- I'm Craig Melvin
and this is "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered."
- I just got home,
and my husband
and daughter--
my husband's dead
on the floor!
- A husband and father
suddenly gone.
- Did he hit his head?
Did he have
a heart attack?
- I said, something's wrong.
Something's wrong.
- There was
a lot of blood.
- Then, they found
the bullets.
He'd been shot
with two different guns.
- Two guns.
Does that mean
two shooters?
- One could argue that.
- Detectives would unravel
a staggering plan of
stone-cold evil.
- This plot to kill him
had been going back months.
- Months.
There was
a seething hatred.
- It was a game.
Everybody else was basically
collateral damage.
- It just destroyed
my heart.
I'm angry now.
And I was never
a very angry person.
- Hello. And welcome to
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
In the eyes
of his daughter,
Randy Baker
could do no wrong.
He was her rock
and a mentor
for countless others
as an addiction
counselor.
Then, Randy
was found dead.
Hunting for clues,
investigators would uncover
a twisted trail
of family secrets
and a stunning conspiracy
fueled by rage.
Here's Keith Morrison
with "The Secret Keepers."
- It was a warm
Colorado morning
on the ripe side
of summer.
The road beneath
his wheels.
The vast blue
canopy above.
Renewed possibilities
in his heart.
Randy Baker,
recovering heart patient,
cruised through the sun
to the job he loved.
Better now.
Back to sweet routine.
So, why this
morning fatigue?
Randy felt the warm day
wrap his big body
like a sleeping pill.
He struggled to lift
his leaden eyelids.
So tired.
- What was told to me
was that he probably
fell asleep and swerved.
- It could have been
catastrophic.
It wasn't.
His Pontiac took a ding,
but the cops who responded
said he seemed okay.
- These officers had made sure
he was all right, um,
and essentially let him off
with a warning.
- Perhaps those cops
didn't know
it was the fifth time
he'd dozed off at the wheel.
His fifth brush with death
in a month.
Lucky, for a moment,
here on the last day
of his life.
Next morning.
Wednesday,
August 16, 2017.
8:30 A.M.
Officer Doug Medhurst
of the Greeley, Colorado,
Police got the call.
Found the big,
quiet house
at the end of a fine,
leafy cul-de-sac
where a shaken
Kelly Baker was waiting.
- When I got here,
Kelly Baker was sitting
on the steps over there.
- Just right there?
- I asked her what had happened,
and she told me
her husband Randy Baker
was dead in the house.
- She'd been away
overnight.
Then, in the morning
she opened the garage door,
and there he was.
- So, Randy Baker
was layin' right here.
His torso was layin'
in the hallway,
and his head was inside
the doorframe here.
It was right in front
of that sink.
- With a pool of blood
down there.
- And a pool of blood.
He was layin'
on his right side.
Obviously dead.
He had a bag of fast food
with 'em
and a drink cup from
a local fast-food restaurant.
- As if he'd just picked up
his dinner.
- It's what it
looked like to me.
He was layin' on the floor
with that spilled next to him
and his cell phone
layin' there.
- Kelly, the victim's wife,
gave Officer Medhurst
a little background.
Randy had a bad heart.
His health was failing.
And he'd been falling asleep
at the wheel.
- I continued
to talk to Kelly
and Randy's sister, Carol Baker,
had arrived.
- As the women huddled
with Officer Medhurst
trying to make sense
of this awful thing,
the coroner's
investigator arrived.
- I told him
of the health issues,
and I believe he spoke
to Kelly Baker as well.
And then he did
a cursory examination,
and he told me
that he thought
possibly he died
of natural causes
with all
the health issues.
- Did that surprise you?
- Well, wasn't sure.
I mean, it was possible
with the health issues,
but I didn't really know
at that time.
Could be anything.
- Indeed.
Kelly called
Randy's daughter,
her stepdaughter.
Betty Winick knew
her dad's heart
would eventually
give out.
- I pictured the day
for a really long time.
But you never can
picture it, like, the--
I was angry.
I didn't think
I'd be angry.
