Wayne City, IL — Roughly four hours after allegedly beating and choking his new wife so badly she had to be placed in a coma, an Illinois man was found dead.
35 year-old Charla Baker was married to 41 year-old Rodney Baker for less than a week before he allegedly choked her unconscious Wednesday morning. Her children woke up to the sound of her screams for help and witnessed Rodney fleeing out the front door. When police arrived, Mrs. Baker was found unresponsive and bleeding from the nose and mouth. They stated she also sustained a head injury.
She was brought by ambulance to the hospital where doctors place her in a medically-induced coma. Rodney’s body was found shortly after 8am by two farm workers, hanging from the steps of a grain bin, which is probably some farm-type apparatus I can’t be bothered to look up. Said Wayne County Coroner Jimmy Taylor, “It appeared that he hanged himself in a hurried fashion very shortly after the incident… he first tried to use some clothing to make a rope, then found a piece of rope from a fishing net in the tool box of his truck.” Yikes.
Baker left no suicide note, but my guess is he didn’t want to go back to jail. As it turns out, he was just released in January after serving ten years for a burglary where he broke into a relative’s home, stole a gun and barricaded himself inside until a SWAT team came in and asked him politely to leave convinced him to surrender. Baker also has other convictions dating back to 1994, and was even part of a white supremacist gang in jail. Cute, ain’t he?
As for Charla Baker, she’s still in a coma as of this morning. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that she not only survives, but also learns a valuable lesson about marrying someone who’s six months out of jail.
Tags: assault and battery, Attempted Murder, Charla Baker, Hanging, Rodney Baker, Strangulation, Suicide
