LIMA — “I asked her not to tell anyone. I begged her not to say anything.”
Jurors in the rape trial of Elida resident William Baker on Wednesday heard the defendant speak those words during a jailhouse interview conducted hours after prosecutors say he forced himself sexually upon a 15-year-old girl with whom he was familiar.
Baker, 40, is charged with two counts of rape, sexual battery, and unlawful sexual conduct with a minor in April at a Poling Road residence.
Testimony in the trial in Allen County Common Pleas Court concluded Wednesday afternoon. Jurors will hear closing arguments from attorneys starting at 9 a.m. Thursday and will then begin their deliberations.
Detective Nate Music of the Allen County Sheriff’s Office took the witness stand Wednesday afternoon in the trial’s second day and testified about several facets of his investigation into the charges.
Jurors viewed a 30-minute video of Music’s interview of the defendant at the Sheriff’s Office on the evening of the day of the reported incident. Baker started the interview with his head in his hands and ended it by getting angry, crying and asking, “Do I need an attorney?”
In between, Baker told the detective he had been drinking the night before the incident occurred and couldn’t recall most of the events reported by the victim.
Baker said he recalled “waking up between [the victim’s] legs and thinking, ‘What the hell? What’s going on?’ I was naked and [the victim’s] pants and panties were off.”
Baker was arrested after the interview and was incarcerated in the jail.
Upon questioning by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Terri Kohlrieser, Music said Baker’s calls from jail were monitored and that he told family members during some of those calls that they needed to “make [the victim] recant her story.” Baker, during another phone call, said that “he would make [the victim’s] life a living hell and would teach her how to play this game.”
The state rested its case at the conclusion of Music’s testimony.
Defense Attorney Carroll Creighton called three witnesses to the stand, all of who had familial relationships with the teenager. All three testified that the young girl has a reputation of being untruthful but offered little other pertinent information.
Morning testimony in day two of the trial took a decidedly scientific bent as jurors heard from individuals who collected and analyzed forensic evidence taken from the girl and her attacker.
Emily Miller, a forensic scientist with the Bowling Green office of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, testified that she reviewed evidence and collected samples from clothing and vaginal swabs taken from the girl to be sent to the BCI lab in London, Ohio, for DNA analysis. Miller said she found no semen on the evidence sent to her but said the victim’s underwear tested positive for seminal fluid.
Tim Augsback, a forensic scientist at the London BCI office, said samples were analyzed and DNA profiles were compiled by his office for both the victim and the defendant. He testified that vaginal swabs and a skin swab taken from the teenager’s stomach reflected DNA that “included a probability” of Baker’s presence.
Gayle Chaney, a registered nurse and sexual assault nurse examiner at Lima Memorial Health System, walked jurors through the process of obtaining evidence through a rape kit examination. On a form filed by Chaney indicating what areas the teenagers said were kissed, licked or bitten during the attack, the nurse had written “forehead and stomach.” The girl had previously testified that her genitals had been licked by the defendant during the incident in question.
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Detective Nate Music of the Allen County Sheriff’s Office testified Wednesday in the rape trial of William Baker.