But I just remember
yelling at my husband
to get there faster
'cause I didn't believe it.
- Just trying to put it
in context
what that morning
must've been like for you.
It just-- I can't.
- I put on a strong face
for people, though, so--
because there was--
Kelly was there,
my aunt Carol was there,
and the police were still there.
I-I broke down
for a split second
and then composed myself
and I was okay.
- She had to tell
her mother Dory
about Randy's death.
Wasn't easy.
Dory and Randy had
divorced years before,
but she still loved him.
- I could tell
she'd been cryin'.
I said, "Betty,
what's wrong?"
And she goes,
"Dad's gone."
And I said, "No.
No."
She goes, "Mom,
they found him this mornin'."
But I said, "Betty,
something's wrong.
Something's wrong.
Something's wrong."
- Thing is, back at the house
that morning,
Officer Medhurst was thinking
the very same thing.
Especially after
Kelly told him
the Pontiac was missing
along with his keys
and wallet.
Could be some innocent reason,
of course.
He had dinged his car,
so maybe he'd taken it in
for repairs.
- So, I asked Kelly
if there was a mechanic
that Randy used,
and she named
the local mechanic.
And I called them.
And I said,
"Is this car there?"
And they said no,
it wasn't there.
- So, where was it?
Had he driven it home?
Did he have it when he bought
his Mexican take-out?
- The owner
of the restaurant
showed me
their video surveillance.
I was able
to find a car,
it appeared
to be Randy's,
driving through
the drive-through
to get an order
matching the food
that I found next to him--
his body.
- So, now you know
a lot more.
- I knew the car had
made it to Greeley.
- And probably all the way home
with Randy.
But after that?
- Had no idea.
- Two days later,
Medhurst got the news.
During the autopsy,
the medical examiner
had taken a closer look.
Scraped the blood away
from Randy's head
and shoulder.
And what do you know.
- My phone started
ringin' off the hook
and the investigation sergeant
notified me
that Randy had died
from two gunshot wounds.
- What did you think
when you heard that?
- I thought "Boy,
I was right."
- Natural causes?
Please.
This was murder.
- As the investigation starts,
police discover
a dark time from Randy's past
and a potential lead.
- Betty Winick's father
had a very bad heart.
She knew she could
lose him soon.
Thought she was ready.
But she wasn't.
Not at all.
Grief like a sledgehammer.
- I don't know if you
watch "Grey's Anatomy,"
but that term "my person--"
- Yeah?
- Yes.
He was my person.
So, I went to him for
anything and everything.
- Of course, police knew
Randy had been shot to death,
and his killer must've
taken his car.
But they didn't tell Betty
or the rest of the family.
Not right away.
- They kept asking about guns
and I was like,
all right,
this is weird.
- So, after a couple of hours,
they told you what?
- My father's case was
considered a murder case.
I think
in the back of my mind
I already knew
it wasn't a natural death.
- By this time, detectives
had pieced together
Randy's final hours.
Had collected
security camera footage
showing Randy leaving work
around 5:35 P.M.
And that video from the Mexican
take-out place at 7:30.
- Thank you so much
for choosing Santiago's.
- The restaurant is about
a 10-minute drive
from the house,
meaning Randy must've been
murdered around 7:45.
But by whom?
The answer,
police knew,
might depend a lot
on Randy himself.
Something in his behavior,
his life.
Which, Betty told them,
had been rough sometimes.
- He was a counselor
since I was 4 or 5.
- What kind of counseling
did he do?
- Drug and alcohol
addiction counseling.
- He had some experience
with that.
- Yes, he had a lot of
experience with that, so.
- What did you
know about that?
- Not a lot.
He didn't like
to talk about it.
Um, just that
he almost died.
- When Randy was 28,
a strapping bear of a man
6 feet 5 inches tall,
he was a lineman
for the local power company.
Dory Baker, Betty's mother
and Randy's first wife,
could tell that story.
- He was on the line
and he got a jolt.
He-- That--
He was electrocuted.
- He was never the same
after that.
Heart permanently
damaged.
Terrible pain.
Depression.
