Jury Convicts Man On Burglary Charge

Timothy Baker is more of a bungling burglar than a calculating stalker, a Spokane County jury decided Wednesday.

The unemployed construction worker was convicted of attempted residential burglary after nearly two hours of deliberations by the five-man, seven-woman panel.

Throughout the two-day trial, deputy prosecutor Ed Hay contended Baker was guilty of either trying to break into a North Side house or stalking the woman who lives there.

Both crimes are felonies, but stalking carries a lesser sentence than the 24- to 48-month range for attempted burglary.

Baker, 40, was arrested two days after Christmas 1995 when Denise Morgan told police she saw him with a stepladder outside her bedroom window. He left before police showed up, but was found at his house on West Glass a short time later.

A 4-foot stepladder was found in the back of his pickup, police said.

It was the second time in 2-1/2 years Baker had toted a stepladder to Denise Morgan’s home, Hay said.

“I cannot perceive a legitimate purpose for him being there,” Hay said in his closing argument Tuesday. “… There is something about it that is kind of creepy.”

Defense attorney Scott Mason, however, said Baker was merely trying to peep through Morgan’s window, not break into her house.

“It’s not a nice thing, it’s not a wonderful thing, it’s peeping in windows,” Mason told jurors. “That’s what he was doing there … How many burglars have you heard of that would carry a stepladder down the street to the house they’re trying to burglarize?” After finding Baker guilty of attempted burglary, jurors did not have to consider the stalking charge, which carries a sentencing range of up to a year in jail.

, DataTimes