the interviews Matt Baker had given the press, TV, and written media, along with his testimony during the deposition for the civil trial. Shafer drew up a chart, comparing Matt’s quotes, listing what he told whom and when, to illustrate his inconsistencies. “That was something you almost never have in a trial,” says Long. “We had Matt Baker’s own words in the press. And we had this thorough interview Bill Johnston had done with Matt Baker, in which he locked himself into his account.”

As the case came together, there were aha moments, times when a bit of evidence came into focus; one was when Shafer interviewed the first responders to the scene. On the 911 call, Matt claimed to be in the bedroom, feverishly attempting to revive his wife. But the EMTs arriving on the scene had another version. “They told us Matt wasn’t even in the house,” says Shafer. “He was standing at the front door, still on the phone.”

There was also the matter of the telephone; Matt said he used the cordless phone next to the bed to call 911. In the photos, that phone was on its base on a nightstand. Matt was still on the phone when the EMTs arrived, and the police said that he never reentered the bedroom while they were there. If Matt had used the bedroom phone, how did he put it back on the base? “We realized it was a show, all of it,” Shafer says. “Nothing he claimed on the 911 tape happened.”

Another day, Shafer inspected the crime-scene photos and noticed that the lividity in Kari’s left arm was more pronounced than in the right arm. To get another set of expert eyes on the crime-scene photos and the autopsy, Long hired Dr. Sridhar Natarajan, the head pathologist in Lubbock, Texas. First, Shafer sent the M.E. all the photos and the autopsy. Then, shortly before Thanksgiving, Long and Shafer flew to Lubbock to meet with the pathologist in person.

The lividity pattern was one of the questions Shafer put before Natarajan. When Shafer asked about the left arm, the ME said what she’d anticipated, that the arm in question had to have been lower than the rest of the body. “I saw that as pretty important,” she says. “I mean, why in the world would someone lie about something like the position of the body? Matt Baker lies about things he doesn’t even have to lie about.”

As Shafer saw it, Baker was someone who’d always been able to talk himself out of trouble and who believed he was more intelligent than everyone else. “He figured he’d get out of this, too,” she says. “No matter who he’s with, Matt’s the kind of guy who figures he’s the smartest one in the room.”

Meanwhile, Long asked the medical examiner about a discoloration on Kari’s nose, one clearly visible in the crime-scene and autopsy photos. From the beginning, Bennett and McNamara had voiced the theory that Kari had been first drugged, then smothered. Long wondered if the bruise was evidence pointing to that conclusion. The M.E. responded that the mark was an abrasion, one that could have come from Kari’s having been smothered by a pillow.

As they got ready to walk into the courtroom, Long and Shafer assessed their case. Despite what they’d pulled together, there were still those nagging problems, the biggest that they didn’t have a homicide finding on the autopsy. “There was no definitive ruling on manner of death,” says Long. “We knew Gray would exploit that.”

Add to that the unwillingness of the medical experts Long had contacted to say that the lividity visible in Kari’s body was absolutely impossible during the forty-five-minute time period of Matt’s alibi, and the prospects were troublesome.

When it came to the scientific evidence seen on programs like
CSI,
they had little. Instead, the case’s linchpin was Bulls. But she’d lied so often, would a jury believe her?

Yet there were the strong points, too. One: So much would be allowed in the trial simply because of Matt’s own actions. In most cases the statements of a dead person are hearsay and inadmissible, since the person is unable to take the stand. But Matt had talked to others about what Kari had said, and he was alive. “Matt Baker’s statements were not hearsay, so we could bring all of that before the jury because he’d talked about those things with Linda Dulin and Jo Ann Bristol,” explains Long. “All of it became admissible through his own words, plus what he’d said in the deposition. He screwed up. The way it worked out, he couldn’t object because they were his own statements.”

As the days counted down, Shafer saw the case come together. But was it solid enough? As they prepared opening arguments, Shafer and Long agreed that Matt would want to testify. “Baker has a history of talking, even when it’s not in his best interest,” she says.

It was then that Shafer had an idea. The plan came to her while listening to the 911 tape. The entire phone call took little more than four minutes, a brief time to do all Matt said he did, from dressing Kari and pulling her off the bed to administering CPR. “Baker would have to be Superman. There’s no way,” says Shafer.

She thought about ways to illustrate the incongruity between what Matt said he’d done and what was possible. In the end, what Shafer devised was a trap she’d bait with Matt Baker’s own words.

M
eanwhile, in Guy James Gray’s office in Kerrville, a drama unfolded that threatened to postpone the trial. Over the months, Gray had pushed Matt to tell him everything, so that he’d be prepared in the courtroom, and high on the list was what Bulls might say. Steadfastly, Matt had denied that the relationship had been sexual. Then, in December, with the trial looming, Matt and Barbara again talked to his defense attorney. “At that meeting, what Matt Baker told me was that he’d been lying, and that he did have a sexual relationship with Vanessa Bulls before his wife died,” says Gray.