Not hard to guess
the next part.
He tried to escape
his misery with drugs.
- There was just
so much pain there.
And-And he didn't know
what to do with it.
- He wallowed in
his addiction.
Got so bad
he was even dealing drugs.
But then, after 3 hard years,
he cleaned up his life.
No more drugs
or dealing.
And that's when
he promised
to help others
get clean too.
It's what made him
a committed counselor
as much as
anything else.
- Pretty much.
Pretty much.
- Randy helped
a lot of people.
Strangers.
Friends. Family.
One of his nephews having
trouble with drugs himself
texted this Father's Day wish
in 2015.
So, Randy triumphed
over his demons.
Even got his health back.
And then one day,
a local hairdresser named Kelly
entered their lives.
- And she actually cut
your dad's hair--
- Yes.
- And your mom's hair too?
- Yep. We lived a few houses
away from each other.
- Tell me about her.
- Very cute.
Very sweet and quiet.
And when I saw Kelly
actually look at my husband
with the look that sh--
I knew I was in trouble.
- What was the look?
- It was-- She was gaga
over my man.
And I said,
"Yeah. It's over."
- She was right.
Dory found herself
replaced
by Kelly
the hairdresser.
- It broke my heart.
I-I was very depressed.
- Were you angry
at him for a while?
- I think
I was young enough
that I didn't
understand it.
We were actually
pretty close.
They were married
18 years.
I called her "Mom."
- Kelly set up
her new hair salon
in Randy's basement.
And Randy reveled
in his new life.
Kelly, her kids,
his kid,
and the other love of his life,
his Harley.
- Harley Davidson
Road King.
I think, like, '95.
It was his thing.
And he didn't ride it often,
especially the last, like,
10 years,
'cause he was sick.
- His heart again.
Cardiomyopathy wasn't easy
for him or Kelly.
- He was on many
medications.
She would do, like, clean--
the house was pretty big
and, you know, she would be
the caretaker
even though
he didn't need one.
- But Betty said Randy wanted
Kelly to care for him.
And she did, for years.
Until she just
couldn't anymore.
- She was 11 years younger
and I think it was starting
to get to her
that she was still
kind of pretty young.
- It was the spring of 2017
when Randy was recovering
from open-heart surgery.
Kelly said she just
couldn't take it anymore,
and she moved out.
- And at first,
I was like,
I could kind of
understand that.
- But 2 months later,
Randy was dead.
And police were calling in
family members
to tell them
exactly how he died.
[crying]
Kelly had trouble
dealing with it.
Still, they asked
for her help.
But she calmed herself.
And she did mention Randy's
dedication to his job.
But, said Kelly,
he'd been one of them once.
So, maybe he'd made
some enemies.
And then, they looked
at the bullets
that killed Randy Baker
more closely.
He wasn't shot with a gun.
There were two.
Two guns.
So, a drug-related hit?
Maybe Kelly was
on to something.
- Two shooters?
- One could argue that.
- You didn't know.
- No.
- Another side
of Randy Baker.
- She explained that, uh,
Randy was not necessarily
nice to her, uh, often.
Uh, that he was volatile.
- And another man
enters the picture.
- Randy Baker's
life began
in the same random way
all life begins.
But its end?
That was no accident.
Somebody or somebodies
made double sure
with two bullets
from two different guns.
Does that mean
two shooters?
- One could argue that.
- You didn't know.
- No.
- Veteran detectives
Chris Onderlinde
and Mike Prill
were assigned to the case.
It was still early.
Lot to figure out.
- We're still just tryin'
to get ahead of the ball game
or catch up, um,
and find out
what everyone's statements are,
where were they,
what issues that may
or may not be there.
- First, they had to clear
the usual suspects.
They had brought Kelly in,
of course.
She was
the murdered man's spouse.
So, would she benefit
from his death?
- Pretty nominal amounts.
- Yeah.
So, not really worth
killing somebody.
- Right.
- As for their relationship,
well, Kelly offered
a different view of Randy.
- She explained that, uh,
Randy was not necessarily
nice to her, uh, often.
