Adam Baker, his daughter Zahra, and former wife Elisa Baker. Picture: File Source: The Advertiser
- Baker sentenced to 30 days in jail for an assault charge
- Australian set to appeal against the jail sentence
- Expected to be deported when court matters are completed
ADAM Baker's plan to take his murdered disabled daughter Zahra's ashes back to Australia next week has hit a road block after a North Carolina judge sentenced him to a month in jail.
Former Queensland sugar mill worker Baker, 34, spent yesterday in courts in two North Carolina counties for a variety of charges that were not expected to lead to jail time.
However, the Hickory Daily Record newspaper reports District Court Judge BJ Mullinax sentenced Baker to 30 days in jail for an assault with a deadly weapon charge relating to an incident where Baker tried to use a car to run a family member off the road.
Baker, who was cleared by North Carolina authorities of playing any role in the 2010 murder and dismemberment of his 10-year-old cancer survivor daughter Zahra, will appeal against the jail sentence.
The judge agreed not to send him to prison until a ruling was made on the appeal.
The dramatic turn has been one of many since Zahra was reported missing from the Hickory, North Carolina, home where she lived with her Australian father and American stepmother, Elisa Baker.
Elisa admitted murdering and dismembering Zahra and in September last year was sentenced to a 15- to 18-year prison term.
She also appeared in a North Carolina court yesterday facing seven drug charges relating to the sale of more than 50,000 painkillers and anti-anxiety pills between 2006 and 2010.
It was alleged she sold prescription drugs from three homes, including a trailer the family lived in and the rented house where Zahra went missing last October.
Under the plea deal, seven drug charges carrying a maximum penalty of 140 years' jail were reduced to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess a controlled substance.
The 43-year-old self-described gothic and pagan is expected to be sentenced to a 20-year jail term served concurrently with the murder sentence.
"Yes," Elisa replied when asked by US Magistrate Judge David Keesler if she was guilty of the charge.
Her sentencing date has not been scheduled.
Baker, while living in Queensland with Zahra, met US-based Elisa on the internet. They married in Queensland and in 2008 Baker and Zahra moved to Elisa's home state of North Carolina.
Abker and Zahra, whose lower left leg had been amputated in 2005 after she was stricken with bone cancer, were in the US illegally as their tourist visas had expired.
US immigration officials are expected to deport Baker when his court matters are completed.
mitch daniels heart attack grill morganza spillway machiavelli
0 comments:
Post a Comment