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Wife Sentenced for Spiking Husband's Steroids with AntiFreeze

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A 47-year-old Smyrna woman will spend 40 years behind bars for killing her husband by spiking his steroid bottles with antifreeze.

Jamie L. Baker was sentenced Thursday morning in front of nearly 50 of her husband's family members and friends in Kent County Superior Court, according to Deputy Attorney General Jason Cohee.

She was ordered to serve the prison time, followed by six months of either home confinement or work release and two years of probation. Baker's 42-year-old husband, James D. Baker II, was found dead Sept. 16, 2013, on the bedroom floor of their home by his wife, police said.

An autopsy found that his kidneys contained ethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze that can crystallize in the kidneys and eventually kill a person if taken in small dosages. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide by poisoning after bottles of steroids found at the scene were tested at a laboratory and found to also contain ethylene glycol.

Police later learned that James Baker, who was a competitive weightlifter, had ordered steroids in June with a friend over the internet and had them shipped to the friend's house. The friend told detectives that the steroid bottles were not tampered with when they arrived and that James Baker kept the steroids in a locked toolbox in a closet of his home, police said.

"There was ample time in those three months to get him help," Cohee said. "Even the day before he died, when he was very sick, the defendant would not call 911 when prompted by their daughter. She chose to let him die."

Almost a year after his death, Jamie Baker admitted to police in an interview that she had used a hypodermic syringe to extract antifreeze from a container stored in the garage and injected several bottles of steroids with the antifreeze, police said.

 

 

The lengthy investigation ended in March of 2014 with Baker being charged with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during a felony In February, she pleaded guilty to the lesser offense of second-degree murder. Her attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday. According to James Baker's obituary, he worked as an environmental specialist for 22 years at the DuPont Experimental Station. He had been married to his wife for 21 years and had two daughters.

Story courtesy of Delaware online