SHANNON DEDRICK - 7 months - Chipley FL

It appears 1-of-the-2 defendants in the disappearance of a Chipley baby may stand trial at the
end of this month.
The baby Shannon saga had the nation on the edge of it's seat for about a week last fall, after authorities found
the 7-month old child stuffed in 2-by-3-foot wooden box shoved under a bed in a Chipley home.
The house belonged to Susan Baker, Shannon's aunt and babysitter.
Authorities arrested Baker and Shannon's mother, Crystina Mercer.
Baker may go to trial by the end of this month.
It's been almost 9-months since authorities arrested 50-year-old Susan Baker for her alleged involvement
in the disappearance of Shannon Dedrick.
They say she conspired with Dedrick's mother, Crystina Mercer, to give the child away.
Mercer is the one who made the 911 call on Halloween morning, reporting the child as missing.
"Washington County 911."
"Yes my little girl, I woke up this morning and my 6-month-old daughter, uh...7-month-old daughter
is missing. My front door looks like it's been jimmied open today."
Dedrick, who was 7-months-old at the time, was last seen in her parents' custody
at their Brown Street home in Chipley.
For the next 5-days, rescue teams searched on-the-ground and from -the-air, combing wooded areas and
trash bins for any sign of the little girl.
Then on the night of November 4th, authorities searched Baker's home and found Dedrick inside
of a 2-by-3-foot wooden box stuffed under a bed.
"We are the proud papas of a little girl. This is something that usually doesn't happen
percentage wise if you look across the United States, you do not usually
get the happy endings that we have here today," says Washington County Sheriff Bobby Haddock.
The 2-women face a long list of criminal charges.
During Thursday's pre-trial hearing, Judge Allen Register
said he's leaning heavily toward Baker's trial beginning by the end of
this month, pending her lawyer's schedule.
"If we can work it out so that Mr. Virga's Bay County case will be continued next week and if we
can also make arrangements for him to be available the afternoon of jury
selection then I see no reason that we cannot get this case tried this term of quarter."
Crystina Mercer also appeared in court this morning.
Judge Register continued her case to the September pre-trial docket.
Baker was also involved in the disappearance of her stepson, Paul, in Beaufort, South Carolina, back in 1987.
She's still being held in jail on $150,000 bond.

A judge ruled Monday to postpone Susan Baker’s child abuse trial
another two months, when defense attorneys will argue the former baby
sitter can’t get a fair trial in Chipley or anywhere near here.
The trial date, once scheduled for later this month, now stands at
Sept. 24, when Baker will have been in jail about 11 months on charges
she hid a missing 7-month-old baby, her niece Shannon Dedrick, in a
wooden box.
“We regret the fact we did not present our case,” Baker’s attorney
Gerard Virga said when reached Monday evening. “We’re looking forward to
our chance.”
Virga filed for the continuance because his wife, his co-counsel in
the case, is pregnant.
He also has filed for a change of venue,
arguing “inflammatory media” coverage in Panama City and on the Internet
has tainted the jury pool across Northwest Florida. In his motion to
the court, Virga attached “a slew of local and national news articles” —
including stories from The News Herald as well as CNN, USA Today and
Fox — as examples of the “extreme media attention” that led a judge to
seal Shannon’s dependency hearings from reporters.
He also listed comments posted on the Facebook page of Nancy Grace,
who covered the Oct. 31 disappearance on her talk show, including one
comment accusing Baker of foul play in a separate missing child case and
another suggesting she deserves lethal injection.
Baker was a suspect in the 1987 disappearance of her stepson, Paul
Baker, from Beaufort, S.C., but a grand jury never indicted her in his
case, and he never was found.
That information came to light soon after Baker spoke to The News
Herald during the four-day search for Shannon, saying she loved the
little girl and wanted to rescue her from her parents, Crystina Mercer
and Rusty Dedrick.
Another Facebook comment Virga cited, made after Baker was charged
with aggravated child abuse, interference with custody and giving false
information to police: “I live in Chipley where this went on. I want to
be on the jury.”
Those comments were “a clear warning of what lies ahead at the time
of selecting a jury to hear this case in a small community such as
Washington County,” Virga wrote. He called news reports of Baker’s
criminal history — she was convicted for beating her stepdaughter in
1987 — and the Paul Baker case “distracting and irrelevant information”
that “further distorts the public’s perception of this case.” And he
added the case likely would attract “the most publicized coverage of a
criminal case in the history of Washington County.”
Prosecutor Greg Wilson said he wants the trial held in his circuit,
but the judge will decide.
“Obviously, the case got a lot of publicity. That’s anticipated,”
Wilson said Monday. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to seat the jury.”
Virga specifically named Orlando and Tampa as the best alternatives
for a trial — both far away but still convenient for travel.

