Teen pleads not guilty to murder, home invasion

A 15-year-old Loogootee youth charged with fatally shooting a couple who lived a short distance from his home pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and home invasion.
Clifford W. Baker entered the plea after a judge ruled that Fayette County State’s Attorney Stephen Friedel had presented sufficient evidence to hold the youth for trial.
Baker is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and three counts of home invasion, with the third of the home invasion counts added on Friday. The penalties on the charges range from six years to natural life in prison.
Baker, who is being charged as an adult, is being held in the Madison County Juvenile Detention Center in lieu of $2 million bond. A trial on the first-degree murder and home invasion charges has been set for Jan. 31.
The Loogootee youth is charged with murdering 60-year-old Mike Mahon and 53-year-old Debra Tish in their home, and also attacking another neighbor with a knife. The incidents occurred in the early-morning hours of Aug. 4.
At Friday’s hearing, as part of Friedel’s effort to have Baker held for trial, two law enforcement officers testified that Baker admitted killing the couple.
The hearing began with an attempt by Baker’s attorney, Monroe McWard, to have Judge Michael McHaney – who presided over the hearing – removed from the case.
McWard, who successfully had Fayette County Resident Circuit Judge S. Gene Schwarm removed as the trial judge, told McHaney that he wanted a second substitution granted both because a trial judge had not yet been appointed and McHaney had not made any substantive rulings in the case.
McHaney, in denying the motion, told McWard that he agreed with Friedel’s argument that the defense’s actions could be construed as “judge shopping.”
Those testifying at the preliminary hearing included Fayette County sheriff’s deputy Steve Coody, one of the first officers to arrive at the scene of the incidents.
Coody said he was dispatched to the area after a Loogootee couple reported that a youth bearing a knife had threatened “to stab and kill the family.”
Upon his arrival, Coody said, he learned that Randy Krajefska had sustained a facial injury after being hit in the face with a knife, and that she and her husband, Wayne, had identified Baker as their attacker.
Coody went to the residence where Baker lived with his father, Jeff Goldman, and found Baker in the garage yelling and attempting to staple himself with a staple fun. He also said that Baker had pointed the staple gun at him and another deputy and squeezed the staple gun handle.
He said that Baker’s father restrained the youth and got the staple gun away from him.
Coody said that the youth “was out of control and refusing commands,” and when the youth started to flee, he used a taser gun, hitting the youth in the back.
From that point on, Coody said, the youth complied with all officer commands.
Coody said that the Krajefskas then told him that they couldn’t get in touch with Mahon and Tish, and that they believed that the couple “might be injured, severly injured.”
Coody said he then entered the Mahon and Tish residence, where at least one light was on, and saw “two long guns on the kitchen table.” Baker is accused of shooting Mahon several time with an 8mm high-powered rifle, and Tish with both that weapon and a .22-caliber rifle.
The deputy testified that he saw two individuals laying on a mattress on the living room floor, and found that both had sustained severe head wounds from being shot “multiple times.”
Coody testified that he then secured the residence with crime scene tape and called for an ambulance, to have Baker checked for injuries from being tazed.
Illinois State Police Special Agent Albert Gallatin testified that he was called to the scene at about 5:30 a.m. that day, and initially spoke to Baker’s father.
Gallatin said that Goldman told him that his son had awakened him and told him, “I killed them, I killed them all.”
He said that Goldman said that Baker initially woke him up at about 3 a.m., telling him that he was hot and didn’t fell well. The father said he told his son to lay down in front of a fan.
About 30 minutes later, he told Gallatin, Baker again woke him up. The father told the agent that his son was “breathing hard and banging his head on the floor.”
Gallatin said Goldman told him that Baker had begun to lead his father by the hand toward the Mahon and Tish residence when Goldman stopped and asked his girlfriend to get him a pair of pants.
Gallatin testified that Goldman told him that Baker continued toward the couple’s residence, then stopped and yelled back at him, “Come here, see what I’ve done.”
At Fayette County Hospital, Gallatin said, Baker told him that he had drank some beer in the garage of his home and began texting and calling two people.
He said that Baker told him that he then went to the Mahon and Tish residence to look for more beer in the garage. He found a bottle of vodka, drank some of it, then felt sick, throwing the bottle into the garden at the residence.
Gallatin said that Baker told him that he had found some marijuana and pills at the residence and smoked the marijuana outside.
Baker then said, according to Gallatin, that he entered the residence through the back door and found a rifle. Gallatin said Baker told him that he tried to shoot himself with the rifle twice, but the gun didn’t fire.
The youth told Gallatin that he turned on a light and saw some cigarettes. He started to smoke a cigarette, then threw it in a trash can. Smoke from the trash can set off a smoke detector, and that woke up Tish.
Gallatin said that Baker told him that Tish yelled “Call 911,” and that because he thought he would get in trouble for entering the house, he shot her, and then also shot Mahon.
Gallatin testified that the youth told him that he put the gun on the table and left, after which he entered the Krajefska residence.
There, the youth told Gallatin, he was confronted by Randy Krajefska, and hit her with a knife. While she went to the bathroom to attend to her injury, her husband confronted the youth and told him to get out of the house, then called 911.
After ruling that the prosecution had met its burden of proof on the charges, McHaney ruled on several motions.
He granted Friedel’s motion seeking DNA samples from Baker and also his motion for the appointment of a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist. Friedel said that Baker has a history of treatment for mental illness, and that there is “reasonable belief that the defense of insanity may be raised.”
McHaney granted McWard’s request for the appointment of a psychologist, but limited the funds for the psychologist at $2,500. He denied McWard’s request for the appointment of a private investigator at this time.
Baker’s next appearance in court will come on Jan. 12, for a pretrial hearing.