Deadly Little Secrets Part 20

"I'm asking you today to do the same courtesy for me that you've done for the police, who have much more authority than I, and answer questions for me similar to those asked of you then, and others I may have in mind," Johnston said. "Will you do that?"

"Under the advice of my attorneys, I a.s.sert my right for the Fifth Amendment."

"Will that be your response if I continue asking questions that are substantive regarding this case?"

"Correct," Baker said.

With that, Matt's deposition ended thirteen minutes after it began. Although Johnston had warned the Dulins this could happen, the reality was still crushing. Jim looked at Linda, and she shook her head in disgust.

It took only moments for the room to be resettled, and for the tables to turn from Johnston questioning Matt to James Rainey setting his sights on Linda. To begin, Rainey asked: "Why have you filed a wrongful death suit?"

"Because we believe that Matt Baker took our daughter's life and set it up as suicide."

"By 'took her life' you mean he killed her?"

Linda didn't mince words: "I mean he murdered her. Yes, sir."

"Why do you believe these things?" Rainey asked.

Twice Linda started and stopped, trying to get her words together. "I would have preferred that my daughter had taken her life and have my granddaughters safe." She sighed, then continued, "I fought these feelings for quite a while, but there were circ.u.mstances that happened beginning shortly after Kari died that would not allow us to ignore what was becoming increasingly clear."

"What do you mean by shortly?" Rainey asked.

"Right after she was buried."

At times, Rainey seemed surprised, as when he asked twice if Kari had truly been buried just two days after her death. "Yes, sir," Linda said, not adding that it was at the insistence of his client. When Rainey asked what spurred her suspicions about Matt, Linda laid out what she'd heard from her sisters.

As his client talked, Johnston wondered about the gray-haired woman seated at the table next to Matt and suddenly questioned if she belonged there. When he discovered the interloper was Matt's mother, Johnston asked Rainey incredulously, "Is she a party to this case?"

"She's not," Rainey admitted.

"I invoke the rule," Johnston said, marveling that the woman would interject herself into the morning's events. "I object to a nonparty being present."

Rainey asked Barbara to leave, and she did.

From that point on, Rainey asked questions about the process that had taken Linda from standing up for her son-in-law to believing that he'd murdered her daughter. They talked of Kari's words to Bristol, and the matters Johnston and his investigators had worked so hard to uncover, including nailing down the allegations in Matt's past. Through it all, Linda detailed everything from finding Vanessa's number on Matt's bills to the way he'd kept the Dulins' granddaughters from them.

At times, the testimony became highly emotional, Linda needing to pause and calm her tumbling emotions. She apologized, then forged ahead. She couldn't answer everything Rainey wanted to know, and she told him so, explaining that the investigation was ongoing. In particular, she wouldn't speculate on how Matt murdered Kari.

Apologetic at times, Linda acknowledged that she was a novice at pulling together the strands of an inquiry into a mysterious death. "I'm not an investigator," she said.

That day, Linda put on the record that she disagreed with much of what Matt had said, including how he portrayed the ride home from the doctor, in which he claimed Kari attempted to jump out on the freeway.

"Did it seem like Matt was overreacting to that or something?" Rainey asked.

"It sounded like Kari thought Matt was being kind of silly," Linda responded.

Perhaps, Rainey suggested, Kari blamed herself for Ka.s.sidy's death, agreeing with Matt's charge that she'd been the one responsible. But it wasn't that Kari blamed herself, Linda said: "She thought Matt blamed her . . . She loved Matt, and she was very hurt . . . She defended Matt, always defended Matt."

The conviction that Kari hadn't died as Matt described came in bits and pieces, including the hours Linda spent at the computer researching Unisom. "It was just me being Nancy Drew," she said.

"What do you take for a sleep aid?" Rainey asked.

"I have a prescription my doctor gave me for Ambien, but I don't take it often," Linda said. Then, knowing Matt's attorney could suggest Kari had gotten the drugs from her, Linda cleared up precisely when she'd started taking the sleeping pill. "My doctor gave me that prescription after Kari died."

