A 24-year-old man from Ohio will spend the rest of his life in prison because he took his 2-year-old daughter from her girlfriend, shot her twice in the head, and then led police on a high-speed chase with the baby’s body still in the car.
looked at records and found that on Monday, Seneca County Common Pleas Court Judge Damon Alt sentenced Jonathan Baker to life in prison without the chance of parole for the murder of young Emery.
The judge gave Alt the sentence after a jury found him guilty earlier this month of aggravated murder with a firearm and kidnapping. Baker was given sixteen and a half years extra time for kidnapping and three years extra time for firearms in addition to the life sentence.
The Sentinel-Tribune reports that Baker told the court on Monday that he now knew that killing his daughter was “completely evil.”
He is said to have said, “I really thought that day I was doing something good.” He also said, “What I did was absolutely horrible.” He also said that he thought he had a mental illness because he had not found religion and “did not have God in his heart that day” when he killed the man.
Baker is said to have then begged Alt to “please have mercy” before giving him his sentence.
But it was clear that the judge did not believe Baker’s claims that he felt bad about what he did.
“Mr. Baker, you killed your daughter…” In the course of the day, you had every chance to stop that crime from happening, Alt said, adding that Baker’s actions were “senseless” and failed to show genuine regret.
The prosecutors said again that Baker’s newfound regret seemed fake.
“That is a level of evil that is rarely seen,” Wood County Assistant Prosecutor Brian Boos is said to have told the court when he asked for Baker to get the harshest sentence possible.
As reported before, Baker took his daughter from his girlfriend’s house on June 27, 2023, and drove off in a bright yellow Camaro. Soon, the car was seen in Tiffin by a police officer who wasn’t on duty. The officer followed the car and let police know where it was, police said.
At first, no one knew what would happen to Emery, but police said the first signs did not look good for her.
The male subject had told the child’s mother that he killed the baby and had said he was feeling suicidal and like killing someone, the Tiffin Police Department wrote in the first press release. “The BOLO also said that the person was carrying a gun.”
After getting the off-duty officer’s location, deputies from the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office and local police tried to stop the Camaro, but Baker was able to avoid the first attempts to stop the car.
“At a high speed, the Camaro started to speed up and erratically drove off the road, through the front yard of one house, and into another house, destroying it completely,” police said.
It was in a follow-up press release that the police said, “The suspect vehicle quickly accelerated and veered left off the roadway, crashing into a residence.” “There was no one in the house when the crash happened.”
The accident happened at a house on Sandusky Street in Tiffin, a small town 55 miles southeast of Toledo, just before 4 p.m.
Police later released footage from a dashcam that showed the short chase. At the end, seven or more officers and deputies broke the back window of the Camaro to get the baby out.
After officers did CPR, Baker and the girl were freed and taken to a nearby hospital.
Emery was found alive at first, but she died soon after being taken out of the Camaro from her injuries.
The suspect, the girl’s mother, and an unknown third man who put 911 dispatchers on the group call talk about what’s going on in disturbing 911 calls that were made public after the suspect was arrested.
“Is there anything you’d like to say to me before I leave?” Baker asks.
“Hey, Jonathan Baker, what’s up?” The other man asks.
At one point, the unidentified man also tells the dispatcher that the girl’s mother is following the defendant’s cell phone because “he forgot to turn it off.” The police were also given that information to help them with their work.
In one of the 911 calls, the girl’s mother begs her boyfriend with tears, using her daughter’s name: “I just want Emery.”
