Baker expected to plead guilty

By KIM SMITH DEDAM
Staff Writer

July 03, 2008 04:00 am

— ELIZABETHTOWN -- The case against Steven R. Baker may not go to trial again after all.
Facing retrial in connection with the death of Albert R. Montanaro III, Baker is expected to plead guilty to manslaughter in a court appearance today.
Montanaro, 20, died Jan. 16, 2006, while jogging along Route 373, when the car Baker was driving hit him.
The Montanaro family received written notice of the newly scheduled plea appearance.
"It is anticipated he's going to plead guilty to the top count of manslaughter," said Nora Montanaro, mother of the victim.
District Attorney Julie Garcia would not confirm any plea arrangement Wednesday, saying only that the case is scheduled for an appearance at 11:30 a.m. today in Essex County Court.
Public Defender Livingston Hatch could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Mrs. Montanaro expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the entire court proceeding.
"We hear he will be sentenced to two, two and a half years to seven. With the time he's served already, he might be walking permanently tomorrow."
Baker, who is from West Chazy, was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury last year and sent to prison downstate.
He returned to court after the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court overturned the conviction due to a technicality -- that the prosecution's case failed to lay proper foundation proving the chromatography machine was calibrated before Baker's blood-alcohol level was tested.
The defendant turned down a plea offer in June.
Mrs. Montanaro said her family has scheduled their summer around the retrial, which now may not take place.
Their son Thomas was studying in Paris at the Sorbonne when he was subpoenaed to appear and has returned home.
"Whenever I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. Whenever I got in that courtroom, it got worse," she said.
"We're hoping he (Baker) tells the whole truth. I just want to know why he slowed down before he killed my son."
kdedam@pressrepublican.com

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