Kentucky man pardoned by Bevin in drug homicide could now face the death penalty

A man pardoned by former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin for a 2014 homicide could face the death penalty in a new federal case connected to the same shooting death, according to court records.

Patrick B. Baker, 43, was indicted last Friday on a charge of murder during a drug trafficking offense. The indictment was sealed until Tuesday, following Baker’s arrest in Frankfort on Sunday.

The indictment charged that while committing robbery and kidnapping in Knox County, Baker shot Donald Mills with a 9mm pistol. The crime was in relation to a conspiracy to distribute oxycodone pills, the indictment said.

Baker took pills from Mills, federal prosecutors said in a news release.

Baker allegedly went with another man to try to steal money and pain pills from Mills, described in other court records as a “known drug dealer.”

The indictment listed the potential penalties for Mills if he is convicted as death, life in prison, or “any term of years” in prison.

Baker, 43, was convicted in state court in 2017 of reckless homicide in Mills’ death and sentenced to 19 years in prison, but Bevin pardoned him in December 2019.

Melinda Mills, the sister of the slain man, has been harshly critical of the pardon, saying that as far as she is concerned, Bevin can “rot in hell” for his decision. Mills said family members were glad to learn of the new charge.

“He’da been better off to do his 19 years and shut his mouth,” she said of Baker.

The attorney representing Baker in the new federal case was not immediately available for comment Tuesday morning. Baker was scheduled to have his initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Baker’s pardon was among hundreds of pardons and commutations Bevin granted in December 2019, most of them in the waning days of his term after losing re-election.

Some of the decisions caused a great deal of controversy because of the crimes involved, including the beheading of a woman, the rape of a 9-year-old girl and the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy after he passed out from drinking alcohol.

Supporters of those released said Bevin had corrected poor investigations or faulty court decisions, but prosecutors and family members of victims were outraged, saying Bevin had struck down valid convictions, substituting his judgment for that of police, prosecutors, judges and juries.

Senate President Robert Stivers, like Bevin a Republican, said the Senate Republican majority condemned Bevin’s actions “as a travesty and perversion of justice,” and lawmakers called for an investigation.

The pardon for Baker drew particular interest because Baker’s brother and sister-in-law held a fundraiser for Bevin in July 2018. The event raised $21,500 to help Bevin pay off his 2015 campaign debt, and the couple donated $4,000.

Two House Democrats, Morgan McGarvey of Louisville and Chris Harris of Pikeville, said in December 2019 that the governor’s pardon power was meant to serve justice, not grant political favors to powerful friends and donors.

“The appearance of corruption in this instance is overwhelming and cannot be overlooked or brushed aside,” the two said.

Bevin strongly denied giving Baker a pardon because of financial or political considerations, saying any such claims were “highly offensive and entirely false.”

The crime that initially landed Baker in prison happened in May 2014, when Baker and another man, Christopher Wagner, allegedly went to the mobile home of Donald Mills in Knox County to rob him.

Mills was a drug dealer, according to a Kentucky Court of Appeals decision.

Wagner later testified that he had earlier overheard Elijah Messer and Baker talking about robbing Mills, and that they thought Mills had about $200,000 and 1,500 oxycodone pills, according to an appeal in Messer’s case.

Messer had taken Baker and a woman to Mills’ house two days before the robbery to buy oxycodone pills.

Wagner said Baker pulled up an aerial view of Mills’ home on a computer the night he heard Baker and Messer discussing the robbery, but Messer said he didn’t need to see it because he knew the property, according to the court case.

Early on May 9, 2014, two armed men kicked down the door of Mills’ trailer, said they were police officers and tried to take money and drugs from him, according to an account of the crime in a Court of Appeals decision.

Mills was shot and killed during the attempted robbery. His wife and two young children, as well as a friend of the children, were there at the time.

Messer later testified that Baker said he had to shoot Mills because Mills was going to kill him.

Wagner also told police he and Baker had committed the break-in and later testified against him, according to court records.

A jury convicted Baker of reckless homicide, first-degree robbery, impersonating a police officer and tampering with physical evidence for allegedly disposing of the gun.

Special Judge David Williams sentenced Baker in December 2017 to 19 years in prison. A little less than two years later, Bevin commuted Baker’s sentence to time served and pardoned him of the crimes.

Bevin said in the order that Baker had made a series of “unwise decisions” and that his drug addiction had led him to associate with people that led to his conviction, but that the evidence against Baker in the homicide case was “sketchy at best.”

Baker argued he was innocent.

“It was a wonderful surprise,” Baker said of the pardon at a news conference after he was released.

However, the prosecutor, Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele, said there was ample evidence of Baker’s guilt, including the testimony of Wagner, who committed the crime with him.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals said in a decision that the “evidence of Baker’s guilt was overwhelming.”

Wagner pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Messer was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

They did not request pardons of Bevin.

Baker had applied three weeks ago to have the record of his state conviction expunged. In the section of the application that asked him to list the names of any victims in the case, his response was “None; all charges pardoned.”

Melinda Mills, Donald Mills’ sister, said she had been aware for some time that Baker was still under investigation by state and federal authorities.

Kentucky State Police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives handled the investigation, according to a news release.

Mills alleged that after Baker got out of prison, he tried to intimidate her and her parents, Donald and Phyllis Mills, parking his car inches from hers at the Walmart in Corbin once in August 2020 and later following her parents on the road three separate times as they left church, tailgating them and blowing his horn.

Baker said she started carrying a .38-caliber pistol after the incident at Walmart.

Mills said she gave federal authorities video from her phone of Baker sitting near her car, as well as home-security footage of his car behind her parents. That could help if prosecutors seek to have Baker detained until trial, Mills said.

A federal agent called her Monday to let her know Baker had been arrested.

“We’re happy. We’re blessed and thankful,” Mills said. “We’ve got a whole ‘nother ballgame.”