WACO, Texas — A minister drugged his wife, handcuffed her to the bed under the guise of having a romantic evening, and then smothered her with a pillow until she died, his ex-mistress testified today at his murder trial.
Vanessa Bulls said Matt Baker, then a Baptist preacher, had talked about killing his wife and making it look like a suicide. His wife, Kari Baker, had previously attempted suicide, Bulls said.
Bulls told jurors she did not help Baker plan the murder or participate in it, but she never reported it to authorities because she was afraid of exposing the affair that she said began about two months before Kari Baker’s 2006 death. Bulls, 27, also said she was afraid of being arrested for knowing about Baker’s plans but not stopping him.
“He was and still is a manipulative liar who took me in my vulnerable state and made me believe everything he said,” said Bulls, who has been granted immunity from prosecution.
Baker’s attorney, Guy James Gray, told jurors last week that Kari Baker’s death, initially ruled a suicide, only became a murder case after authorities found out about his affair. Baker has maintained his wife committed suicide because of severe depression.
Baker, 38, faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Bulls said Baker told her that on a night he and his wife were to have a romantic evening, he emptied some “horse pills” that were sexual enhancement drugs, then put the prescription sleep aid Ambien in the casings. Bulls said Baker told her that his wife took the pills, unaware that he had switched the medicine. He took the real pills.
Bulls said Baker handcuffed his wife to the bed, kissed her until she fell asleep and then smothered her with a pillow. But she gasped for breath, so Baker put his hand over the pillow directly over her nose until she died, Bulls testified.
According to Bulls, Baker said he then typed and printed a suicide note and arranged the room so her death would appear to have been a suicide.
Bulls said she felt trapped with Baker because he said no one would believe her if she told because he was a preacher. She continued seeing him for about three months.
Then she broke up with him and urged him to turn himself in. “He became irate. … He said, ‘I killed my wife for you and now you’re leaving?’” Bulls told jurors.
She said about a month later, Baker called to ask how she was in what she described as “the creepiest phone call of my life.” She said she reiterated that she wanted nothing to do with him.
“He said, ‘I miss you.’ … I said, ‘You’ve got to turn yourself in.’ He said, ‘God has forgiven me.’”
Bulls’ testimony was to continue later today.
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