South Side man gets 6 years for fatal shooting
A 54-year-old South Side man was sentenced Monday to six years in prison for fatally shooting a man who came to his house to confront him about a debt.
Douglas Baisden fired one shot accidentally during a tussle with the victim, 51-year-old Pete Staten, on April 24, 2016, defense attorney Will Ireland said.
Baisden, who had been indicted on a murder charge, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter to avoid the possible consequences of losing at trial, Ireland said. The six-year sentence — three years for voluntary manslaughter and three for a gun specification — was recommended by prosecuting and defense attorneys as part of the plea agreement.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Stephen L. McIntosh agreed to go along with the recommendation, but he made sure to place the blame for Staten’s death on Baisden.
“Whether it was an accident or not,” he told the defendant. “the fact that you had a weapon in the first place meant that something as tragic as this could happen.”
Baisden declined to make a statement other than to encourage the judge to impose the recommended sentence.
Staten was accompanied by two men when he went to Baisden’s house on West Castle Road, just south of South High Street, to ask for money that Baisden owed him, Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Vaccaro said.
An argument began in Baisden’s front yard, which prompted Staten to grab an aluminum bat from his vehicle. Baisden went into his house and retrieved a handgun. By the time he got back outside, Staten no longer had the bat, Vaccaro said. The two men got into a physical altercation, during which Staten was shot in the chest.