RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
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FUNGI FUN SEE...A9
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2013 | VOL. 89, NO. 83 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Baker gets life for slaying
Whidbey’s Gleaners
By JESSIE STENSLAND South Whidbey Record Judge Alan Hancock ensured that 63-year-old Robert “Al” Baker will die in prison for the brutal murder of his wife at their Greenbank home last June. Tuesday morning, the Island County Superior Court judge sentenced the Antarctic scientist and pizzeria owner to 52 years in prison, which was the sentence recommendation from Senior Deputy Prosecutor Eric Ohme. Baker was stone-faced throughout the dramatic hearing in which he was called a “monster” over and over again. Baker took the stand in his own defense last week and claimed he didn’t know how his wife, Kathie, was bludgeoned and strangled in their bed, dragged through the house, wrapped in tarps and stashed in their backyard. The jury didn’t buy it and found him guilty Monday afternoon of murder in the first degree with aggravating factors. Hancock set the sentencing for the next day. Although Baker’s background wasn’t discussed during the trial, Ohme described his life of deception. Baker was convicted of molesting a stepdaughter — which Kathie didn’t know about — and spent five years in prison in California in the early 1990s. Ohme suggested Baker’s claim to be a physicist was fabricated; he said neither he nor a detective could find evidence that Baker has a degree. Ohme said Kathie didn’t know the real Al Baker. “When Kathie went to sleep that last and final time, she had no idea she was living with a monster,” he said. The focus of the sentencing hearing was on Kathie, who was just 53 years old. Hancock SEE BAKER, A36
$50 million bond for Whidbey General hospital? By NATHAN WHALEN South Whidbey Record
Justin Burnett / The Record
Gleeful Gleaners volunteers Sandi Coutts and Gabrielle Baalke pick apples at a home on Maxwelton Road last week.
Volunteer group picks for the hungry By JUSTIN BURNETT South Whidbey Record Fingers were numb, teeth chattered and jackets were zipped. Yet, holding true to their name, a small band of intrepid Gleeful Gleaners volunteers were nothing but smiles and fun during an apple pick at a Maxwelton Road home last week. Indeed, the frosty temperatures did little to dampen their moods.
“We want to have a good time — that’s why we’re Gleeful Gleaners,” said Margaret Moore, one of the non-profit group’s founders. Armed with nothing more than smiles and nifty metal claws mounted on long wooden poles, Moore and two other women — Sandi Coutts and Gabrielle Baalke — in very short and cheery order had several boxes overflowing with Whidbey-grown apples. SEE GLEANERS, A17
In terms of facilities, Whidbey General Hospital is facing stiff competition from its neighbors. Nearby hospitals in recent years have poured tens of millions of dollars into building upgrades. Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett almost two years ago opened a 700,000-square-foot addition at its Colby Campus while Island Hospital in Anacortes completed renovations in 2007 and 2012. Those expansions include the addition of singlepatient rooms, a main tenet of Whidbey General Hospital’s expansion plan. Hospital officials hope the Coupeville-based campus will be the latest medical facility with single-patient rooms, but the plan is contingent on voter approve of a $50 million bond measure that will appear on the November ballot. The proposal needs to pass by a 60 percent supermajority. If approved, the bond would be paid off in 25 years and cost property owners an estimated 32.2 cents per $1,000 assessed property value. The money would fund construction of a new wing that would include 39 single-patient rooms, transform the current patient wing into clinic space, provide room for future expansion and construct a new parking lot, as the new wing would be built on top of the existing parking area. “I think it would make a big difference for the patient experience,” said Belinda SEE HOSPITAL, A36