Boynton Beach man sentenced to 20 years in prison for DUI manslaughter - Palm Beach Post
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH — A 67-year-old Boynton Beach man who fled to Belize to escape charges in a 2008 wrong-way crash was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday.
James D. Baker was charged with DUI manslaughter and other charges after he drove his Jaguar north along the southbound lanes of Interstate 95, causing an SUV to swerve and eventually overturn to avoid hitting him. Three passengers in the SUV were ejected, including 23-year-old Christina Duvalsaint, who died at the scene.
Baker eventually caused another three-car wreck on the highway, and rescue workers had to peel the roof off his car to free him. Troopers said that at the time of the crash, Baker had trace amounts of cocaine in his system and had a blood alcohol level of .144, nearly twice the level at which drivers are presumed legally impaired.
Less than a month before Baker was expected to plead guilty to the charges, he cut his house arrest ankle monitor and fled to Belize, where U.S. Mashals captured him in December.
"The defendant claims he's remorseful, but his actions belied those statements," Circuit Judge Richard Oftedalh said, referencing the escape and statements Baker made afterwards.
Assistant State Attorney Laura Burkhart Laurie asked Oftedahl to impose a 30-year sentence against Baker, saying his previous DUI conviction should have been the wake-up call that kept him from drinking and driving again.
Laurie played a video for Oftedal of an interview Baker gave to a reporter as he arrived back in the United States when a tip from a Belizean cab driver led to his capture. In it, he said he fled because he was fearful of a 25-year prison sentence.
"I'm 67. It's not too exciting," he told the reporter.
Duvalsaint's parents and husband told Oftedahl that her loss had devastated them. Duvalsaint's mother, Gretchen Perez, said she is now responsible for raising her grandson, Quincy, who still struggles to accept his mother's death.
Earlier this week, Perez said, one of Quincy's friends asked him why his grandmother always picks him up from school and wondered aloud about his mother. Perez said Quincy explained matter-of-factly that his mother was dead.
"When he got in the car he told me 'I hate to say that. I hate that everyone has a mommy but me,'" Perez said.
Baker's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Jennifer Marshall, asked Oftedahl to impose a sentence that would allow Baker to spend at least part of the rest of his life as a free man, if only to speak to others about the perils of drinking and driving.
Marshall said that before his divorce sent him on a downward spiral that ended with the June 2008 crash, Baker was a loving father and businessman who once worked for IBM and eventually launched a successful company of his own.
Baker's daughter and sister begged Oftedahl's for leniency, as did Jie Quin, an accountant he helped emigrate from China 16-years ago to work for his company. Quin cried as she told the judge she watched her friend and mentor struggle with addiction and tried a few times to intervene to no avail.
"I felt that I let my dear friend, and anyone he may have hurt, down, and I failed in my efforts," she said.
Baker, after hearing all these things, told the judge he was horrified by his actions.
"I think I've grown to hate myself from this court hearing today, hearing what I've heard," he said.
Besides Duvalsaint, Ayse L. Jones, 25, and Charles B. Jenkins, 26, were also thrown from the SUV. They were seriously injured, but survived.
Baker was also seriously hurt in the crash.
daphne_duret@pbost.com
17 Sep, 2011--
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