"After Kari died?" Rainey asked.

"Yes."

At times, Linda became aware of Matt watching, listening to her every word. Usually, she tried to ignore his presence, concentrating on the attorneys, but when Rainey asked how Matt had changed after Kari's death, Linda turned to the man she blamed for her daughter's death. "Excuse me, Matt, for saying it this way," she said. "But, I mean, he just started trying to be some little cool hip daddy guy, you know?"

"You think that the fact that there were pictures of Vanessa up and none of Kari that went to motive, thinking that's a reason why Matt killed Kari?" Rainey asked.

"You know," Linda said. "It was another little piece of the puzzle."

Now it seemed ironic that Kari so believed in Matt that she'd ignored everything that suggested he wasn't the good Christian she thought she married. That thought flooded Linda with sadness. "Kari loved pa.s.sionately," she explained. "The people she loved, she stood up for. And she stood up for Matt."

"So what you're telling me then doesn't sound like Matt Baker was actually ever indicted or actual formal criminal charges brought against Matt Baker?" Rainey asked. When it came to the p.o.r.nography on the laptop computer from Crossroads, Matt's attorney asked, "And did the church have a policy against people looking at it?"

"He's a preacher," Linda said.

"I understand," Rainey said.

"Understand, that I'm giving you information that is just little piece by piece that by itself seems fairly harmless, until you start adding up all the pieces . . . I mean, Matt is a minister . . . He preyed on women."

"Do you have a smoking gun?" Rainey asked a while later.

"Oh, if I had a smoking gun, it would be right here on this table," Linda said.

"As we sit here today, you don't have any major piece of evidence that you would call a smoking gun, do you?"

"I do not have a smoking gun," she said. " . . . I have pieces of a puzzle that show Kari did not commit suicide, but we're not at the finish line yet. By the time we get there, we will have the answers we need."

This was a civil suit, and as the afternoon ground to a close, Rainey wanted to establish what harm had been done to Linda. "Have you had any physical ailments or physical problems since your daughter has died that you might think are related to the stress or anything related to Kari's death?"

"I've lost my daughter, and that has forever changed my life," Linda replied, her voice thick with emotion. "My daughter was my heart, and my life will never be the same . . . That is a big deal."

Looking at Rainey, she asked, "Do you have a child?"

"I have two," he said.

"Then you understand."

At 2:09 that afternoon, five hours after it began, Linda's deposition ended. The Dulins had arrived that day hoping that Matt would be made to go on the record. Instead, he'd refused, and Linda had been the one who'd endured a grueling day of questions.

Chapter 44.

In Waco, many were discussing the case. "People began taking sides," says Nancy. "At church, some would say, 'We know he did it. They'll get him.' Others wanted to stay neutral or thought Matt was innocent. They really wanted to believe in him."

At the girls' school in Kerrville, Matt e-mailed the counselor eight months after Kari's death. Ostensibly it was about Christmas traditions, but what he asked was to meet with her. On the table was a discussion about the Dulins and what part they should play in the girls' lives. "My attorney needs to know of any detrimental effects Kensi and Grace are forced to undergo due to the visits with their maternal grandparents. As well as the girls' understanding of the court issues and negative feelings that are manifested toward me, their father, from their maternal grandparents."

Throughout the first months of 2007, motions in the civil suit flew back and forth, involving bank records, the girls' elementary-school records, and Bill Johnston's motions to allow him to bring into evidence extramarital affairs and past inappropriate s.e.xual behavior. Matt denied each new charge leveled against him. Through it all, Johnston's eye was on spurring a criminal action more than continuing the civil one.

Toward that end, in early August 2007, Linda Dulin sat at her computer and composed a letter to Judge Billy Martin, asking for an inquest into her daughter's death. There'd been much discussion before getting to this point, conferences and phone calls between Linda, Bennett, McNamara, and Johnston, in which they had considered how to proceed. It was the next logical step, the only way to start up the nonexistent investigation. Johnston made suggestions, and Linda incorporated them into her letter to Martin, beginning by focusing on the crux of the situation: "Unfortunately, local police quickly accepted the story provided by Kari's husband, that the death was a suicide. It was not."

