THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260429
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 40 lines
Police on Thursday charged a man with abducting a woman from the Oceanfront on Monday and raping her.
Sex-crimes Detective Mark Bordner had secured felony arrest warrants for Jerry Baker, 36. Police Officer Michael Encarnacao found Baker about 2 p.m. Thursday near the corner of Parks and 16th streets.
Police spokesman Lou Thurston said Baker confronted the woman while she was walking on the beach near 62nd Street around 3:15 a.m. A search-warrant affidavit says the suspect, armed with a knife, told the woman to drive him to a house in the 400 block of West St., where the rape happened. The woman called police after the rapist left.
Bordner searched the house and a nearby car and seized evidence, but police wouldn't say what led them to believe the suspect was Baker.
Baker has an extensive criminal record. He has been charged with, or investigated in, several felonies. But court records and police interviews show investigators have been thwarted in many cases by unreliable or uncooperative victims and witnesses.
Circuit Court records show Baker was charged with raping a woman in February 1995, but that case was later nolle prossed, meaning prosecutors decided not to pursue the matter. The records don't indicate why but do show that authorities had trouble contacting the victim.
In 1989, Baker was drinking and using cocaine when he beat up a woman and hurt her child, records show. Baker also poured kerosene on the woman and threatened to set her on fire.
He pleaded guilty in that case and served four years of a 15-year sentence.
Baker, whose last address was unknown, has been known to hang out around the Plaza Apartments and Hill Meadow Drive. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Jerry Baker is charged with abducting a woman from the beach early
Monday and raping her.
KEYWORDS: RAPE ARREST by CNB