EVERETT — A jury found Shayne Baker guilty on all counts Monday in shootings that left two men dead and two more injured in 2022.
After three weeks of testimony, jurors began deliberating around 8:30 a.m. Monday. The seven women and five men needed one day to come to a verdict.
Around 4:30 p.m., Baker, 26, was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder in the killings of Anthony Jolly, 44, and Anthony Burnett, 48, in a home on Lexington Avenue.
The jury also found Baker guilty of three counts of first-degree assault for allegedly shooting Trent Wood in the house in the back of the head; shooting at a fourth man who was running away from the home; and shooting a fifth man, Zachary Monary, the day before on Colby Avenue. Jurors found Baker guilty on one count of possession of a stolen vehicle, as well.
Jurors affirmed a special verdict that the defendant was armed with a firearm and had intent to kill at the time the crimes were committed.
The prosecution and defense made their closing arguments Friday.
On the morning of June 19, 2022, Baker got into a brief confrontation with Monary and shot him five times from a blue pickup, paralyzing him from the waist down, police say.
Around 4 p.m. the next day, Baker was at the home on Lexington Avenue with a blue pickup. Wood, who testified in the second week of trial, said Jolly was concerned that the defendant had brought a stolen vehicle on the property and told Wood to grab the keys inside the house to move it somewhere else. Wood, Jolly and Burnett were only in the house for about two to three minutes. Then Baker pulled out a pistol and began shooting, according to Wood’s testimony.
Baker shot and killed Jolly and Burnett and injured Wood in the living room. Baker then shot at another man on the property before escaping in a pickup truck.
On the witness stand, Wood identified the defendant as the shooter.
A day after the Lexington Avenue shooting, officers found and arrested Baker in the truck at the Jimmy John’s at 2602 Broadway.
Baker did not testify at the trial.
On Friday, deputy prosecutor Martha Saracino reviewed the evidence in front of the jury, including Baker being found in a blue Chevy pickup that was seen in surveillance footage outside the Lexington house. Police seized a gun from Baker when he was arrested, and tests showed his DNA was on the trigger. The prosecutor argued it was “obvious” he was the shooter.
Defense attorney Ana Faoro told the jury they don’t know if Baker was at the Lexington house that day, or if he shot Monary on Colby Avenue the day before.
Superior Court Judge Miguel Duran’s law clerk announced the verdict Monday. In a gray dress shirt and tie, Baker watched the clerk deliver the news. Faoro hugged Baker’s loved ones after the verdict was read.
Throughout the trial, lead defense attorney Rachel Forde argued law enforcement did not have sufficient evidence and forensics to convict Baker.
“The investigation was driven by a flawed assumption that the shooter at both scenes was the same person,” Forde wrote in an email Tuesday. “Had police and prosecutors done a more thorough evaluation of the evidence the result of the trial may have been different.”
Prosecuting attorney Martha Saracino did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Baker still faces separate charges of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the killing of Scott Pullen, 48, who was shot to death at an Everett storage facility the month before.
Baker’s sentencing is set for June 21.
Maya Tizon: 425-339-3434; maya.tizon@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @mayatizon.
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