Um, that he was volatile.
That she had moved
out of the home
and was staying
with her friend Teri.
- Then, about an hour and a half
into the interview,
the detective kind of
offhandedly asked Kelly
a question she clearly
didn't want to answer.
Well, now,
that was interesting.
A non-answer
like a neon sign.
Couldn't ignore that.
What did you think
when you heard that?
- Unfortunately,
it's not an uncommon thing
of, okay, she's-she's
having an affair.
Does that-- Does that mean
Klint could be a suspect?
Well, obviously, we're going
to ask and talk to him.
- And they did.
And Klint admitted
the affair.
He and Kelly were together
in bed all night
the night her husband
was murdered.
Kelly Baker, meanwhile,
told her step-daughter, Betty,
what it was like
to get what felt to her
like the third degree.
- She was like, "They almost
treated me like a suspect."
She was like, "I guess
that's normal though,
'cause I'm the-- like,
was almost an ex-wife
and I had left."
- Betty's head was in a haze
during those first few days
after her father's death.
And desperate to have
something to remember him by,
she asked if she could have
her dad's Harley.
And so, it was a shock
when her step-mom told her
it was gone.
- She said that
he sold it,
and that it's
not in her hands.
That she's-- knew nothing
about the sale,
essentially,
is what she told me.
- That was the story.
- Is what she-- Yes. Yep.
- Odd.
Why would he sell
his prized bike?
And then, just as the
detectives were starting
to dig into that puzzle,
what do you know.
Five days after Randy
Baker was murdered,
somebody found
his missing Pontiac.
- This is, uh, Randy Baker's
Pontiac G6.
It's the one he was drivin'
the day he was murdered.
- So, how does it wind up
in here in the police lot?
- A citizen actually
called from South Greeley
and spotted it in an alley
down by the college.
It had been abandoned.
The plates
had been removed
and, um, the key
was locked in on--
inside on the floorboard,
and the car had obviously
been wiped down.
- Who ditched the car?
Investigators
didn't know.
But the police asked
the public for help,
and a few days later,
a tip came in.
Randy's Pontiac had been
listed for sale on Facebook.
- And so, we followed up
on that Facebook post
and tracked down, uh,
this-this female
that was tryin'
to offload Randy's car.
And that led to yet
another career criminal
to another
and to another.
- A motley crew.
They brought them in,
asked them personal
questions like,
"Where were you
when Randy was shot?
How'd you get the car?"
And that's when this
ragged band
of walking felonies
offered up a true shocker.
They had gotten the car,
they said,
from someone close
to Randy Baker.
Someone not named Kelly.
- I have to have
those phones.
- You take 'em away,
my goodness.
- And what's inside.
- Yeah.
- What stories they tell.
- Cell phone secrets
reveal a loved one
with no love lost
for Randy.
- The phone records
were confirming
that there was a seething
hatred between the two.
Welcome back to "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Craig Melvin.
Randy Baker's killer
was still at large,
but police had recovered
the beloved dad's
missing Pontiac.
After questioning
a parade of criminals
connected to the vehicle,
detectives learned
the person behind
the car's disappearance
was someone
close to Randy.
They were bound by blood,
almost all of it bad.
Once again,
here's Keith Morrison
with "The Secret Keppers."
- Families can be
such a fascinating little study,
can't they?
Most are warm,
protective, loving.
But Randy Baker's family?
Well, consider this.
The person who gave
Randy Baker's car
to those criminal
bottom-feeders
was none other than
his big sister, Carol.
- She had received the car
within about 2 hours
of Randy's murder.
- She's gotta be involved
in this somehow.
- Right.
- How did Carol Baker get
her dead brother's car?
Investigators didn't know,
but they had reached
at least one conclusion.
- Carol's a little simple.
- She had a little trouble
keeping up with things.
- Uh, yeah.
She seemed to answer
questions fine
but at the same time,
I think at one point
she even said,
"I'm slow."
- Really?
- Yeah.
- And then, there was
something else.
- We were learning
that Randy and Carol's
relationship was-was strained.
