Addict found guilty of murder

A struggling handyman with a cocaine habit was convicted Wednesday of sexually assaulting three women he knew through San Fernando Valley addiction support groups, including a grandmother whom he stalked, raped and murdered.

A Van Nuys jury now must decide whether Paul Wesley Baker, 46, should be given the death penalty or serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

During the four-month trial, prosecutors portrayed Baker as a violent bully, obsessed with controlling the women he dated. For more than a decade, prosecutors said, he preyed upon vulnerable women, most of whom, like him, battled drug or alcohol addictions.

Authorities alleged that Baker had assaulted eight women, but tried him in connection with five victims. The jury convicted Baker of sexually assaulting three women and killing his last victim, Judy Palmer, 60, whose bound body was found in the desert near Palm Springs in 2004. The jury acquitted Baker of sexually assaulting two women.

According to testimony at trial, some women who said Baker assaulted them kept silent about the attacks because they were embarrassed and feared that he would harm them further. At least two women reported assaults but would not cooperate with authorities, later saying that they feared Baker’s wrath. Others alerted police, but charges were not filed until after Palmer’s slaying.

The assaults began in 1989 when Baker allegedly attacked his wife in Wisconsin. (The Times generally does not name alleged victims of sex crimes without their permission.)

The woman escaped and reported the assault but later refused to cooperate, prosecutors said. She was ashamed, she later said, but also feared Baker.

One of his victims testified that she fled an attack into the arms of police called to the scene by neighbors. She told police that Baker had said: “I’m gonna take you to the desert and tie you up and let my friends rape and kill you.”

“Please don’t let him take me to the desert,” she begged officers, according to court testimony.

Baker was arrested at the scene, but the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to file charges.

Baker’s lawyers cast doubt on the stories of the five women who testified against him, saying that there was no forensic or medical evidence to confirm their sexual assault allegations.

But prosecutors argued that the women independently described dramatically similar attacks and intimidation.

“He controlled these women to the degree of virtually destroying them,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Gretchen Ford told jurors during her closing argument. “He finally broke one of his victims, and it was a 60-year-old grandmother.”

In Palmer, Baker found a woman whose life revolved around helping addicts, her family said. Clean and sober for 28 years, she volunteered as a sponsor to countless others.

“She would spend hours and hours with people to keep them sober,” said her daughter, Tammy Gill.

Initially, Baker and Palmer met for dinners and went on hiking trips together, Gill said. Palmer was hesitant, not having dated for 10 years. But before long, Baker moved into her Reseda apartment, Gill said.

The courtship didn’t last. Baker relapsed, disappearing for days at a time to binge and party. Palmer suspected that he was seeing other women. Palmer and Baker split up several times before she finally ended the relationship for good, according to Gill.

Prosecutors said Baker grew obsessed with her. He sneaked into Palmer’s apartment complex and lived briefly in an empty unit underneath Palmer’s, where he allegedly raped another victim.

On April 5, 2004, he forced his way into Palmer’s apartment and was arrested. When he appeared in court, she had him served with a restraining order, prosecutors said.

After 10 days, Baker walked out of jail a free man. Palmer told a close friend that if anything happened to her, authorities should focus on Baker.

Days later, she failed to show up as promised to take her grandsons to a play. Her family called police and frantically searched for her.

Palmer’s body was discovered a month later, abandoned off Gene Autry Trail less than half a mile from the 10 Freeway. In the desert heat, her body had decomposed so rapidly that an autopsy could not determine how she had died.

But prosecutors argued that many clues led to Baker.

Near her body was a mental health form signed by Baker and photographs of him with his Jack Russell terrier, including one with an old love note on the back written to Palmer.

Palmer’s body had been bound with the same type of rope that receipts showed he had bought three weeks earlier. And DNA tests linked Baker to several types of evidence.

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jack.leonard@latimes.com