Suspect, 21, Held in San Clemente Slaying

A man sought in the murder of William H. Baker, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and San Clemente resident, was arrested Monday in San Diego and taken by police to the Orange County Jail, authorities said.

Patrick Terrance Nolan, 21, of Toronto, Canada, was arrested by a San Diego police officer who recognized him from a photograph that had been distributed throughout Southern California by San Clemente police, officers said.

Baker, 65, was found murdered in his home on June 5. Several days before, he had picked up Nolan hitchhiking and invited the man to stay as a guest in his house, according to John Armand Forrest, who had been renting a room in Baker’s home.

Forrest told police that he had been awakened by a muffled yell early on the morning of June 5, and then heard the sound of a slamming door and running feet. Police said he later discovered Baker’s body in his bedroom, lying in a pool of blood.

Based on Forrest’s information, San Clemente police issued an all-points bulletin for a Toronto resident named Blair Noble--the name Nolan had given Baker and others when he began staying with the San Clemente man.

Toronto police, however, subsequently notified San Clemente officers that the suspect had been using an alias and that his true name was Patrick Terrance Nolan.

Monday afternoon, San Diego Officer Carlos A. Garcia spotted Nolan making a phone call in a drug detoxification center. He arrested Nolan and notified San Clemente police after the man admitted his true identity.

Nolan, who had checked into the detoxification center two days before, was brought back to San Clemente by investigating officers.