- Uh-huh.
- So much so that
they preferred
not to be around
each other.
- Betty said the tension
between Randy and Carol
went way back to
their childhood days.
- And he would talk about
how she secretly loved
being an only child
and once he came,
she, like, hated it.
Was his version.
And she would talk about
how she'd pick on him.
- Not the best
sibling relationship.
- No. Not what I'd want
for my kinds to have.
So, yep.
- Once grown,
Randy went his way.
Carol went hers.
Randy ended up in college.
Carol did odd jobs.
Both married
and started families,
but, said Randy's
first wife Dory,
Carol could never leave
well enough alone.
- She tried to
ruin everything.
She tried to ruin our
relationship from the beginning.
- It worked.
Carol was the one
who introduced Kelly
the hairdresser to Randy.
Betty was just a little kid
when her father married Kelly,
but she was old enough
to see her dad's relationship
with his sister
did not improve.
- It was kind of Kelly and
Carol versus my dad a lot.
- Ah.
- And it became that way
big time once all of us
kids were out of the house.
- That certainly caught
Detective Prill's attention.
Carol
did not like Randy
and Carol
had access to his house.
Who was the last person known
to have been in the house
before the shooting occurred?
- Carol.
- That's right.
Carol told Detective Onderlinde
she'd gone
to the house that night
to do some chores
for Kelly.
- She was, you know,
the last person at the house.
Uh, roughly an hour
before Randy was murdered.
She drew the blinds,
put the dog in the kennel,
and then she left and, um, drove
to an aunt's house
a couple blocks away
and that she was there
for the rest
of the night.
- The hounds had the scent.
Or so they thought.
All they needed
were the granular details,
and that's when
the investigation
took a deep dive into
the greatest keeper of secrets
in the 21st century--
the cellphone.
- I have
to have those phones.
- You take them away,
my goodness.
- And what's inside.
- Yeah.
- What stories
they tell.
- Detective Prill's specialty
is phone forensics.
Meaning he can coax
those phones to give up
who was calling whom and when
and where they were
and what they said
in text messages.
The detective hunkered
down in his cubicle.
How much time did
you spend in here?
- Somewhere around
12 hours a day,
7 days a week
for a month.
- Go home, eat, sleep, repeat.
- And get back.
- The detective had seen
his share of family spats
and lusty intrigues
over the years,
but he'd never seen anything
quite like the story
told by those cell phones.
That spring and summer?
Kelly and Carol exchanged, well,
roughly 4500 text messages.
An average
of 50 a day.
How close
were these women?
- Well, the 4500
text messages alone is--
- Yeah.
- Mind-numbing.
But the-the constant,
uh, exchange of "I love yous,"
"I love you, sister,"
"I love you, sissy,"
"I love you
to the moon and back."
- And while that
was going on,
Kelly was also texting
her husband Randy,
who was still recovering
from that open-heart surgery.
No hearts
and flowers there.
- She's saying
"It's been 14 years.
Do you hear me?
14 years.
I don't want any more death,
so I shut you out."
- Wow.
- At 8:48 she sayin' that,
but then she's telling Carol,
"I love you so much."
- That was 2 months
before the murder,
right about when Kelly
moved out of the house.
And through texts,
Prill could plainly see
that Randy still had hopes
of salvaging the marriage.
- It was difficult
to read through
his inner feelings
for her.
Um, he didn't want her gone.
He wanted her home.
- Right here at his desk,
Mike Prill was seeing
what looked to him
like motive.
- The phone records
were-were confirming
that there
was a seething hatred
between the
two towards Randy.
- Still, both Kelly and Carol
had unassailable alibis.
Carol had been with her aunt
at the time of the murder.
Kelly had been miles away
with her lover.
But then, Detective Prill
found this.
- This message Carol sent
to Kelly Baker where it said
"Put it under Sonia,"
and then a phone number.
- Put it under Sonia?
- Right.
- Put what
under Sonia?
- Well, about 10 minutes
after that message,
Kelly Baker added
this phone number
in her contacts
under the name Sonia.
- Who in heaven's name
was Sonia?