The defense attorney was furious. The next day, Gray and his cocounsel, a Kerrville attorney Gray had brought on named Harold Danford, both filed motions in which they asked to be taken off the case, saying they had a serious breach of confidence with their client. Yet new counsel could delay a trial for months or more, and the judge ruled against them.

That didn’t sit well with Gray, who’d convinced himself early on that he had an innocent client. Suddenly Gray, like the prosecutors, had Baker pegged as a liar. “I think the judge should have let me leave,” he says, with a frown. “From that point on, I never talked to Baker unless I legally had to. I wanted nothing to do with him.”

Chapter 51

T
exas
v.
Matthew Dee Baker was called to order on the morning of Wednesday, January 13, 2010, in McLennan County’s 19
th
District Court. Presiding from behind the bench was Judge Ralph Strother, a rosy-cheeked man with a balding pate and a stark white beard and mustache.

In the audience, Kari’s family filled two rows, Jim sitting beside Linda much of the time, with his arm protectively wrapping her shoulders. Linda’s father attended and, of course, the angels: Lindsey, Nancy, and Kay. Jennifer, who’d backed her sisters throughout their fight, had flown in from Florida. Others included extended family and friends, and Shannon Gamble, who founded the blog that had become a rallying point for supporters. In the months leading up to the trial, the music Gamble had on the blog was Johnny Cash’s gruff voice singing: “You can run . . . but sooner or later, God’ll cut you down.”

The press filled the front row, and behind them on the right-hand side in a reserved row sat Barbara Baker, severely dressed, with dry eyes and a taut smile. Matt’s father, Oscar, hadn’t come, nor his sister. When asked, Barbara said that her husband had stayed home to care for Kensi and Grace and that Matt’s sister was busy with her own family. Neither ever did attend, and throughout the trial, Barbara would either sit alone or with a small handful of supporters.

Bill Johnston wasn’t in the audience, but John Bennett and Mike McNamara were, listening as Susan Shafer addressed the jury, offering a window into the testimony that lay ahead. Shafer outlined the evidence that was to come, from the accounts of those who’d seen Kari and Matt that final evening to the EMTs who found Matt not administering CPR but on the front porch.

Then Shafer introduced the central figure in her case. “You are going to hear from Vanessa Bulls. You are going to see her. And she is going to come in and tell you about the affair she had with Matt Baker both before and after Kari Baker’s death. Vanessa Bulls is going to tell you how Matt brought her into the marital bed while Kari was still alive. And she’s going to tell you how Matt Baker killed Kari on the night of April 7. Vanessa is going to give you all the information you need . . . and we feel confident that after you hear the evidence we’ll bring to you, that you’ll find Matt Baker guilty.”

It was the first inkling Gray had of what Bulls would say on the stand. Still digesting that the prosecutors’ star witness had made a complete about-face, he stood up to address the jurors. Gray began by painting a starkly different picture. In his account, it wasn’t Matt who’d lived a double life but Kari: “As a schoolteacher, she was relatively happy, very professional, and well liked. Then she had a private life, a home life that was quite a bit different . . . She had this private pain. This child that died—the middle one—it was a very, very traumatic death . . . It was something that consumed her.”

As Matt had told so many, Gray argued that Kari became depressed each year around the anniversary of Kassidy’s death. He cited the medical record, in which a doctor prescribed an antidepressant for Kari just days before she died. And then Gray admitted Matt’s affair: “Pretty classic, preacher and the daughter of the music minister.”

So much would never be known due to Hewitt PD’s shoddy crime-scene work, Gray pointed out. In his opening statement, the defense detailed the problems that Long and Shafer had discussed between themselves, especially the lack of a finding of homicide on the death certificate and a toxicology report that left so many questions unanswered.

Then, once Gray finished, the prosecutors began to present their evidence. The first witness was a Spring Valley teacher who’d seen Kari that last morning, one who said Kari was excited about the prospect of the new job and fretted over getting Grace into the class she wanted for her the coming fall. Then Basy Barrera recounted Kari’s final beauty-shop visit. “To me, she never seemed better,” said Barrera. “Kari had just lost fifteen pounds.”

Yet with Gray, Barrera admitted that Kari hadn’t always been happy, especially in the days following Kassidy’s death. “How was she then?” the defense attorney asked.

“Sad, of course,” said Barrera.

At the Y, Kari didn’t acknowledge Kim Jackson in the stands, and Matt mouthed that his wife wasn’t well. “She was not her normal self that night,” Jackson said. Kari looked like she’d been crying. “They both were acting very differently.”

After the testimony regarding the Family Y, Shafer put the medical personnel who’d responded to the scene on the stand. In the end, their testimony would be varied. Some didn’t observe any lividity, while others not only saw it but also noted it on their reports. Yet none described Kari as warm. The terms they used ranged from cool to cold. The problem for prosecutors was that Gray cross-examined and again pointed out the shoddy work done by Hewitt PD. The ambient temperature in the room was never taken, nor was Kari’s body temperature. With so much left undone, how could anyone really know when Kari died?

