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It looks like Cody Angus Baker may be coming home sooner than expected.
The state Attorney General’s Office filed a brief Thursday in Baker’s appeal proceedings essentially indicating that it agrees with the appeal filed by Baker’s attorney arguing that Baker’s nine-year, eight-month prison sentence was about three years too long.
For his role in a 2007 crash near Trinity County’s Ruth Lake, Baker was convicted in April of four counts of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated with ordinary negligence and a single count of driving under the influence causing injury with a special allegation of also causing the deaths of four passengers.
Trinity County Superior Court Judge James Woodward sentenced Baker to serve six years in prison for the manslaughter charges and a total of three years, eight months for the DUI charge and accompanying allegations.
Credit for 919 days already served in jail and good conduct credits brought Baker’s term down to about seven years, of which he was expected to serve roughly half with good conduct. Now, he may serve about a year and a half less.
The appeal is currently pending with the state’s 3rd District Court of Appeals, and it remains unclear when a ruling on the appeal will be issued.
Baker was speeding and under the influence on Aug. 31, 2007, when he lost control of the 1991 Honda Civic that was carrying him and five passengers from a bar to a nearby campground, sending the car down a steep embankment of Ruth Lake’s west shore and into the water.
Passengers Stevie Shroyer, 19, of Garberville; Stephanie Hubbard, 20, of Scotia; Nathan Titus, 21, and Jessica Toste, 23, both of Ferndale, were killed in the crash. Another passenger, Zachary Diamond, 27, of Rio Dell, was injured. Baker, a Ferndale resident who had a prior DUI conviction, suffered major chest and head injuries, and was arrested shortly after the crash.
Baker’s attorney Benjamin Okin filed a notice of appeal with the court shortly after sentencing, arguing that the special allegations that accompanied the DUI conviction should have been dismissed. In its brief filed Thursday, the Attorney General’s Office indicated it agrees.
”Since each victim was the subject of a substantive offense, (California Penal Code) section 645 precludes imposition of the multiple victim enhancements pursuant to (the DUI causing injury charge),” the brief states.
California Penal Code Section 645 essentially states that an act that is punishable under different provisions of the law can only be punished under the provision that provides the longer possible prison term, and cannot be punished under more than one provision of the law.
Because Baker is being punished for the deaths of Shroyer, Hubbard, Titus and Toste in the vehicular manslaughter charges, it seems he can’t also be punished for causing the deaths in the special allegations that accompanied his conviction of driving under the influence and causing injury to Diamond.
Reached Friday, Okin said he hadn’t seen the brief filed by the Attorney General’s Office, and declined to comment until he’s had a chance to review it.
When Baker was sentenced in May 2009, it appeared he could be released from prison after serving as little as three and a half years. If a judge upholds Baker’s appeal, it could mean Baker will be released after serving about two years in prison, which would put his release date somewhere around May 2011.
Before standing trial, Baker agreed to a plea deal in March 2008, pleading guilty to charges of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of drunken driving in an agreement that would have seen him serve 10 years and eight months in prison.
But in a surprise move in April 2008, Trinity County Superior Court Judge Anthony Edwards rejected the deal -- saying it didn’t carry a heavy enough sentence -- and sent the case back to square one.
As of November, Baker was serving his sentence at the California Correctional Center in Susanville, where he was training to become a firefighter at an inmate fire camp.
