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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 20, 2005 Man gets life in prison for killing infant son By SARAH LEMON Mail Tribune A 21-year-old drug user who slashed his infant son’s throat will spend 25 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. Ernest Harold Baker III pleaded no contest Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court to murdering his 7-month-old son, Ernest Harold Baker IV, on March 20, 2004. Showing no emotion in court, Baker said he could not remember anything that happened the day he killed his son while under the influence of methamphetamine. The baby’s mother, 22-year-old D’Ann Eloise Honea, found her child inside Baker’s Rogue River home in an infant carrier soaked with blood. The child had a deep, 4-inch-long cut across his throat, said Beth Heckert, deputy district attorney for Jackson County. The baby died of blood loss several hours later at Rogue Valley Medical Center. "How could you take away our baby?" Honea wrote in a statement Heckert read before the court. "How could you take away something that was a part of you?" Advertisement Baker told police before he was arrested that "he had taken a life, and someone had taken his life" that day. Baker had a cut on his own neck when Honea first arrived at his home in the 2900 block of Wards Creek Road around 1:50 p.m. She tried to take Baker to a hospital, but he refused, Heckert said. Honea went outside and put the couple’s baby in her car and returned to the house to find Baker. However, Baker took the child — in his infant carrier — from the car, brought him inside and locked the front door. Hearing the baby crying, Honea ran to the home’s back sliding- glass door and found the bloodied baby along with an 18-inch martial arts type sword in an empty bedroom. Baker was nowhere in sight. Honea grabbed the baby and immediately drove to Rogue River to get help, Heckert said. Baker had run into the woods and didn’t return to the house for several hours. When he confronted police there, Baker was naked, scratched by blackberry bushes and covered in a poison-oak rash. He had packed mud into the 5-inch cut on his neck. Police later found Baker’s clothes up in a tree, Heckert said. Investigators have no way of knowing if Baker was under the influence of meth when he killed the baby, Heckert said. But a blood draw at RVMC several hours after he was arrested revealed methamphetamine in Baker’s system. "He was acting strangely at the time the mother showed up," Heckert said. Saying she was too emotional to address the court, Honea wrote that she loved her ex-boyfriend and would have done anything for him. The two previously lived together at the Wards Creek residence with Baker’s father, Ernest Harold Baker Sr. Honea had moved out several weeks before her baby’s murder and had returned to pick up a piece of furniture. The Grants Pass woman also has a history of drug use, including a May conviction for possession of methamphetamine. Prosecutors Friday filed a count of murder against Baker, replacing the charge of aggravated murder, for which he would have faced a possible death sentence. Baker’s age and previously clean criminal record prompted her to reduce the charge, in addition to Honea’s reluctance to testify against her ex-boyfriend, Heckert said. Honea and her family also had no interest in pursuing a death penalty case against Baker, Heckert said. His plea followed a closed-door settlement conference Friday morning with Honea, attorneys and a Circuit Court judge. The sentence of life in prison carries a 25-year minimum term before Baker is eligible for parole. Reach reporter Sarah Lemon at 776-4487, or e-mail Man gets life in prison for killing infant son ">[email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Ztech Media Hosting Sports Equipment Online Casino Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation Online Pharmacy Online Casino Reviews Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Rogue Valley Travel Discount Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Casino Gambling Sites Budget Website Templates Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Advertisement s