One of the suspects in the “Baby Shannon” case took the stand Monday, and a judge ruled the trial, which will begin later this month, will stay in Washington County.Susan Baker, the Chipley woman charged with aggravated child abuse, interference with custody and providing false information to law enforcement officers testified during a day-long hearing that dealt with several issues, including whether the search of her home was legal, the media coverage of the trial and jury selection. Circuit Judge Allen Register sided with the prosecution on most of the issues, deferring judgment on one aspect of the search.Baker, the aunt and baby sitter of then-7-month-old Shannon Dedrick, is accused of taking the baby from her mother and locking the child in a cedar box underneath a bed at her home. Law enforcement officers recovered the baby, alive, on Nov. 4, 2009. The child’s mother, Tina Mercer, also is charged in the case.Jury selection is scheduled for Sept. 24 in Washington County.During Monday’s hearing, Baker and her husband, James, testified they did not feel they could leave the sheriff’s office on Nov. 4 after coming to the office with deputies. Meanwhile, a large contingent of law enforcement officers had descended on the Baker home in preparation for a search, according to Baker’s attorney, Gerard Virga.Baker said her morning began when two plain-clothed officers showed up at her home while she was outside, “in my pajamas out there feeding and watering my critters.”The two men startled her and she got upset, she said. The officers then told Baker they “needed” her to bring her van to the sheriff’s office. Baker said she tried to give them the keys so they could take the van themselves, but the officers refused to leave without her.“I figured I had to go,” she said.Her husband, who has not been charged in the case, said that after the baby went missing, he always did what-ever the officers asked him to do.“I didn’t have nothing to hide,” James Baker said. However, he also testified he felt he didn’t have a choice in whether he could leave the sheriff’s office on Nov. 4.Susan Baker agreed, saying a deputy blocked her way when she tried to leave and that no matter how many times she asked for food or to leave, she was always told she had to stay.“From the time I was taken to the (Washington County Sheriff’s Office) till the time I got back out I didn’t feel no freedom whatsoever,” Susan Baker said.Prosecutor Greg Wilson pointed to multiple moments on Nov. 4 that would prove the couple voluntarily gave up their rights. On the way to the sheriff’s office, Susan Baker pulled over and got gas, and the officers volunteered to pay for it. While she was at the sheriff’s office, no one ever put handcuffs on her or her husband, Wilson noted.Then, before the search began, James or Susan Baker opened the locked door to the trailer so the officers could get in. And, officers allowed Baker to go inside the trailer alone so that she could corral her “critters” before the search began. While she was inside Baker picked up her pet skunk and put it under her shirt, then walked back outside, she said.Wilson also argued the Bakers could have called off the search at any time, an idea they both vehemently disagreed with.“I don’t know what would have happened if I had said no,” James Baker said.Susan Baker did admit that after the search began she never tried to tell the officers to stop.“I wasn’t talking to them; I was sitting on the front steps with my skunk,” she said. She added she cooperated with the investigation “up to a point.”Virga argued that the law enforcement officers violated Baker’s rights multiple times by not giving her food, not allowing her to leave, and by closing off her property to outsiders even though they did not yet have a search war-rant or consent to search.However, investigators obtained both the search warrant, and, after an hours-long interrogation of Susan and James Baker, the signed search consent form.This, too, was done improperly, according to Virga, because the form lists two officers, not the multitude of officers and agencies that descended on the home.There were so many officers that it “looked like fleas on a tick — I mean a dog,” Baker testified.Virga’s ultimate hope was to get the search and the fruits of the search thrown out.Circuit Judge Allen Register ruled for the state on every issue except for the scope of the search. Register asked Virga and Wilson to submit written arguments as to whether the Bakers were giving two specific officers the right to search their house or if they were giving all law enforcement the right to search the house. Register most likely will make a ruling on the issue before the trial.

