Grand jury hears testimony in case of pastor accused of killing wife
By Tommy Witherspoon
Waco Tribune-Herald
March 25, 2009
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| Vanessa Bulls exits the grand jury room at the McLennan County courthouse. Sources tell the Tribune-Herald that Matt Baker shared dozens of phone conversations with Bulls around the time of his wife’s death. |
The McLennan County District Attorney’s Office began presenting evidence to a grand jury Wednesday in the Matt Baker case.
Baker, 37, a former Central Texas Baptist minister, was arrested on murder charges in December 2007 in the April 2006 death of his wife, Kari, a teacher and mother of his two daughters.
Authorities say Baker, who denies killing his wife and who has since moved to Kerrville, gave his wife an overdose of sleeping pills and tried to make her death appear as a suicide.
On Wednesday, prosecutors Crawford Long and Susan Shafer escorted Vanessa Bulls into the grand jury chambers, where she testified for about 30 minutes.
Both prosecutors declined comment, citing confidentiality rules that govern grand jury proceedings.
Bulls was accompanied to the courthouse by Belton attorney Bruce Burleson, who waited outside the grand jury chambers. Burleson also declined comment.
Baker reportedly pursued an extramarital relationship with Bulls and gave her his wife’s cell phone after her death, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by Hewitt police. Baker’s phone records show he called Bulls dozens of times between January and April 2006, the document states.
Witnesses have told authorities that Baker and Bulls were seen looking at rings at a jewelry store in Richland Mall in Waco within days of Kari Baker’s death.