- Coming up.
An arrest in the case.
- He just ran into the
garage, dumped his vest
that had a .357 revolver
inside of it,
and came out
and surrendered.
- So, who
was the killer?
- I just remember
him telling me.
- Feel like falling
off the bench?
- Yes.
**
- All those hours
spent poking around
Kelly and Carol's phones
were yielding splendid results.
Like the name Sonia.
Who was she?
Well, in fact,
she was a he.
And not exactly a guy you'd
bring home to your mother.
- He had ties
with a white supremacist gang
prominent in Colorado.
A prison gang
by the name
of 211 Crew.
- He goes by Griz,
but his mother named him Kelly.
And who
would his mother be?
- He's the biological
son of Carol Baker.
- Yep, Carol's son
and Randy's nephew.
Not a nice guy.
- No.
- Griz had a long
prison stretch
under his belt
for attempted murder.
He also, on close examination,
had a significant presence
on that string of text messages
Prill uncovered.
- I came
to realize that Carol
was forwarding text messages
from Griz to Kelly Baker.
- Messages to do what?
- Well, in the end, I--
it was certain to me,
to murder Randy.
- Police here in Greeley
had never seen anything like it.
A wayward wife, a dimwitted
sister, a gangbanger nephew?
Had they all conspired to kill
their uncle-brother-husband?
About 5 weeks
after Randy's murder,
Police brought Kelly
back in and she was chatty.
As she offered up
more theories about the murder.
At this point, detectives
did not show their cards.
They had a plan.
Next, they brought
in Carol, Randy's sister.
They let her believe
they had connected
her son Griz
to the murder.
And then,
they let her think
that Kelly
had just sold her out.
And that's when Carol
folded like a cheap tent.
Said the mastermind
behind the murder was Kelly.
And after implicating
her sister-in-law,
Carol gave up
her own flesh and blood.
Her son
Kelly Raisley, aka Griz.
They arrested Kelly
that same day
and charged her
with murdering her husband.
And after, they gave Randy's
daughter Betty the news.
- I just remember sitting
down and him telling me,
like, "We've arrested,
um, Kelly and Carol."
- Feel like falling
off the bench?
- Yes. Um, I stared at my phone
for quite a while, shaking.
- And Griz? Was holed up
at a friend's house near Denver.
- The house was surrounded.
He just ran into the garage,
dumped his, uh, vest
that had a .357 revolver
inside of it, um, and came out
and surrendered.
- Griz stewed in jail
for 7 months.
And then, he wrote
to prosecutor Rob Miller.
- He wrote a letter exaggerating
how he committed the crime,
but ultimately
admitting to it
saying, "I've been played
by these two ladies."
- Pretty soon, Griz
was cutting a deal.
- Arrangements were made
for Griz to confess
the entire murder in exchange
for, uh, the state
not pursuing
the death penalty.
- Griz was specific.
His mother and Kelly had pushed
him to do the killing.
Mom drove him to the scene,
dropped him off,
and he shot Randy
as he walked in the door.
And to solve the mystery
posed by the forensics?
Two guns equal two shooters?
Nope.
That's just how he rolls.
And after the killing,
he explained,
he drove off in Randy's Pontiac.
There was one more
revelation too.
Remember Randy's beloved Harley?
The one he supposedly sold?
Griz really wanted
that Harley.
But he also wanted to get
something off his chest.
And that part
is still hard to figure.
- It was important to him
that people knew
that Randy
was a great guy.
- He was, in fact,
the same nephew who sent Randy
that nice Father's Day
text 2 years earlier.
"Not only have
you been a role model
and an inspiration to me,
but the closest person
I've ever had
as a real father figure."
How did Griz explain the fact
that he could kill someone
after he had this
great relationship with him?
- He believed
that Kelly
and Carol Baker
had manipulated him.
Fed him information
that he now knew was not true.
That-That Randy was abusive
to both Carol and Kelly.
- Police had
also developed
a more solid theory
about motive.
Kelly, remember,
had told the police
the life insurance
was only about 10,000 dollars.