Over the past year, Linda explained, Mike McNamara and John Bennett had investigated Kari's death, and experts had reviewed the evidence. To bring Martin up to date, she included a printed summary of what the investigation had uncovered about Matt, his history, his relationship with Vanessa, and the events leading up to Kari's death. She closed by writing, "My husband and I deeply appreciate the job you do, and we trust this matter to your judgment."

The response to Linda's letter arrived in mid-August in the form of subpoenas sent to those involved in the case, ordering them to gather in two weeks in Judge Martin's courtroom for the purpose of an inquest. Not long after, an a.s.sociated Press reporter caught wind of the storm brewing over the death of a young Waco mother. She penned an article ent.i.tled: "Parents request inquest in Hewitt teacher's death." Matt's attorney was quoted as saying that Matt had been subpoenaed for an upcoming inquest in the case but would not testify. Backing up his client, he said, Matt "was not involved in his wife's death."

Despite Matt's announcement that he wouldn't cooperate, Martin's action could have been interpreted as a triumph for the Dulins. Yet Linda and Jim were keenly aware that this was simply another step into uncertain territory. Although many had worked hard to investigate, the results of the inquest were far from a.s.sured. As excited as she was, Linda had a difficult time knowing what to think. Finally, she had what she wanted, the potential that Kari's death would be looked at logically, in a clinical, unemotional manner in which the evidence could be a.s.sessed, not just waved off without consideration. But would that happen?

Evaluating the situation, those involved judged that there were three probable results of Martin's impending examination. One was that he would hear the evidence and do nothing, leaving a ruling of suicide on Kari's death certificate. That was the worst possible outcome for the Dulins, for it meant that the case would be difficult if not nearly impossible to prosecute and that the district attorney's office probably wouldn't even consider taking it before a jury.

The second was a rather tepid improvement, but one that at least opened the door for an open-minded prosecutor. Martin had the option of coming to the same opinion written on Kari's autopsy, that the manner of her death was undetermined. What the Dulins hoped was that Martin would consider all the evidence, including the expert opinions. If he did, they believed he had to rule their daughter's death a homicide.

The main problem, however, continued to be the mistakes made during the initial investigation by Hewitt PD. Unfortunately, much had been neglected and lost, leaving Martin little in the way of concrete evidence to consider. First, there was the autopsy, conducted months after Kari was embalmed and buried, with its inconclusive finding. Next there were the photos taken at the scene, or perhaps the lack of photos. There were no close-ups of the lividity in Kari's back, arms, and hands. Those in attendance hadn't even made a sketch of the scene or collected the bed linens. The crime-scene unit wasn't dispatched, and even the most obvious pieces of evidence weren't collected, including the Bartles & James bottles.

Then again, even if everything had been doc.u.mented, would Martin have pulled it together? Linda and Jim worried that the judge wouldn't be open to changing his ruling. Still, as she dressed to go to the courthouse, she held out hope that Martin would be flexible enough to consider all the evidence. "Everyone makes mistakes, but the honorable thing to do is to correct them," she'd say later. "I saw the inquest as an opportunity for the JP to set things right. Billy Martin had made a mistake by not initially ordering an autopsy. Now he had the opportunity to rectify his mistake."

To get their opinions into the hands of the judge, Johnston asked the experts to lay out their conclusions in writing. The crime-scene expert, Tom Bevel, the psychologist, William Lee Carter, and the retired professor of pathology at the University of Tennessee, David Stafford, all wrote letters addressed to Martin in which they detailed their findings, all pointing to Kari's death being a homicide. A fourth letter came from the computer guru, Noel Kersh, and it included a long list of the drug Web sites Matt perused in the two weeks leading up to Kari's death and that he'd put Ambien in a shopping cart. All of the experts added that they would be happy to speak to Martin personally to answer questions should he have any about their conclusions.

