Defendant testifies during murder trial in Greene County
WAYNESBURG — Scott Baker testified Monday that he didn’t remember cutting the throat of his estranged wife when he killed her, but he remembered seeing blood on the floor.
Baker is on trial for the Nov. 20, 2009, killing of Melissa Baker, who was found in her Crucible mobile home when she failed to show up for work at the Greene County Prison. An autopsy on her body showed she was strangled and her throat was cut when she was either dead or dying.
After the prosecution presented more than three dozen witnesses and then rested in the case last week, Scott Baker, 39, unexpectedly entered a guilty plea for a general count of homicide. The jury must still decide if the killing was first degree or premeditated murder, third-degree murder or possibly voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.
The jury must also decide if Scott Baker is guilty on the charges of tampering with evidence, criminal solicitation to commit homicide and criminal solicitation to commit tampering of evidence and intimidation of a witness.
During the prosecution’s testimony, Scott Baker’s 14-year-old son Nathaniel Baker testified that his father planned to kill Melissa Baker and kept him home from school on the day of the killing so his father would have an alibi. He had further testified that his father told him to go to the bathroom and wait while his father killed his stepmother.
Scott Baker testified that he didn’t “command” his son to go to the bathroom on Nov. 20 and to wait until his wife was dead. He said his son went to the bathroom on his own.
“If I had any intentions of killing my wife, I wouldn’t need this child. I had no intentions of killing my wife, and I would never involve my children,” Scott Baker said.
Scott Baker said what happened was that he and Melissa Baker got into an argument about his need to remain on her medical insurance through their divorce and he got “more and more irate” during the argument.
He said he went to the trailer to drop of his younger son Brett Baker, who was 20 months old at the time. After the argument, Scott Baker said he didn’t remember what happened. He said he last remembered that his wife told him that if he didn’t leave her alone, he wouldn’t see the baby.
“The only thing I know I woke up on top of my wife. My forearm was around her neck and I was on top of her,” Scott Baker said.
During a demonstration in the courtroom, Assistant District Attorney John Friedmann portrayed Melissa Baker by lying on his back on the floor of the courtroom and state police trooper Mark Schmelzlen portrayed Scott Baker by straddling him to show the position in which Scott Baker was lying when he regained memory and was on top of his estranged wife.
After Scott Baker instructed the men numerous times where his arms were located, Scott Baker said the positions the men were displaying were “similar but different.” Scott Baker said he is 6 feet 6 inches tall and his wife was 5 feet 5 inches tall, which was different than the two men performing the re-enactment in court.
Scott Baker said he didn’t remember having a knife on him at any point in time. He said after leaving the trailer, he drove around with his two sons in the truck and went back a second time, when he spilled Melissa Baker’s purse out and put a gun near her body.
Scott Baker said he saw blood near his wife’s body the second time he went back, but not the first. The autopsy revealed three wounds to Melissa Baker’s neck, including a large three-inch cut that severed her carotid artery.
Scott Baker testified that he did remember taking Melissa Baker’s credit cards, shredding them and later having Nathaniel Baker throw them in a garbage can at the Giant Eagle in Dry Tavern.
He also said he took jewelry from the bedroom of Melissa Baker’s trailer and a sheet and burned the sheet at a burn pile near his parent’s home in Clarksville and put the jewelry in duct work at his parents’ bedroom.
Scott Baker said he asked his son if he would think any differently of him if he had killed Melissa and instructed his son to lie to the police and say they we home all day after the killing, but not before.
When District Attorney Marjorie Fox was questioning Scott Baker about when he fed his younger son on Nov. 20, Scott Baker said there are some things he can’t remember.
“You’re making me sound like a bad father,” Scott Baker said. “If you killed someone you’re not going to sit down and have a candlelight dinner. It was not a normal day.”
Scott Baker said he did not call 911 any time after he saw his estranged wife’s purplish blue face, but he did tell his son that he thought he just killed her when he got in the truck. He also said he didn’t remember deleting telephone call records from his cellular telephone.
Scott Baker’s mother, Carla Baker, was the only other witness to take the stand on Monday. She testified that she recalled incidents of Scott Baker’s childhood in which he was abused by his father, who died Sept. 20, 2009.
Carla Baker said her husband dictated to her to write to Scott Baker about the incidents just prior to his death. Carla Baker also said she found an anniversary card from her son to her daughter-in-law on top of the garbage when she went to retrieve Brett Baker’s bed from Melissa Baker’s trailer a couple weeks after her death.
The trial continues at 9 a.m. today before President Judge William R. Nalitz.