As you dug in,
what'd you find?
- Uh, we found six policies.
- What?
- They totaled
more than 130,000 dollars.
- Wow.
- Right.
- Who was the beneficiary
of all these policies?
- Kelly.
- The house too, of course.
At the end of that green
and quiet cul-de-sac.
Lots of equity.
- She was looking at somewhere
near $400,000 with Randy dead.
- So, a murder mystery solved?
Why, no indeed.
Kelly said she was innocent.
A victim herself.
Detective Prill
didn't buy it.
- This woman could enter
a room and whisper lies
to every ear in there
and turn everyone
against everyone
else but Kelly.
She would control
the room with her lies
and remarkably,
no one caught onto it.
- Now, all she had to do
was work her magic on the jury.
Coming up.
The widow Baker
spins a frightening tale.
- He slammed his hands as hard
as he could on the table,
looked me right
in the eye and said,
"I will kill you
and then I will kill myself."
- She's a manipulator.
To her, it was a game.
- Who would win?
When "Dateline:
Secrets Uncovered" continues.
Welcome back.
Randy Baker's nephew Griz
struck a plea deal
with prosecutors.
In exchange for dropping
the death penalty,
he admitted to killing
his uncle in a secret plot
hatched by his mother
and Randy's wife Kelly.
Now, Griz was about
to take the stand
at Kelly's murder trial,
but he had a surprise in store.
Here's Keith Morrison
with the conclusion
of "The Secret Keepers."
**
- As the harsh Colorado
winter melted into spring,
a curious cast
of characters
filed into
the Weld County Courthouse.
Here was a family
turned circular firing squad,
finger-pointing blame
for the sordid events
that ended
Randy Baker's life.
- Sometimes, life
is stranger than fiction.
- Kelly Baker
pleaded not guilty.
Denied she had a thing
to do with the murder.
Well, armed with confessions
and plea deals from Carol Baker
and her son Griz, Chief District
Attorney Thea Carrasco
and ADA Rob Miller aimed
to prove that, in fact,
Kelly was the ringleader of this
gang of deadly relatives.
A little bit Byzantine
or something.
There were some,
uh, planning at work here.
- For quite some time.
- For 3 long months.
And Plan A was, well, odd.
Remember those falling
asleep car accidents?
The prosecutors
said Kelly spiked
Randy's morning smoothies
with overdoses of his own meds,
hoping an accident
would kill him.
Randy's nephew Griz
thought that one up.
When that didn't work,
Griz finished the job
with two bullets.
- Do you swear or affirm
under penalty of perjury
that you'lltell the truth,
the whole truth--
- Now, prosecutors
just needed him to say
all the same things
to the jury.
Fine plan, but listen
to what happened.
- Do you recall having
discussions with, um, your mom
or Kelly Baker about a plan
to harm Randy Baker?
- No, I don't.
- Okay.
- Griz was clamming up.
What was he doing there?
- He knows the game.
He knows how prisons work.
He knew if he, quote unquote,
snitched that it would be
a rough, uh, rest
of his natural life in prison.
- Over and over,
Griz played dumb.
- You got a Harley Davidson
for this murder, is that right?
- I had a Harley Davidson,
correct.
- The prosecutors
did what they could.
They played Griz's confession
tape for the jury.
Dear mother was a little
more talkative
about how Kelly was
at the end of her rope
that summer
before Randy's murder.
- We talked about
how she can't believe
he's still alive and, you know,
he's-he's sickly
and he doesn't wanna
be here anymore.
- We got to know
the real Kelly Baker.
What became clear to us
is that she's a manipulator.
- So, they called
her a puppet master.
A liar.
A killer.
Question was,
would the jury believe it?
Now, the defense
got its turn.
And attorney
Robert Ray turned loose
his very best counterattack.
Kelly Baker herself.
- Kelly Baker
had to take the stand
in this case,
in my-my view.
- The jury was about to
get a firsthand look
at a different Kelly Baker.
Demure. Kind. Long-suffering.
Hers was a very different
story about herself,
not as a killer,
but as a patient caretaker.