Linda also had a letter from Jo Ann Bristol ready for Martin, in which she laid out her final meeting with Kari just days before her death. Reading the letters, Linda couldn't understand how anyone could consider what had happened and come to the conclusion that Kari had committed suicide.

Judge Billy Martin opened the inquest the afternoon of August 29, 2007, a year and four months after Kari Baker's death, in his courtroom in the McLennan County Courthouse. Gathered in the hallway waiting to be called were Jim and Linda, along with Hewitt officers Cooper, Irving, Kasting, and Toombs, Dr. Quinton, who'd performed the autopsy, Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon, and paramedic Shelton Chapman. Linda and Toombs carried with them the experts' letters to hand to the judge.

Also in attendance was the subject of the discussion, Matt Baker.

Although he never even glanced in her direction, Linda stared at her former son-in-law, a.s.sessing him. It surprised her that she felt so unemotional as she watched Matt, dressed in a business suit, laugh with his attorneys. How does someone like you live with yourself knowing what you've done? she wondered.

The witnesses were called to enter Martin's small courtroom, and like a teacher calling a cla.s.s to order, the judge took roll. When Linda's name was called, she responded with a firm, "Yes, sir."

"Is there anyone here exercising their Fifth Amendment right not to testify?" Martin asked.

All eyes turned to Matt when he called out, "I am."

With that, Matt and his attorney approached the judge. After a short discussion, Matt Baker and his attorney left the room. It seemed incongruous. Everyone gathered in Martin's courtroom would be talking about Kari and Matt and what had happened that night on Crested b.u.t.te, but the one person who'd been there had walked away without answering a single question. Still, that didn't mean that those congregated wouldn't report what he'd said and done.

After the witnesses were sworn in, Jim and Linda joined the others in a hallway lined with chairs, to wait until they were called back into the courtroom. Linda felt nervous, anxious. So much was at stake. Silently, she and Jim prayed, asking that this inquiry would be the first step in a path that would lead to what they so wanted, for all the questions finally to be asked and answered, and for justice to be done.

In his courtroom, meanwhile, Judge Martin queried the first witness, Dr. Reade Quinton. As the medical examiner testified, he reviewed his records, stating that Kari's body had been in relatively good condition, considering she'd been buried for months, and that he'd seen no signs of injuries. The important area was the toxicology. While such tests are most accurate when run on blood, in this case that wasn't possible, since all Kari's blood had all been drained and replaced by embalming fluid in preparation for her burial.

Instead, the toxicology screen was run was on muscle tissue, a less accurate option. The result was that the lab was able to doc.u.ment what drugs were in Kari's system at the time of her death: alcohol, phentermine, Unisom, and Ambien. The embalming process accounted for the alcohols, which left the phentermine, Unisom, and Ambien. Because there were so few good studies exploring drug levels in muscle tissue, however, Quinton didn't have enough information to calculate how much of each drug was present in Kari's body at the time of her death. The result was that the M.E. couldn't say if any or a mixture of all of the drugs could have been responsible for Kari's death.

After the M.E. left the courtroom, the first officer on the scene the night Kari died entered. Officer Michael Irving recounted how he had arrived shortly after the first two EMTs. "I met Mr. Baker outside," Irving recounted. "He did bring us inside, to where his wife was in the bedroom."

As the EMTs worked on Kari, Irving described how Baker detailed the situation, including that he'd found his wife unresponsive and nude, dressed her and removed her from the bed to do CPR. When he looked about the room, there were things that caught the officer's attention, including the nearly empty Unisom container and the note.

"And how many pills would the bottle have normally contained?" Martin asked.

"Thirty-two," Irving said. "When Sergeant Cooper arrived, he found the pills in the bathroom, prescribed by the Waco Weight Loss Center."

"And they were prescribed to?" Martin asked.

"Her. Kari Baker," Irving responded.

Although admittedly early in the inquest, it didn't appear to be going well for the Dulins. First, the medical examiner had said that he couldn't determine what caused Kari's death, and now the first officer on the scene talked about pills on the nightstand as well as diet pills in the bathroom, both used by Kari.

