GUILTY TX - Debra Baker, 34, beaten to death in her Austin home, 13 Jan 1988

AUSTIN (KXAN) - As Michael Morton’s story made headlines, led to changes in law, and rewrote history, the family of Debra Baker quietly waited for their turn.

Baker was beaten to death inside her home in 1988 and the crime scene was very similar to the murder of Christine Morton two years earlier for which Michael Morton was wrongfully imprisoned.

In 2011, the two murders then shared another similarity.

Same suspect.

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This month, in a courtroom in Williamson County, just north of Austin, the siblings learned of the most dramatic development in the case in two decades. DNA from hair retrieved at the scene of their mother’s murder — evidence that the Bakers did not know existed — matched a biological sample found near the home where another young wife and mother, Christine Morton, had been murdered in August 1986. Her husband, Michael Morton, had been convicted in her death in Williamson County and sentenced to life in prison, but was exonerated last week.

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Mark Norwood, the Bastrop dishwasher who was arrested one year ago for the 1986 murder of Christine Morton, was indicted by a Travis County grand jury on Friday for the January 1988 murder of Debra Masters Baker in Austin.

“It has been excruciating for all of us who loved Debra to wait for this day. Now, we finally have a face to put with her tragic murder,” Baker’s family said in a statement released by attorney Sam Bassett.

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Tanner argued to the judge while the jurors were outside the courtroom that the similarities between the two crimes show a pattern, a "signature crime," and she described the commonalities between the two murders. Both women were beaten in the head while in bed. Both women were beaten with blunt objects. In both cases, the murderer emptied their purses, stole one big-ticket item (in the Morton case a gun, and in the Baker case a VCR), and left jewelry behind. The murderer piled pillows on top of both victims' heads. The victims in both cases were similar in age, similar in appearance and had young children. Neither woman was sexually assaulted.

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AUSTIN (KXAN) – An appeals court Friday upheld the murder conviction of Mark Norwood for the 1986 death of Christine Morton. Morton’s Husband spent 25 years behind bars for the crime before DNA evidence linked Norwood to the crime.

Norwood and his attorneys argued that the trial judge improperly admitted evidence related to the murder of Debra Baker because it was not related to Christine Morton’s murder. Norwood has yet to be tried for Baker’s death. The appellate judges ruled the evidence was related due to the similarities between the two murders.

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During Norwood’s trial in Morton’s death, District Judge Burt Carnes allowed prosecutors to discuss Baker’s murder because the patterns and characteristics “were so distinctively similar that they constituted a ‘signature,’” the appeals court said.

Both victims were white, in their 30s and had long brown hair. Both were attacked while lying in bed, struck in the head six to eight times with a blunt object and were covered with pillows. The killer apparently entered through an unlocked sliding glass door after jumping a backyard fence, and in both cases a single valuable item was taken — a gun from the Morton home, a VCR from Baker’s — while jewelry was left in plain sight, the court noted.

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Debra Baker was murdered January 13, 1988 in Austin, Texas. Recent DNA evidence in another murder investigation in Williamson County has linked one suspect, Mark Alan Norwood, to both crimes. Norwood was arrested November 9, 2011 and charged with the death of Christine Morton, the Williamson County victim. Exactly one year later, Norwood was finally indicted in Travis County for the murder of Debra Baker.

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Published on Jan 12, 2015
The daughter of a woman killed in 1988 is furious the suspect will not go to trial until September.

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AUSTIN (KXAN) — Witnesses are expected Friday in a pretrial hearing for Mark Norwood, who is the man charged with capital murder in the death of Debra Baker. She was beaten to death in her Austin home in 1988. The case went unsolved until 2011, when prosecutors say DNA evidence pointed to Norwood as a suspect. His trial is expected to start in September.

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The trial is on track to start September 14.

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Norwood is already in prison for the murder of Christine Morton in 1986. Her husband, Michael Morton, was exonerated for the murder last year after spending 25 years in prison for her death.

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Police said the top presiding judge in Travis County was hit with shrapnel and glass when the shooter opened fire around 10:15 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Tarrytown area of West Austin.

Kocurek was listed Saturday in serious condition at University Medical Center-Brackenridge, and she is expected to survive...

Judge Kocurek is presiding over the Debra Baker murder case. Mark Norwood is set to go on trial this month. Baker died in her Austin home in 1988. Investigators used DNA to link Norwood to the case. He’s already serving time for the 1986 murder of another woman.

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Mark Alan Norwood made an appearance in Judge Julie Kocurek's 390th District Court on Monday. The 62-year-old was there to hammer out a few pretrial hang-ups before the long-awaited jury selection begins Sept. 8 in the state's trial against him for the 1988 North Austin murder of Debra Baker.

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Mark Norwood, already serving a life sentence for the 1986 murder of a woman in her northwest Austin, was in court on Tuesday to determine the fate of a DNA sample that could link him to additional cases.

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Defense Attorney Bradley Urrutia filed a motion to suppress the DNA taken from Norwood. Investigators had requested a sample from Norwood to compare to DNA in the other cases. (...)

On Thursday, a final hearing will be held to make sure they’re on track for the trial start on Monday, Sept. 12. Urrutia says Norwood maintains his innocence.

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After nearly three decades since the brutal killing of Debra Masters Baker, a jury convicted 62-year-old Mark Alan Norwood of murder Friday. He was sentenced to life in prison, to be served consecutively with his previous murder sentence.

Baker, 34, was beaten to death in her home in January 1988. The case went unsolved until August 2011 when prosecutors say DNA evidence found in Baker’s home was a match to evidence found in the 1986 murder of another woman, Christine Morton.

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