‘Sucker punch’ landed man in state prison

Barry Baker Jr. became infamous online after story of him assaulting a man with a disability went viral

It was the “sucker punch” seen ‘round the world. And it landed the man who threw it, Barry Robert Baker Jr., in a state prison cell.

In May, West Chester police and the Chester County District Attorney’s Office released a video clip taken from a surveillance camera outside a borough convenience store. In it, a man identified as Baker, was seen mocking another man he encountered whose gait was awkward because he has cerebral palsy.

When the man turned to confront Baker, the East Fallowfield man with a string of petty crimes in his background, wound up and punched the disabled man in the face, then walked away from the scene nonchalantly.

The assault, seen in such graphic detail and with astonished comments from police officials at its disgraceful nature, quickly went viral on the internet. And Baker, heretofore unknown to the larger community, all of a sudden became the social media world’s equivalent of public enemy No. 1.

Dozens and dozens of comments were added to internet postings about the assault, with comments taking Baker to task, in extremely harsh fashion, for his actions against a man with disabilities. The fact that he could not be charged with any hate crime led some to call for changes in the law to include victims who have physical or mental disabilities.

By the time the world began to see and react to the video, Baker, 29, had already been arrested and released on bail. But soon new war-

rants were issued for his arrest on court violations, and he went on the run. His mug shot image was posted across the region on electronic billboards, and the U.S. Marshal’s Service was called in to help local, state and county law enforcement tack him down.

Which agents did in early June. Baker was found hiding in the bathroom of hotel

in Exton with his thenfiancee, and taken to Chester County Prison to await trial on the “sucker-punch” assault case.

There, he got into a scuffle with a corrections officer which resulted in an injury to his shoulder, and he later gave an interview to the Daily Local News about his case. In the interview, he claimed that the assault came after an earlier confrontation with the man a borough bar, and that the man, later identified as Michael Patrick Ryan, provoked

him.

“I’m not a bully,” he said. “I never was. But I just want to get my life back. I take full responsibility for my actions. Nothing justifies what I did.”

But eventually, after Baker pleaded of charges of simple assault and flight to avoid apprehension before Judge William P. Mahon, the prosecutor assigned to the case, Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Morgan, had debunked Baker’s version of events.

In her case, Morgan said

that Baker had never met Ryan before, and that the pair never exchanged any words before the punch was thrown. “I think the defendant has proven himself to be a menace to society,” said Morgan in asking Mahon for the maximum term of imprisonment allowed by law. “He needs state incarceration.”

Although Baker, a father and landscaping business owner, asked Mahon to show leniency toward him so he could begin to rebuild the life he had that was

shattered by the thoughtless “sucker punch,” Mahon would not.

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.

“You are a bully,” Mahon continued. “You are a predator. You are a coward. In 18 years on the bench I have never had such tangible evidence of someone’s moral compass being so askew.”

Mahon sentenced Baker, 29, a Coatesville area resident who was living in Georgetown, Del., to twin terms of one to two years in a state prison on the charges. In addition, he sentenced Baker to another term of one to two years for violating his probation from a 2009 case of theft from a motor vehicle, for a total sentence of three to six years behind bars.

Barry Baker Jr.