‘Bully’ gets jail for sucker punch

Barry Baker Jr. sentenced for assault of disabled man

In tears, Barry Robert Baker Jr. asked the a Chester County Court judge who was to sentence him for throwing a “sucker punch” at a disabled man outside a convenience store for leniency. It was not forthcoming. Baker was sentenced Wednesday to state prison for the assault and his subsequent flight from authorities who were searching for after warrants were issued for his arrest. The judge indicated that he found Baker not only to be a threat to the community, but to be a liar who showed contempt for the court through his dishonesty.

“I want this behind me,” Baker told Judge William P. Mahon at a 2½-hour sentencing proceeding at which an extended version of the now-infamous videotape of Baker’s roundhouse blow was aired.

The video shows Baker landing a haymaker to the face of an unsuspecting man who suffers from cerebral palsy and whose gait Baker mocked before assaulting him. “I want my life back. This will affect me for the rest of my life. I just want a chance to rebuild it.”

But Mahon, citing not only the nature of Baker’s crime but also the disrespect he had shown for the court by fleeing from apprehension following the outcry over the sucker punch and a propensity for being untruthful about the matter, gave him credit only for not making the prosecution prove the charges against him at trial, an exercise that would certainly have ended in a guilty verdict.

Barry Baker