Media
Despite objections from Virga, Register ruled the trial will take place in Washington County, which means the attorneys will have to find jurors who do not already have an opinion about the case.Virga asked Register to note that the latest Census figures show the county has population of about 24,000.“We’re not dealing with a place where perhaps not everybody would know about this,” Virga said. He added that the coverage of the case always includes facts that would not be admissible at trial.Virga argued that even if they could find the untainted jurors, once they are chosen they will be unable to avoid the coverage of the trial over the weekend. He asked Register to sequester the jury over the weekend and prevent them from accessing the Internet, television or their cell phones.Register denied the motion, reminding Virga that the question will not be whether jurors are aware of the case, but rather whether they have “formed an opinion based on that coverage.”“I have every confidence that our potential jurors will be up front with us,” Register said. He also asked the attorneys to be “very circumspect” when talking about the case to anyone outside of their respective offices.“Let’s don’t throw anything out there that might keep this case from being tried,” Register said.

Jury selection begins Friday, Sept. 24, in the trial of Susan Baker, the woman accused of stashing a baby in a box underneath her bed for 12 hours.Finding jurors who haven’t formed an opinion on Baker’s guilt might complicate the jury selection process, because media outlets have followed the sensational case with rapt attention.Defense attorneys Gerard Virga and Rachel Seaton-Virga declined to comment for this report, as did prosecutor Greg Wilson. Because of the pretrial publicity the case has received, Judge Allen Register warned both parties against talking to the media about the case.But Waylon Graham can talk about it. Graham, a Panama City attorney who has defended several high-profile cases during his 25-year career, thinks it might be hard to find impartial jurors in a county as small as Washington.“Trying to find a jury that has not heard about this is going to be difficult, I think,” said Graham, who is not involved in the Baker case.The issue is not so much whether a potential juror has heard of a case or not, Graham said. The issue is whether a potential juror has formed an opinion based on what they might have seen on TV or read in the newspaper.Judge Register denied a request from Baker’s lawyers to move the trial to another venue. In a memo sent to attorneys this week, Register laid out the process he intends to use to weed out bias from the jury pool.Jurors will be divided into groups of five and interviewed one group at a time. Once 21 fair, impartial jurors have been located, jury selection will revert to the normal “voir dire” (legalese for inquiry) process.Baker was arrested Nov. 4, 2009 after a four-day search for the child. Police searched for several days before locating then 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick in a 2-foot by 3-foot latched wooden box under Baker’s bed.There were holes in the box to allow breathing as well as baking soda to mask the smell of dirty diapers. Police said Dedrick had been in the box for 12 hours.Baker and Crystina Mercer, Shannon Dedrick’s mother, are now facing felony child abuse charges. Mercer allegedly told police the baby had been kidnapped by someone who entered her home while she was asleep.Mercer’s trial is scheduled to take place in November, while Baker’s trial has been set to begin Monday in Washington County.Graham called Register’s approach “the prudent way to do it.”

