Details emerge about alleged shooter of Chilean students

Six days since five Chilean students were shot in Miramar Beach, accused murderer Dannie Roy Baker sits in the Walton County Jail while three families sit in hospitals with their loved ones as Chile prepares to receive the bodies of two slain students.

Sebastian Mauricio Arizaga-Suarez, 27, is in stable condition and Francisco Javier Cofre-Fernande, 25, is in critical condition suffering from a gunshot wound to the face. David Alonzo Bilbao-Meza is in good condition, according to Chilean newspaper La Tercera.

The bodies of Nicolas Pablo Corp-Torres, 23, and Racine Balbontin-Aragondona, 22, are expected to arrive in Chile on Thursday.

Jail officials won't say where Baker is being housed inside the facility. However, Buddy Gissendanner, his public defender, said Baker was no longer in "medical," where he was being held during their meetings Thursday and Friday.

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See a photo gallery from Thursday's shooting scene.

To see a photo gallery of the scene five days after the shooting, click here.

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Of the 182 men, women and teenagers at the jail, Baker faces the most serious charges, said Danny Glidewell, the jail's director.

Although Chilean media have been calling the jail to ask when Baker might go to trial, Glidewell said he's had to tell them the American court system is a slow process.

"I wouldn't anticipate any fast turnaround unless he pleads guilty for some reason," Glidewell said.

Baker's plea date is scheduled for April 21. However, Gissendanner said he will probably enter a written plea of not guilty and skip an appearance before a judge.

Baker is charged with two open counts of murder, three counts of aggravated battery with a weapon and one count of firing missiles into a dwelling. He's being held without bond on all charges except the final charge, which has a bond of $50,000.

"For us now, we've got to get together on whether or not to seek the death penalty," said Bobby Elmore with the State Attorney's Office.

Elmore said his office plans to schedule a grand jury presentation in the next few weeks and will push for first-degree murder charges.

Although the jail allows visitation through secure video transmission, Baker is exercising his right to remain silent. That means no police officer, journalist or resident can speak to him without permission from his legal counsel.

"I can remember only one time where that was allowed by an attorney," Glidewell said.

Meanwhile, Baker remains a mystery to those who have met him locally.

He has a registered nonprofit organization in Florida called Perfect Heart Ministry. The mission statement in the articles of incorporation filed in 2000 say the corporation is "organized for church ministry of promoting the Gospel through Christian music in the State of Florida."

Baker is listed as the incorporator. Two others, Trina and Jason Myers, formerly of Freeport, are listed as being on the board of directors. Calls to more recent phone numbers for the couple have gone unreturned.

Attorney Bart Fleet said he didn't realize he'd met Baker until the Daily News called him recently to ask about the corporation. Fleet's office is listed as the registered agent for the ministry and had helped Baker file documents with the state.

Fleet said he hasn't spoken to Baker since the fall of 2001.

"I'm probably a registered agent for thousands of corporations that we have set up over the past years," Fleet explained. "I don't remember anything about him other than this. We basically set up his corporation and filed his paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service."

When Baker volunteered with the local Republican Party headquarters during the 2004 election campaign, other volunteers remembered that he traveled to Atlanta once a year to help with the Atlanta Fest Christian music festival. But festival organizers said there are so many volunteers that no one remembered Baker specifically.

One person who met Baker on several occasions said she didn't know much about his past, but that he made her feel "cautious and uneasy."

Cheryl Rhoads cleans the town home directly across from where Baker lived at Summer Lake in Miramar Beach.

"He must have been sitting at his window, looking out all the time," Rhoads said.

She said it didn't matter if it was 6 a.m. or 2:30 p.m., Baker would ring the doorbell after she arrived at her job.

"He wouldn't wait to be invited in," Rhoads said. "He would just come in when you opened the door."

Rhoads said sometimes Baker would ask her how much she would charge to clean his home and sometimes he only wanted to talk about religion. He even gave her a copy of his book "Man's Perfection before God."

Rhoads said she discarded the book because, although she is a Christian, the ideas were too extreme for her taste.

On Amazon.com, Baker described his book as "my testimony of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, and by my covenant with God, walking in man's perfection before God."

"We had all decided he must be harmless," Rhoads said. "We were wrong."

Rhoads said Baker seemed nice, but there was something about him she didn't trust.

"I told my neighbor and I told my son if anything ever happens to me when I am out cleaning, you go after this man," Rhoads said. "That's just the way he made me feel."

Rhoads said Baker mentioned that he was trying to publish another book and expected to get more money from some source to buy a condominium on the beach. She said he asked her how much she would charge to clean up his old home because he planned to leave his birds there and not take them to his new home.

"I thought that was strange," Rhoads said.