Adam Baker: Guilty of assault

Adam Baker was convicted of misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon following a brief trial in Caldwell County District Court Thursday afternoon. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail. Baker’s attorney filed a notice of appeal and minutes later Baker walked out of the courthouse – free on a written promise to appeal.

Baker is accused of trying to run Brittany Bentley and Zackery Baird off the road in his car. The incident stems from a disagreement between Adam and Elisa Baker with Elisa’s nephew and his fiancé over money owed for selling purses in May of 2010 after.

For months Baker has said his top priority is to go back to Australia where he plans to lay his murdered daughter’s remains to rest. It’s a journey that will have to wait until he’s able to resolve his legal troubles.

In September Baker’s wife, Elisa Baker, pleaded guilty to murdering and dismembering her 10-year-old stepdaughter Zahra. Baker was sentenced to 14 to 18 years in prison for the crime. Adam Baker was never charged in Zahra’s death.

Adam Baker arrived at the Newton courthouse Thursday morning with guarded optimism that he’d be able to sort through his criminal charges by the day’s end. It took most of the day for him to realize he was wrong.

Guilty plea in Newton

Baker started his day at 9:30 a.m. in Newton’s Superior Court where he pleaded guilty to unauthorized reconnection of electricity. Baker admitted he’d used the name and personal of his wife’s son-in-law to turn on the electricity in the family’s rental house at 21 21st Ave., NW in Hickory.

“It wasn’t a situation where he was scheming to get personal gain – he was trying to get the power turned on for his family,” said Baker’s attorney Mark Killian. “Elisa Baker got James Starbuck’s social security number and information and got Adam Baker to call and say he had permission to turn on the power in his name.”

In exchange for Baker’s guilty plea, Baker’s charges of identity theft and obtaining property by false pretenses were dismissed.

Baker’s punishment for reconnecting his electricity was being ordered to pay $349 in restitution. He was also given a suspended sentence of 45 days in jail and 18 months of unsupervised probation.

“Mr. Baker wishes to return to Australia with his daughter’s remains rather than continue to languish here,” Killian said. “That’s the reason we did this plea.”

Baker was surrounded by a throng of reporters as he walked downstairs to the Clerk of Court’s office where he pulled an envelope filled with cash out of his pocket and paid his restitution.

Guilty verdict in Lenoir

From there, Baker went to Lenoir where he faced two counts of communicating threats and assault with a deadly weapon.

Baker was expected to plead guilty in an effort to move the legal process along so he could go back to Australia.

 “We negotiated all day with the district attorney’s office and they couldn’t come to a resolution we could agree to, so that’s why we went to trial,” said Baker’s attorney Shell Pearce – the lawyer appointed to represent him in his Caldwell County charges.

The trial began just after 4 p.m.

Brittany Bentley was the first to take the stand. Her husband Zackery Baird came next. Both told of the night they’d been confronted by an angrier Adam Baker than they’d ever seen before.

He’d come to collect the money he said they owed Elisa.

Bentley and Baird’s story was complicated.

They said that Baker was alone in his Toyota Camry and tried to run their Ford Bronco off the road twice.

When Baker took the stand, he said they’d driven for about an hour. They’d told him to follow them as they tried unsuccessfully to cash checks at various convenience stores. They wouldn’t answer their cell phones.

“I was flashing my lights trying to figure out what the Hell was going on,” Baker said from the witness stand. “I pulled in front of them and put on my emergency lights and slowed down, but Brittany sped around me and continued on.”

Baker kept going when Bentley pulled into Baird’s parent’s driveway. After a phone conversation with Elisa Baker, Bentley and Baird agreed to meet the Bakers at a Hudson convenience store.

Baker said Baird tossed the purses he’d been selling for Elisa into Baker’s car, gave Elisa the money then jumped in Bentley’s back seat and yelled “Come on – let’s go – let’s go.”

Baird said that’s because the Bakers threatened him and his eight-month-old child with a pistol and a stun gun.

“(Elisa) said she knows where we live and where my baby is and said she’ll come and get us,” he said, adding that she was brandishing a stun gun at the time. “Adam said something about a .45 (caliber pistol) – he said he’d kill me with a .45 – something like that.”

Baird said he saw the stun gun, and even though he never saw Baker’s pistol, he too, the threat seriously.

Baker said the conversation never happened.

As Baird and Bentley drove away they called the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office to report the theats against their child and themselves. Deputies picked up the child from Bentley’s mother’s house and met Bentley and Baird at a local business.

From there, Bentley and Baird went to the Caldwell County magistrate and took out arrest warrants on Adam and Elisa Baker.

During Bentley and Baird’s testimony they said Elisa Baker had definitely threatened them but seemed less sure that Adam had.

District Court Judge Robert Mullinax Jr. dismissed the communicating threats charges against Baker. Then Mullinax found Baker guilty of assault with a deadly weapon – a charge Pearce immediately announced he planned to appeal in Superior Court.

Baker still faces misdemeanor charges of failure to return rental property and six counts of worthless checks.

His new court dates were not immediately available.

What’s next for Adam Baker?

Baker currently remains in the United States under an immigration detainer by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was placed on him following his arrest in April 2011.

Baker is still wearing a monitoring device on his left ankle. He showed it to the bailiff when it set off the metal detector in the Lenoir courthouse.

ICE has been in contact with Baker about his plan to leave for Australia when his legal matters are completed, according to Vincent Picard, Southern Region Communications Director for ICE.

"As is routinely done in cases involving non-detained aliens arranging their own departure from the United States, Mr. Baker will provide ICE with flight details for his return to Australia and our agents will verify his departure," Picard said.

He could not comment on whether ICE had Baker's passport, saying that was a violation of Baker's privacy.

Killian said Baker will be deported to Australia once his criminal charges are resolved.

“There is a deportation order – it was filed in May or June 2011,” he said.