About 200 people showed up at the Washington County courthouse for jury duty Friday morning in the “Baby Shannon” case — and none were selected.Instead, Judge Allen Register asked them all to come back Monday, after they had waited 90 minutes while lawyers argued in Register’s chambers because an “unexpected event” made it impossible to select a jury until then.The unexpected event turned out to be the filing of amended charging documents by the State Attorney’s Office. Defense attorneys argued the changes — the language charging Susan Baker with interference with custody was tweaked and the name of the officer Baker allegedly gave false information to was corrected — prejudiced Baker, and they asked Judge Allen Register to strike the amended charges or allow more time to prepare for trial.“Under these circumstances, the trial court either should order a continuance to prepare for the new charge or deny the” amended charges, Baker’s defense attorney, Gerard Virga, wrote in his motion.Baker, 51, of Chipley, was arrested Nov. 4, 2009, after police searching her home located 7-month-old Shannon Dedrick in a latched wooden box under Baker’s bed, authorities said. Baby Shannon, as the child came to be known, was reported missing Oct. 31.Baker and Shannon’s mother, Crystina Mercer, have given conflicting accounts of what happened the night of the child’s disappearance. Baker said Mercer agreed to permanently give the baby to Baker under the table. Mercer, who also faces felony charges in the case, has said “a black figure” entered her home while she slept and stole the baby.Mercer’s trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 15.The filing Friday gave Baker 24 hours to formally enter a plea, a right Baker chose to exercise, and a jury cannot be selected until a plea has been entered.Register asked the jury pool to return at 8 a.m. Monday, and he said he expected the trial to take two or three days. He also instructed the pool to avoid any media coverage of the case.The extensive media coverage has become an issue in the jury selection. Virga asked Register to move the case to another area of the state because he doesn’t believe Baker can get a fair trial in Washington County. Register denied the request.Attorneys declined to comment on the case outside the courtroom.

One of the potential jurors knows the defendant and her husband. Another is the judge’s cousin. More than half of them know one another, and almost everyone knew something about the case against Susan Baker.


Jury selection in Baker’s trial began Monday morning in the Washington County Courthouse, highlighting the difficulty of trying to select a fair, impartial jury in a high-profile case in a county with a total population of about 22,000.Baker sat quietly as the jury was selected, whispering occasionally to her lawyers. Of the 45 possible jurors through the courtroom Monday, only four had not heard of the case against Baker, who is charged with aggravated child abuse for allegedly hiding the infant Shannon Dedrick in a latched wooden box underneath her bed.The child’s mother, Crystina Mercer, also faces felony charges related to the baby’s disappearance. Her trial is scheduled for November.The case made national headlines last fall when the baby went missing for several days before police found her under Baker’s bed. One man said he’d been exposed to the case by cable TV reporter Nancy Grace, among other sources.One at a time, groups of five potential jurors passed through the courtroom until about 28 people answered that they could set aside the opinions they’d formed based on what they’d heard from news media or gossip. That process took most of the day as many potential jurors said they could not shake what they knew about the case, and many potential jurors believed Baker was guilty.Judge Allen Register had denied a request from Baker’s attorneys to move the trial to a place where the case has received less media attention. Gerard Virga and Rachel Seaton-Virga, Baker’s attorneys, have said they don’t believe Baker can get a fair trial here.Once the pool had been narrowed down, the attorneys got their first crack at potential jurors. Assistant State Attorney Greg Wilson read through a list of witnesses scheduled to testify during the trial and asked potential jurors to raise their hands if they knew any of the witnesses. About half the people on the 21-person panel raised their hands.Jurors knew witnesses from church, or they’d taught them or their children in school, or they shopped in the store where they work. One was an ex-brother-in-law.A second group of backups spent most of the day waiting outside the neighboring Sheriff’s Office, just in case a jury could not be produced from the panel. They were called back into the courtroom late Monday afternoon and told they would not be needed.Opening arguments and testimony will begin Tuesday morning. Register told the jury to expect to be available through Thursday, and warned that trial could continue Friday.

