Victim’s mother says daughter was abused long before Thursday’s death

Rebecca Fisher says her daughter’s boyfriend was so violent she dreaded she would one day be notified by police that her daughter was dead.

“He would call and tell me he was going to kill her,” she said. “I was scared of her being with him.”

Fisher got the phone call she long feared on Thursday after police say Michael W. Baesman confessed to killing Shawna Wyatt, 34, in a downtown Spokane motel room.

Fisher described her daughter as someone who had a big heart and would do anything for anybody, but also as someone who was tired.

“She had been beat down,” she said. “It seemed just like everywhere she turned she got knocked down.”

Wyatt grew up in California and Colorado, moving to Spokane about nine years ago. She had an 11-year-old daughter who Fisher has been caring for to keep the child away from Baesman.

“When he drinks, he’s got a really nasty temper,” she said. “She didn’t trust him around her daughter because of the alcohol, and just because of the way he was.”

According to court documents, Baesman didn’t only confess his crime to police, he reportedly spent the early hours Thursday morning calling friends and family, crying while telling them he believed he killed his girlfriend.

Baesman, 36, is suspected of strangling Wyatt in an upstairs room at the Downtowner Motel. Her body was found Thursday morning.

Spokane police responded to the motel just before 6 a.m. Thursday after receiving a phone call from Baesman’s sister.

According to court documents, Baesman called his sister about 4:30 a.m., saying he’d gotten into a physical fight with Wyatt and “thought he hurt her pretty bad.” He allegedly told her he returned to the room later to find Wyatt’s body turning purple.

A police sergeant found Baesman’s cellphone number in the dispatch report for the incident and called Baesman, who said he was at a gas station near Illinois Avenue and Perry Street. He agreed to stay put until officers arrived to arrest him.

According to court documents, Baesman told officers he and Wyatt got into an argument that turned physical about 10 p.m. Wednesday. He told them he got upset because she was being loud and he did not want management to call the police, so he put his hands around her neck and put his hand over her mouth.

Wyatt was strangled, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner, and had recent bruises and abrasions on her body.

Following the altercation, Baesman visited an acquaintance at 12:15 a.m. Thursday and told him that he had killed Wyatt, according to court documents. The man reportedly called police after Baesman’s visit and told them what he told him.

Baesman later called another friend and two family members, telling them he had killed Wyatt, court records say. Several of the witnesses said Baesman was crying and seemed to be intoxicated.

Baesman has several convictions for domestic violence assault, violating a protection order and violating a no-contact order. In July, Baesman was arrested on a domestic violence assault charge after a witness reported an altercation between him and Wyatt in the Wal-Mart parking lot on East Broadway in Spokane Valley.

According to a police report, Wyatt had fresh scrapes and a cut near her eye and initially told the responding deputy she had fallen down. When the deputy said he didn’t believe her, she said that she and Baesman were “playing around” when things got a little rough.

Baesman later pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault and was sentenced to 364 days in jail with 363 days suspended and a year of probation.

“He was pretty abusive,” Fisher said. “She always said it was something else. She would never admit that it was him.”

Wyatt had been staying in a domestic violence shelter recently, Fisher said.

“She was trying (to get away), but you know how it goes,” Fisher said. “When you love somebody you just keep going back.”

The family is planning a private memorial service.

Baesman remains in jail on suspicion of second-degree murder and was ordered held on $250,000 bond during a brief court appearance Friday.

It was a court appearance that Fisher couldn’t bring herself to attend.

“I didn’t want to see him,” she said. “I can’t look at him.”