KENTUCKY (Transatlantic Today) – A man who was pardoned by Kentucky’s former governor for a 2014 narcotics robbery will receive a 42-year prison sentence for the same offense.
Patrick Baker was found guilty of murder amid a drug trafficking felony in a court hearing last year. He had been free since former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin exonerated him for the murder of Donald Mills in 2019.
However, claims from NBC News that Baker’s family had political ties to Bevin and sponsored a fundraising event for the former Governor brought the case to light. In May, federal investigators filed fresh accusations on Baker for the murder, and he was found guilty in August.
Baker, 43, was convicted and sentenced to 42 years in jail in United States District Court in London on Tuesday, but he was given credit for 30 months spent on his prior conviction. He faced a possible sentence of life in jail.
Baker was guilty of a blatant act of violence – one that culminated in a murder, perpetrated while the victim’s family was close, according to Carlton Shier, United States attorney for Kentucky’s eastern district. Shier also stated that the actions of law enforcement agencies and the prosecution team were important to the finding, conviction, and punishment.
Baker was found guilty of murdering Mills, a Knox County drug dealer while attempting to rob him of money and pain drugs. During the crime, Baker pretended to be a US Marshal. Baker held Mills’ pregnant wife and family at gunpoint while searching the house for oxycodone tablets.
Baker’s lawyers had requested the judge before the trial to limit Baker’s imprisonment to a total of 19 years, this would have been the same as the term that Bevin’s pardon had removed. Judge Claria Horn Boom of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia refused the request.
Baker was charged for the second time under the “dual sovereignty doctrine,” which permits federal and state officials to try the same individual for the same crimes without violating double penalty protections, according to federal prosecutors.
Image via WKYT News
