Baker: ‘Nothing justifies what I did’
Remorseful ‘sucker-punch’ defendant tells his side of the story
POCOPSON » At times forthright, apologetic, bewildered, concerned, and secretive, Barry Robert Baker Jr. said in an interview that he was wrong to punch a disabled man he had mocked, but insisted that he had not — as authorities allege — ran from apprehension for his crime.
“I’m mad at myself,” Baker said during an interview at the Chester County Prison, where he is being held on charges that stem from the assault that was captured on video outside a West Chester convenience store and its aftermath, in which police across the region hunted him down as a dangerous fugitive. “I am a better person than that.
“I feel bad for him,” he said of the 22-year-old man who he struck in the face as they traded words outside the 7-Eleven store on South High Street. “But I lost everything. My home, my business. Everyone I talk to says this has all been blown all the way out of proportion. Barry Baker self-employed tree service contractor with a string of often petty offenses in his background who grew up in the Downingtown-Coatesville area — has been harshly condemned on social media and in the news since the incident with the disabled man.
West Chester Police Chief Scott Bohn, after watching the video, labelled Baker’s actions, “appalling.”
“Every decent citizen should
be outraged by the defendant’s conduct,” said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan, who labelled Baker a “bully” who “picks on disabled people” at the time. He has become known as the “suckerpunch” defendant, a term he bristles at. “I’m called ‘sucker punch’ all day,” he said bitterly.
Baker was charged with simple assault a short while after the incident outside the 7-11, and turned himself in to authorities, scheduled to attend a preliminary hearing in late May. But when the video showing what happened was released and went viral on the internet, police say Baker opted to abscond. Two warrants were issued for his arrest — on probation violation and delinquent child support charges — and police say he spent two weeks running from law enforcement’s effort to track him down, in what Hogan called “a relentless manhunt.”
He was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals at a hotel in Uwchlan on June 5 and has been held on $100,000 bail since then.
But in the prison interview, Baker denied the characterizations leveled , saying he had attended school with children who have developmental disabilities, the Child and Career Development Center, and was sensitive to their situations.
“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.”
Asked for comment on Baker’s remarks, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office declined.
“It is a pending matter,” said First Assistant District Attorney Michael Noone.
The interview with Baker took place in a small conference room at the prison in Pocopson, under the watch of correctional officers in a meeting area. He was dressed in blue sweat pants and a white T-shirt, his arms heavily tattooed. His left arm is in a sling, part of treatment for the separated shoulder he suffered in a scuffle with corrections officers in his cell on the prison’s restrictive block. (He claims one of those officers knew the victim in his case, whose name has not been publicly released.) He currently is housed in the prison’s Medical Unit.
According to the scenario laid out during the interview, Baker said he had been out at West Chester bars the night of the assault, May 10, drinking with friends. Shortly before closing at Barnaby’s West Chester, he was smoking on a back patio when he encountered the man he would eventually strike.
He said the man, who he had not known previously, was acting inappropriately around a woman and he called him out on it.
“She said something to him, and I said to him, ‘Don’t do that. It’s disrespectful,’ Baker said.
The man fired back, Baker claims.
“Who do you think you are, Dr. Phil?” Baker said the man jeered, referring to the television personality. “I just let it go. It was right before closing, last call, and my friends and I were having a last drink. I lost my cigarettes so I walked over to the 7-Eleven to get a pack. I was heading out the door when (the victim) pulled in.”
This is the moment captured on the store’s surveillance video, from behind Baker and over his shoulder. The scene is clear, but there is no audio and the victim’s face is obscured, making it impossible to tell whether he engaged Baker.
“He was running his mouth, and said, ‘Oh, look, it’s Dr. Phil again.’ I imitated how he walked,” Baker said, “which was wrong of course.” Baker stood by a trash can and opened the pack of cigarettes he had bought when the victim exited the store, again taunting him, he stated.
“Does he not realize I was ready to let my anger get the best of me?” Baker recalled thinking. The man said something rude again, Baker stated, along the lines of “You didn’t get the door.” “That’s when I let my anger get the best of me.” He said he reached back and slapped the man in the face, holding his pack of cigarettes. “They said there was blood. There was no blood,” he said.
“Everybody heard what he said,” Baker claims, speaking of the people with him outside the store, who looked on nonchalantly as the assault took place.
But why mock the man for his disability, said to be cerebral palsy? “Alcohol,” he said, suggesting he was intoxicated at the time. “It doesn’t justify it. My actions were wrong. If he ever came
to court, I would apologize.”
Baker admits that he left the scene in a hurry, refusing to stop for a West Chester policeman who happened on the scene. But a few days later, after he learned that there was a warrant for his arrest, he tuned himself in to authorities with his then-attorney, Francis Miller of West Chester. But after police and the D.A.’s Office issued a press release about the incident with a video of the “suckerpunch,” along with Baker’s address, the calls started coming.
He said he and his fiancée, Denise Schmidt, were forced to leave the house they shared in East Fallowfield because of the overwhelming negative reaction to the video.
“The day after I posted bail, we had to leave because of the death threats,” he said. “They were going to blow my house up, they were going to kill me and kill my children.” He claims there were 4,700 missed calls on his phone and hundreds of text messages. It made him feel, “horrible. I wanted to release a statement but (Miller, his attorney) said no. His exact words were ‘Lay low. I
want to see if (prosecutor Cynthia Morgan) is going to add any charges.’”
Baker said he and Schmidt went to her house in Georgetown, Delaware to wait until the furor subsided, but then warrants were issued for his arrest on the probation violation and a Domestic Relations matter. Although authorities have alleged that he went on the run and defiantly refused to surrender on the warrants, Baker denied that was true.
“I didn’t leave the country,” he said. “I didn’t leave Delaware or Pennsylvania. I came back to Pennsylvania to turn myself in.” He refused, however, to say where he was in the 10 days before he was taken into custody, except to claim that he was in Schmidt’s house once when Delaware officials came looking. He said that not until the night before his capture, when he went to a hotel in Uwchlan, did he check the internet to see what was being said about his case.
He did not know what a whirlwind was circling around him, he assured the interviewer, including media reports about the manhunt and the large electronic billboards across the region that showed his mugshot and declared him a wanted man. “I didn’t search my name. I didn’t do
any of that. I didn’t see the billboard until they brought me in,” he said. “They took me down Route 30 and I saw it.”
Baker now faces a variety of legal obstacles to his release. Including the warrants that were issued for the probation violation and child support payments, there are the assault and flight to avoid apprehension charges. He said his current attorney, Thomas Purl of Downingtown, has been told by Assistant District Attorney Cynthia Morgan, who is prosecuting the case, that her office will seek at least a one to two year prison term.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Baker said, noting he could either accept the prosecution’s plea offer or plead guilty and leave the sentence up to Common Pleas Judge William P. Mahon, who has been assigned to hear the cases. ”State prison probably. Anything is better than here,” he said of the county prison, where he has been put on 24 hours-a-day restriction and held in solitary confinement for the scuffle with corrections officers.
“I just want to get my life back. I take full responsibility for my actions. Nothing justifies what I did,” he said. “It’s been a big mess, I’ll tell you that.”