During cross-examinations, Gray hammered away at witnesses, questioning why they administered CPR if Kari was so clearly dead, and one other thing: None of them had seen any signs of a fight. If there’d been a murder, shouldn’t there have been some kind of struggle? Gray suggested. Still there was something else that struck those on the scene that night as odd. With his wife lying dead on the floor, Matt didn’t appear at all upset.

Officer Michael Irving never saw the pools of vomit and foam that Matt said had come from Kari. In fact, if it had been there, the EMTs said they wouldn’t have hooked up their equipment. Yet had the Hewitt police protected the meager evidence they did take? No. They hadn’t even used gloves to collect the suicide note and pill bottle.

Gradually, the prosecutors brought into evidence the handful of crime-scene photos, including the four with the body. “Do you see pens on the nightstand?” Shafer asked, pointing to ballpoints near the note. The inference was that if Kari had written the note and wanted to sign it, she could have. Why then was her name only typed?

On the witness stand, Justice of the Peace Billy Martin appeared uncomfortable. He’d been a justice of the peace in McLennan County for twelve years, he said. “Is one of your duties to determine if an autopsy should be ordered in a death?” Long inquired.

“Yes, sir,” Martin answered, explaining that the existence of a note and what he’d heard from Hewitt PD convinced him that in this case one wasn’t necessary. And after the inquest? “Did you change the ruling . . . to what?” Long asked.

“Undetermined,” Martin answered.

Throughout, the jurors sat at attention while the scientific testimony left question marks. Over and over again it was apparent that law enforcement had failed Kari, never adequately investigating her death. In the end, it would be times such as Jo Ann Bristol in the witness box recounting her last meeting with Kari that would linger. “I think that Matt is planning to kill me,” Kari had said.

Accounts of Matt’s tenure at the Waco Center for Youth were offered by a handful of witnesses. They told of the procedure for distributing pills, one that didn’t account for the pills in his briefcase, his strange change in appearance after Kari’s death, and the mysterious disappearance of his computer. Not only did Matt not seem upset by Kari’s death, but he talked of her as a “dark cloud,” saying he’d no longer loved her.

Whenever the opportunity presented itself, Gray brought out Kari’s journals. Yes, a variety of witnesses said, she’d written often saying she wanted to be with her dead daughter, but the dates, where there were any, were from years earlier. What Kari wrote in her Bible days before her death didn’t even mention Kassidy; instead, it named Matt and asked God to protect her.

While she had Ben Toombs on the stand, Shafer played the 911 call and put before the jury the receipts from Matt’s trip to the gas station and Hollywood Video. Off and on throughout the trial, she played DVDs of Matt’s interviews for the jury, demonstrating his contradictory statements. In some, Matt Baker described Kari as awake when he left. In others, she was half asleep or “lethargic, eyes drooping.”

On the stand, Dr. Reade Quinton talked of the problems he’d encountered during the autopsy. Yet although he couldn’t say how much was in her system at the time of her death, he said unequivocally that Kari Baker had ingested the drug Ambien. During cross-examination, Quinton discussed the sedative effect of the alcohol, the Ambien, and the Unisom, but he couldn’t say what level would be necessary to prove lethal. “Bottom line is that you don’t know?” Gray asked.

“Yes,” the physician admitted.

The days passed, and the trial continued. Todd and Jenny Monsey told of the birthday party and their surprise at finding Matt already inserting Vanessa into his family. With both, Gray asked about Kari’s depression after Kassidy’s death.

Bits and pieces, each so important, nearly all of it first pulled together by Charlie’s Angels and the Dulins’ investigators. Noel Kersh detailed Matt’s Internet life on the days leading up to Kari’s murder, in which he searched for information on overdoses and shopped for Ambien. Mark Henry, the CEO of one of the pharmacies, took the stand and in staggering detail laid out the route that brought mattdb7722 to put Ambien in his shopping cart. Yet Matt never completed the purchase.

For the prosecution, it felt like one step forward and one step back.

At times, a deep sadness filled the courtroom, perhaps never more so than when Linda testified, introducing herself as “the mother of Kari and Adam and the wife of Jim.” Her eyes filled with tears, she asked, “Can you tell this is unsettling?” In the otherwise silent courtroom, Linda Dulin told of the daughter she’d lost, the ambitious young woman who’d worked hard to get her master’s and poured her attention and love into building a family. “Kari was such an extrovert, loved life, a joy to be around,” she said. “An excellent teacher, and more than anything, she loved her daughters . . . a wonderful wife.”

Like Bristol, Linda talked of what Matt had told her about the WCY pills and about the hundreds of cell-phone calls to Vanessa Bulls that finally led her to believe Matt had committed the ultimate sin, murder.

When Gray asked about Kassidy’s death, Linda answered calmly, not denying that her daughter grieved when Kassidy died. “Did she miss her child? Yes. She missed her child. But Kari had faith she would see her again in heaven.”

“Isn’t it a fact that she routinely used sleeping pills?” Gray asked.

“Yes, that is a fact,” Linda answered.

So much for the jurors to absorb, but it all laid the groundwork for the prosecutors’ twenty-seventh witness: Vanessa Bulls.