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Judge: No new trial for Baker
Daniel Baker was found guilty but mentally ill in the beating death of his girlfriend's mother. | Special to Sun-Times Media
Updated: November 26, 2012 5:08PM
A Deerfield man convicted of fatally beating a Vernon Hills woman was denied a new trial at a hearing Monday.
Daniel Baker faces at least 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Jan. 9.
There is “nothing that would cause the court to disturb its prior judgment,” said Lake County Circuit Judge Daniel Shanes who convicted Baker, 24, of first-degree murder on Nov. 5.
Baker had waived his right to a jury trial so that Shanes would decide the case.
Defense attorneys Ed Genson and Blaire Dalton unsuccessfully sought a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
Shanes found Baker guilty but mentally ill when he fatally bludgeoned Marina Aksman of Veron Hills with a baseball bat on April 1, 2010. Prosecutors said he murdered Aksman, the mother of his girlfriend, after she tried to split them up.
Baker is being held without bail at Lake County Jail.
