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.