After Irving, his superior, Sergeant Kasting, testified. One of the first things the sergeant recounted was something that could have given him pause as he stood in the Bakers' bedroom the night of Kari's death; one of the first EMTs on the scene, Gates, had told Kasting that the condition of Kari's body suggested she might have been dead for quite a while. "He said he felt that she'd been unresponsive for some time," Kasting said. "They ran a strip, a test to determine if there were any signs of life at that time. It was negative."

Perhaps to remind the judge of the part he'd personally played in the decisions made that night, Kasting then pointed out that he'd contacted Martin and told him what he'd seen at the scene, including reading the suicide note to the judge, "word by word."

"Was the note typed?" Martin asked, as if he were still unsure.

"Yes, sir," Kasting said.

"Was it signed?"

"I don't remember," the officer admitted.

As to what the officer had heard from Matt, it would be what others echoed throughout the day, that Kari had been depressed since Ka.s.sidy's death and in the preceding weeks talked of suicide. And then there was that incident in the car, when Matt contended that his wife tried to jump out on the freeway.

If that were true, why hadn't Matt sounded the alarm then? Why hadn't he gotten help for his wife? As to Matt's demeanor, did it indicate a man grieving for a dead wife? Kasting saw a man he judged to be saddened and in shock. Yet, was he? On the scene, Matt wasn't crying. In fact, he wasn't even "tearing up."

Next, a paramedic testified to the condition of Kari's lifeless body. On his report, Shelton Chapman had described Kari as without a pulse, cold, and not breathing. The cardiac monitor showed no electrical activity in her heart, no signs of life, and he'd noted lividity visible in the back of her neck. "On our protocols, she was D.A.S.," Chapman said. "Dead at scene."

One by one the witnesses answered Martin's questions. When it was his turn, Sergeant Cooper, like Kasting before him, it seemed, wanted the judge to remember his part in the decisions made the night of Kari's death. When Cooper arrived, he and Kasting called the judge again, inquiring about an autopsy. After giving a quick rundown of the situation, Cooper told the judge: "An autopsy still was not ordered."

Yet the critical information that the note was typed and without a signature, had Cooper told that to Martin during that middle-of-the-night conversation? "I can't remember," the sergeant said.

Was the decision not to autopsy Kari's body simply the result of a lack of communication between an officer who didn't divulge all the information and a justice of the peace who didn't ask all the questions? At the inquest, Martin didn't add any personal explanations into the official record.

At the scene, Cooper wrote down the details Matt told him about the events leading to Kari's death. "I did find records that his debit card had been used [to buy gas] and at Hollywood Video during the time he stated," Cooper offered.

Later that same afternoon, after the inquest took a short break, Ben Toombs's name was called. That left Jim, Linda, and Matt Cawthon alone in the hallway. Where Toombs had looked nervous during the wait, fidgeting with his necktie, Cawthon, an old hand who'd been in many such circ.u.mstances, was laid-back. He talked casually with the Dulins, about family and the small enjoyments in life. Until at one point, he turned to them, and said, "I just want you to know that I'm disgusted about the way this case has been handled." Cawthon didn't give any specifics, but the Dulins understood what the Ranger meant and appreciated that he understood what they'd gone through.

Meanwhile, inside the courtroom, Toombs recounted how he entered the case with the Crossroads laptop, followed by the disinterment and autopsy. Then he brought in, for the first time, evidence that Matt had lied. That came from Holly Romano, who Matt said had seen Kari sick at the Family Y's pool that last night. Instead, Holly insisted that Kari seemed well and was excited about the prospect of a new job.

At that point, Toombs mentioned the paperwork he'd brought in with him, expert opinions he wanted to give the judge so it would be available to consider, much of it regarding the condition of Kari's body when the EMTs arrived. On that topic, Toombs mentioned one letter in particular, the one from Bevel. "In his opinion, there's no way possible that it could have happened [the condition of the body], if she'd been alive at eleven fifteen."

Martin cut him off. "That is an opinion, and I'd rather stick to the facts."