Feds won’t seek death for Kentucky man facing murder charge after state pardon

Bill Estep
·1 min read

Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty if a jury convicts a Kentucky man facing a federal murder charge after being pardoned on an earlier state homicide conviction.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna E. Reed filed a notice on the decision Friday in the case against Patrick Baker.

Baker is set to go to trial next week on a charge that he shot and killed a drug dealer in Knox County in 2014 in relation to a conspiracy to distribute oxycodone pain pills.

Federal authorities have argued Baker and another man intended to rob Donald Mills of pills and money. Mills was shot in the chest when two men pushed their way into his house.

A jury convicted Baker of reckless homicide in Mills’ death in 2017, and a judge sentenced him to 19 years in prison.

Just two years later, however, then-Gov. Matt Bevin commuted Baker’s sentence and pardoned him. That has been controversial because members of Baker’s family held a political fundraiser for Bevin in 2018.

The woman dating Baker at that time later told the authorities she believed the fundraiser played a crucial role in getting Baker out of prison, but Bevin has adamantly denied the event had anything to do with the pardon.

Federal authorities later opened a case on Baker and a grand jury indicted him in May. Unlike in the state case, the federal charge will require prosecutors to prove Baker was involved in a drug trafficking scheme to convict him.

Baker has denied he killed Mills.

The penalties if Baker is convicted in federal court range from any term of years, including life, or death, but the government’s decision announced Friday means Baker will not face the death penalty if convicted.

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