Posted on 05/16/2008 5:44:59 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(The terror was real, say judge, victims)
Waukesha, WI - When a ski-masked Matthew S. Baker shoved a handgun into Kari Mirek's back, walked her to the cash register and put the gun up to her head, Mirek said, she feared for her life.
She didn't know the handgun Baker was using to rob the Wonderland Tap in the City of Pewaukee was a fake.
The bartender had no way of knowing that Baker wasn't going to shoot her.
Her terror on the night of March 6, 2007, was real, she told Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee S. Dreyfus Jr. on Thursday, and she asked Dreyfus to send Baker to prison for a long time.
"I'm asking you to put him behind bars, to give him the longest sentence you could possibly give him. This wasn't his first crime. He sits before you with multiple crimes under his belt," Mirek said.
Dreyfus did just that, sentencing Baker, 21, of Waukesha to 10 years in prison for a crime spree between November 2006 and March 2007 that included two armed robberies, burglaries and criminal damage to property.
In sentencing Baker, Dreyfus also considered a statement from another of Baker's victims.
Diane Goetsch, in a letter submitted to Dreyfus, talked about how Baker pointed a gun at her during the Feb. 26, 2007, robbery at Wendy's restaurant, 2112 E. Moreland Blvd. in Waukesha.
In the event that there is a request for leniency based on the fact that the gun was not real, Goetsch wrote, the "terror of that horrible day was real."
"There should be no reward for inflicting terror with a fake weapon," she stated.
Dreyfus told Baker, "When people have a gun pointed to their head, they are not thinking, 'Gee, I wonder if it's real.' It's quite clear they thought they were going to die."
Baker told authorities he was high on crack when he committed the crimes.
He apologized and told the judge he wishes he could take back the pain he caused his victims and that he was turning his life around, having recently married. His wife and infant daughter were in the courtroom.
"I just ask that you not take my life away. Give me the chance to prove that I'm not a bad guy," Baker said.
He was hoping to get a year in jail and 10 years of probation, a sentence both Baker's attorney and prosecutors had recommended because Baker had cooperated with police.
But Dreyfus said, "When someone puts a gun to somebody's head and robs them, they are going to go to prison. It's just that simple."
When Baker is released from prison, he will be on extended supervision for 10 years, and when that is up, he will be on probation for another 10 years.
Baker's accomplice, Bernina A. Garcia, 21, of Waukesha, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 29.
Lesson learned. If you’re going to commit a robbery in Waukesha, WI take a REAL gun, cause you’re gonna do the same time anyways. Criminals take note.
May the sentence survive the appeal.
Good for the judge for not falling for that con. Baker will be able to prove he's not a bad guy when he gets out of prison.
How “un-PC” of you! Don’t you know this guy just needs a HUG and endless ‘government intervention programs’ at taxpayer expense and all will be well?
*SMIRK*
LOL!
Like I told our kids when they were growing up, “life is hard.” Looks like nobody told this turkey that.
And he’s only 21! My son turns 21 in two days and I would be kicking his butt up and down Main Street in broad daylight if he had done anything like this.
I’m thinking absent father, and wimpy mother.
I do have SOME compassion for these dorks, but really...a kid is born out of wedlock or into dire poverty and hopelessness every twelve seconds or so and FEW of them grow up to hold a gun to someone’s head!
There will be no appeal. Too many crimes committed by this guy.
Glad to see that there is a judge who cares about the victim. No Cheesehead, this man!
There will be no appeal. Too many crimes committed by this guy.
Glad to see that there is a judge who cares about the victim. No Cheesehead, this man!
Take further note, that Judge scratches a set when he itches. The lesson is that they go to prison there. Good lesson.
All our politicians are going to prison?
Got ‘em
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