EVERETT — Detectives Chris Leyda and Steve Martin sat across from Larry Donnell Baker for more than an hour last week questioning the man about the violent rape of a teenage girl in south Everett.
“His face is kind of burned into our brains,” Martin said.
Leyda didn’t hesitate to draw his gun and order Baker to the ground Wednesday after he spotted the fugitive just feet away outside the Snohomish County Courthouse.
Baker was charged on Tuesday with first-degree rape in the Aug. 19 attack on a 17-year-old girl. A $1 million warrant was issued for his arrest. Detectives went looking for him Tuesday after tests showed that his DNA matched genetic evidence collected at the rape scene, according to court documents. Baker also is a suspect in a 2004 unsolved rape in Waterloo, Iowa, police said.
Baker had left the apartment where he’d been released on bail. He told Leyda on Wednesday he’d tried to surrender and was walking over from the jail to the Everett police station. Baker said the rape charge against him was bogus.
Prosecutors allege Baker grabbed a teenage girl as she walked to work, held a box-cutter knife to her throat and raped her. The girl told police the man said he would “slit her throat if she made any noise,” according to the charging documents filed Tuesday. Before he left, the attacker “stated he would see her again,” papers said.
Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives began investigating Baker after a computer matched genetic evidence collected at the rape scene with DNA taken from the 2004 rape in Iowa. Baker had been questioned in that case but refused to give police a DNA sample, according to court records. The Iowa investigation was closed.
“As soon as we got the hit on the DNA from Iowa we knew more than one case was riding on our work,” Leyda said.
Baker was arrested Sept. 26 and freed within hours after posting $25,000 bail. Prosecutors said they had planned to argue for higher bail when Baker appeared in court, but he posted bail before that happened.
“We were extremely disappointed and frustrated he was able to post bail because detectives worked so hard on this case,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.
While Baker was free, police received tips from people in the area that he was still around. Sheriff’s deputies on patrol also reported back that they had seen him. Investigators had to wait to get the results of the DNA comparison before they moved in, Leyda said.
Leyda and Martin said the case has been a high priority for them and other investigators in the sheriff’s Special Investigations Unit.
It was a matter of luck that he saw Baker on Wednesday, Leyda said.
The detective and his fellow investigators had been up most of Tuesday night searching for the Everett man. They watched his apartment and talked to his mother and girlfriend. Both women told police Baker was gone, Leyda said. That made Baker a fugitive.
Detectives advised the women that for Baker’s own safety it would be best if he turned himself in.
Leyda was outside the courthouse Wednesday morning to give a television interview, asking for the public’s help in finding Baker. That’s when he spotted the man walking across the courtyard.
“We’re ready to broadcast a manhunt and there he is,” Leyda said.
He was eager to share news of the arrest with the victim and her family.
The primary concern has been for the girl’s safety, Martin said. It’s difficult to reassure a victim that she is safe when a suspect isn’t behind bars — particularly when the assailant is a stranger.
“For my victim it’s extremely important,” Leyda said after the arrest. “It’s been eating at her, and that’s normal. I’m happy we’re able to give her the peace of mind that we put this guy back in jail.”
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
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