She talked about Randy
in the early days.
- What was your life
like during that time period?
- It was great.
I mean, it was
a really good marriage
with him bein'
a therapist and a counselor.
We had our-our small issues
with blending our-our kids
and disciplining our kids,
but other than that, for
our-ourselves, we-we loved
each other very much.
- But then, her life, she said,
began to resemble
the sad bits
of Cinderella.
But her Randy
was no Prince Charming.
- He was somewhat controlling.
He wanted to tell me
who I could be with
and, um, how I could do things.
Going out to eat
with somebody else
or movie night
or just have the girls over.
I was never allowed
to do anything like that.
- Was there ever any violence
in your marriage?
- There was a small amount, yes.
- What kind of violence?
- Well, he wanted
to physically stop me
from leaving if we were
having an argument.
- And that
summer of 2017,
Kelly said,
she just needed a change.
But when she talked
to Randy about it?
- He slammed his hands
as hard as he could
on the table,
scared the crap out of me,
looked me right in the eye
and said, "I will kill you
and then I will kill myself
because I have nothing to lose."
- So, with her good friend
Carol at her side,
Kelly fled.
She was moving on.
But that decision
weighed on her.
- I'm still feeling
lost, you know?
Am I doing the right thing?
Am I makin' the right decision?
- And despite her plan
for a new life, she insisted,
she swore she loved Randy
and she did not kill him.
- She didn't know anything
about the planned murder.
Kelly Baker just found
the body that morning
when she came
to the house.
- And really,
what physical evidence
did the prosecutors have?
Well, one little something.
A killer's mistake.
An excess of impatient greed.
Yeah, so the-the check.
- The $420 check
was a huge piece
of evidence in the case.
- Here was their proof,
said the prosecutors.
And you didn't need to believe
Carol or Griz for this one.
Just follow the money
and pay attention.
- There were two text
messages from Randy
where he told her
that he was coming home
with the 420-dollar check.
- That's right.
The day he was murdered, Randy
told Kelly he'd have the check
in his wallet, $420,
when he got home.
But remember, he left
his wallet in the car.
And then, Griz killed
Randy and took the car.
Drove away with the wallet
and the check.
- At 3:46 in the afternoon
on August 16th,
the same day that Kelly Baker
found Randy's body,
she cashed this
$420 check.
- So, how did Kelly
get that check?
In her final moments
of cross examination, Carrasco
used Kelly herself to lay out
the prosecution's theory.
- That means
that you deposited a check
from a dead man's wallet, right?
- Correct.
- A wallet
that was missing, right?
- Right.
- From a car that was stolen.
- Correct.
- Stolen by a killer.
- Right.
- Who shot your husband.
- Correct.
- In a murder you claim you had
absolutely nothing to do with.
- Right.
- I'm done
with this witness, judge.
- Almost like you
were disgusted.
- I was and I think the
jury was at that point.
Because to her,
it was a game.
- And when the game
was over, Kelly lost.
- We, the Jury, find
the Defendant, Kelly Baker,
guilty of murder
in the first degree.
- Guilty.
Kelly was sentenced
to life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
She's appealing
her conviction.
Despite
his witness amnesia,
Griz got exactly
the same sentence.
Carol Baker
got 30 years.
At sentencing,
Betty Winick brought to court
the namesake Randy Baker
never got to meet.
- This is Randall James.
- Betty clings
to her new baby Randy,
her daughters,
and her husband.
But it's hard,
she said, missing her dad.
- This situation
has made me feel
like I'm not in control
of anything in my life
and the one person
who made me feel
like I could be in control
of it was him.
And I can't call him to
see if I'm handling this
the right way or--
- Although, I must tell you,
as we're sitting
here talking,
you've been calling on him
again and again.
- I like
to think that.
- And in the end,
for all her smiles
and boundless good manners,
Randy Baker's daughter
is just as tough as he was.
Maybe tougher.
Maybe she just
doesn't know it yet.
- That's all for this edition of
"Dateline: Secrets Uncovered."
I'm Craig Melvin.
Thank you for watching.