Testimony continued in Chipley Wednesday in the trial of accused kidnapper Susan Baker. Baker's relatives and several law enforcement agencies took the stand regarding their involvement with Baker during Shannon Dedrick's disappearance.
The state presented jurors the box where baby Shannon was found by authorities. Wednesday, jurors finally got to see the actual two by three foot wooden box where Susan Baker allegedly hid seven-month-old Shannon Dedrick from authorities. Washington County Sheriff's Investigator Kenny Brock, who found Dedrick inside of it, testified there was only one ventilation hole. "Describe how you found her," says Assistant State Attorney Greg Wilson. Brock says, "this area right here is actually torn down, that's actually where baby Shannon's head was, I didn't see it, I didn't even see her head initially, all I could see was from her chest down, I could see her feet and torso and she was wiggling around." Brock also testified there was a box of baking soda inside and Dedrick's diaper was covered in feces. "She had pottied in her diaper and it was everywhere, we cleaned her up, after we got her cleaned, we realized she had a diaper rash also." Earlier, the state played a recorded interview between Brock and the baby's mother, Crystina Mercer who told him Baker kept her daughter almost as often as they did. Brock asks, "a stranger to the child would be taking care of the child and you guys would be getting visitation of your own child?" "Yes sir," replies Mercer. Brock questions her repeatedly about her inconsistent statements leading up to Shannon's disappearance. "You don't know or you don't remember?" "I don't know!" "Is it possible something happened to the child and you just don't recall at this point?" "No!" Baker's sister, Donna Shirley, told the state how Mercer cared very much for Shannon's father, Rusty Dedrick. Assistant State Attorney Brandon Young asks, "can you describe how Tina acted towards Rusty?" "She thought he was her world," says Shirley. "Was baby Shannon an abused child while she was with either of her parents?" "I didn't think so." Susan Baker's husband, James, also took the stand this afternoon. He testified he had no idea baby Shannon was inside their home.

Updated: 3:16 PM Oct 1, 2010
Jury finds Baker guilty in missing baby case
Chipley - It took only an hour and a half for jurors to find Susan Baker guilty on all three charges in the Baby Shannon Dedrick case that drew national media attention.

Just before 3 pm Friday, Baker was found guilty of aggravated child abuse, interference with custody, and giving false information to law enforcement officers.

In her testimony Thursday, Baker admitted that she’d taken the child and lied to law enforcement officers, but said that “I did what I had to do,” to ensure the safety of Baby Shannon. She claimed that the child’s mother, Crystal Mercer, had threatened to kill the child. Additionally, she said she had made repeated pleas to the Department of Children and Families to take the baby away from the parents because she was allegedly being neglected and living in unsanitary conditions.

Apparently, Baker and Mercer had made a deal for Baker to take the baby, but Mercer nevertheless told police that someone had come in the night and kidnapped the child. That set off a massive search, grabbing the attention of national media, which eventually came to a conclusion when authorities found Baby Shannon in a 2-foot by 3-foot wooden box, shoved under Baker’s bed with only a single hole for ventilation.

Neither woman’s husbands are believed to have been involved in the conspiracy. Baby Shannon remains in private foster care with the Department of Children and Families.
http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/104172839.html?ref=839

Woman Gets 25 Years in Missing Baby Case



by Associated Press/The News Herald
Published: Mon, November 15, 2010 - 3:17 pm CST
A Panhandle woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for hiding a missing infant under bed in box in her home last year.

CHIPLEY, Fla. - A Panhandle woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for hiding a missing infant under bed in box in her home last year. Susan Baker was sentenced Monday after she was convicted of aggravated child abuse, interference with custody and providing false information to law enforcement. Baker hid the 7-month-old girl in her rural Chipley-area home in October 2009 for five days as law officers scoured the area for the infant.

Baker was the child's babysitter. The baby's mother has pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of giving false information to law enforcement. She was sentenced to a year in jail. The baby is now with a relative in Texas.
http://www.wkrg.com/crime/article/woman-gets-25-years-in-missing-baby-case/1202579/Nov-15-2010_3-18-pm/