Rape trial jurors left to sort out conflicting stories

Published 11:05 pm Tuesday, January 13, 2009

EVERETT — One of them is telling the truth and one of them is lying.

It will be up to a Snohomish County jury to decide whom to believe.

Jurors began deliberating Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of raping a 17-year-old girl. Larry Baker, 34, is charged with first-degree rape with a deadly weapon.

The girl, who took the stand last week, told jurors Baker grabbed her off the sidewalk and threatened to slash her throat with a box-cutter knife as she was walking to her job at McDonald’s. She testified that Baker dragged her to the parking lot of a condominium building, sexually assaulted her on the ground and then told her he’d be seeing her around.

Baker of Everett took the stand for a second day Tuesday morning. He told jurors he didn’t rape the teenager. Baker said he’d met the girl a couple of times and the sexual encounter was consensual.

Attorneys made closing arguments Tuesday afternoon, wrapping up a weeklong trial.

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson told jurors it boiled down to whom jurors believed was telling the truth and whose version of events has remained consistent since Aug. 19, 2007.

The girl has consistently recalled the events of that morning, Matheson said. Her version has been corroborated by evidence collected by police, including the discovery of a box-cutter knife at the scene and an identical knife found in Baker’s apartment, Matheson said.

Baker changed his version of what happened that morning once he was confronted with genetic evidence that proved he had sexual contact with the girl, Matheson said. Baker made up an elaborate story about how he’d met the girl weeks earlier and how she wanted to have sex with him in the dirt and rain while she was walking to work, Matheson said.

Common sense and the evidence proves that Baker’s story is a lie, the deputy prosecutor said.

“If you believe (the teenager) and find her more credible, this guy is guilty,” Matheson said.

Baker’s attorney, Pete Mazzone, told jurors that the girl made up the rape allegation. Her account of the events wasn’t consistent and the evidence doesn’t add up, he said, and police botched the investigation, including their interrogation of Baker.

Baker knew the girl and they had an unplanned sexual encounter that morning, he said.

“I don’t know why she made up what she made up,” Mazzone said.

Maybe she was worried because she was late for work or maybe she was worried she might be pregnant by a guy who her boyfriend knew, Mazzone said.

“We should not convict on the whim of a young woman who makes things up that can’t possibly be true,” the Everett attorney said.

Jurors were expected to continue deliberating today.

No matter what the jury decides, Baker may be facing more legal troubles. Investigators say the genetic evidence collected in the Everett case matched DNA found in an unsolved rape in Waterloo, Iowa, according to court documents.

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.