Here is a sicko

Man Pleads Guilty to 3 Sex Crimes, Receives No Jail Time



(Kershaw County) - Counselors say victims of sex crimes never fully put the trauma they experience behind them. An eighteen-year-old from Kershaw County is struggling to move forward at all after authorities say a man she knew well sexually assaulted her.

After months of abuse, this young woman came forward in 2004 in the hope of finding justice for her common-law stepfather's actions. Despite admitting his guilt, he has not served a day for this crime. In this victim's case, a conviction didn't bring closure.

She's telling her story today so to give other young women who may be victims of sexual assault the courage to speak out. For her, speaking out is part of the healing process.

"It started at night, I think. I don't really remember how it started, when it started. I don't know why I can't even remember," the victim said.

But what's even harder for Ashley Anderson is forgetting the bad memory of what happened to her at fourteen years old.

"I guess you really never get past it, because it's always there. Every time you hear of somebody else, you just think about what you went through," Anderson said.

She knew him as a man she trusted. A man her mother had been with for a decade. But according to SLED records, Carl Baker, Jr. also had a history of domestic violence charges, and a conviction for assault and battery.

Anderson says Baker first began making sexual advances at times when her mother and brother were not home.

"Pretty much, if he got me alone, it would happen," Anderson said. "I was just sad and depressed. You just don't want to live."

For months she was too scared to know what to do.

"He had me terrified where I thought nobody would believe me. It was just-I couldn't trust nobody because I didn't know who I could trust. The way he looked at it was, he knew all the law enforcement. It was perfectly fine and he'd never get in trouble with it. He'd get away with it," Anderson said.

One day, she says something just clicked in her head. She told her mother what was happening. The two went to the Kershaw County Sheriffs Department and filed a conviction.

"Your child comes to you and tells you something like that, it's like someone ripped your heart out. You're supposed to protect [her] and here I was living in the household and this was going on, and I didn't even know it," said Tammy Legette, Anderson's mother.

Baker was arrested the same day Anderson filed the report against him.

"He didn't show a lot of remorse," said Investigator Danny Catoe.

Investigator Danny Catoe with the Kershaw County Sheriffs Department took some of the first reports in this case.

"A lot of these cases, if you have children of your own and you see the pain and suffering they go through, it's really difficult to try and understand what would make somebody do this to a child," Catoe said.

Anderson was not the only person to press charges in 2004. Within a few weeks after she came forward, two other women filed similar charges against Baker. One victim stated that he assaulted her several decades ago, when she was only seven years old. The other victim was a teenager like Anderson. The women each spoke to a victims' advocate, who in turn provided investigators with analyses of what happened in each circumstance.

Based on evidence, in 2006 the case came before a judge. Baker faced one charge for each of the victims: criminal sexual conduct with a minor in the second degree, committing a lewd act with a minor, and assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct with a minor in the first degree.

According to court sentencing documents, Baker could have faced a total of fifty-five years behind bars: twenty for the CSC and assault charges and fifteen for the lewd act.

But attorneys on both sides of the case felt a plea bargain, not a trial, was the best way to proceed.

Much had changed in the two years since the charges were filed. Ashley Anderson was now eight and a half months pregnant and had a fianc?. She was ready for closure.

Worried that the stress of a trial would be too much to handle, Ashley agreed to a plea bargain.

The judge issued the sentence: five years probation with twenty years suspension for Carl Baker, Junior. That means that as long as Baker did not violate his probation, he would not have to serve jail time.

Investigator Danny Catoe says the sheriffs department investigators were not consulted on the plea deal.

"If it had been my child, I'd of thought he got off easy. That's something that you can never take back from that child," Catoe said.

The 5th Circuit Solicitors Office declined to do an on-camera interview for this story. But Deputy Solicitor John Meadors did tell us that sex assaults differ case to case. While he was not involved in this particular case, Meadors says the Solicitor's office always tries to be sensitive to the victims' needs, and in this instance, he says the plea would not have been pursued if the victim had not agreed to it. Meadors added that securing a child predator to the sex offender registry is an important punishment.

Defense attorney John Delgado told us that sex assault trials are often horrendous for both parties involved, and that there is no perfect solution. Delgado says the case was a difficult experience for Baker, and that Baker is trying to appropriately serve his probation.

News 19 gave Carl Baker, Jr. an opportunity to speak with us about this case. Mr. Delgado, Baker's attorney, told us that Baker declined that offer to tell his side of the story.

Baker is now a year and a half into his probation sentence. The probation includes a number of restrictions he must abide by, such as no alcohol, a curfew, mandatory check-ins with his probation officer, sex offender registry, and no contact with children or the victims and their families.

If a judge finds that Baker violates probation or commits another crime, then and only then could he face jail time.

While it is a long-standing policy at News 19 to not reveal the identity of sexual assault victims, in this case, the victim asked to be identified. Ashley Anderson asked us to show her face and use her name because she wants others who may be victims of any sex offender to know that it is okay to speak out about abuse.

She says the decision to take the plea agreement was difficult, and in some ways, she says she still struggles with her decision today.

"I kind of wish some people would come out and fight a little harder and try and put [sex offenders] behind bars. I just hope to move on and try to get it past me some," Anderson said.

She added that moving forward has been hard, because she lives in the same small community as Baker. She now struggles with whether or not she should have pursued a trial.

"I should have been the voice and should have stood up for [those other victims] and done something more about it. And I didn't," she said.

Coming up Tuesday night on News 19 at 11 p.m., Attorney General Henry McMaster speaks about his efforts for harsher punishments to be handed down to sex offenders.

"I'm not a psychiatrist. I don't know how everyone's brain works, but the experts around the country have said that these men are going to keep on [committing assaults] unless they're somehow locked up or very closely supervised. I believe that," McMaster said.