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Medford woman will change plea on charge of murdering husband By DANI DODGE Mail Tribune Dawn Ellen Roble-Baker, who confessed to police that she killed her husband with an ax, won't face a jury on a murder charge. The 47-year-old Medford woman, who admitted killing her husband in 1997, will change her not-guilty plea next week, according to court records. Neither prosecutors nor Roble-Baker's defense attorney, David Orf, would say what she will plead to at the April 11 hearing. "That's our policy," said Jackson County District Attorney Mark Huddleston. Normally, when a defendant changes his or her plea, it is because of a plea bargain struck between the prosecution and defense that allows the defendant to plead guilty or no contest to a lesser charge with a shorter sentence. If convicted of murder, Roble-Baker would serve a mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison Police started investigating the case in March 2000 when a Trail man discovered skeletal remains as he cleared blackberry bushes near his home on Busch Road, about a half-mile east of the Rogue River Lodge on Highway 62. After the body was identified as 45-year-old Jack Baker, police went to talk to his wife. After being interviewed for the better part of a day, Roble-Baker confessed to killing Baker, court documents say. "... Dawn Roble-Baker told detectives she had killed Jack Baker, in self-defense after he threatened her with an ax as she attempted to leave the residence," according to one court document filed by the defense. "She stated that she got her coat and was attempting to leave when a struggle ensued. "Jack fell (or she may have pushed him), she grabbed the ax and struck him with it." She told detectives she continued to hit him because she thought he was going to get up and that he was going to be mad at her, other documents reveal. No one reported Jack Baker missing. On April 6, 2000, a Jackson County grand jury indicted Roble-Baker on the charge of murder. In June 2001, Orf filed a notice of intent to rely upon extreme emotional disturbance as a defense. That means he would have argued that the homicide was committed under extreme emotional or mental disturbance as determined from the standpoint of an ordinary person in the same circumstances. Extreme emotional disturbance is not a defense for the lesser crime of manslaughter. Also in June 2001, Orf filed a motion to suppress Roble-Baker's confession saying she was coerced. In January, Circuit Court Judge Daniel Harris ruled that while the officer's talk with Roble-Baker up to the time of her confession was more than just a "mere conversation," it was legal and he allowed the confession to stand. "... the confession was voluntary, when viewing the evidence of the confession under the totality of the circumstances and in the light of relevant legal standards," Harris wrote. Her five-day trial had been scheduled for April 16, but has been canceled. Roble-Baker's plea is scheduled for 9 a.m. April 11 and her sentencing for 1:30 p.m. June 13. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.