Tara Baker case: Lawyers spar over DNA in contentious start to murder trial

Faust, 50, faces charges including murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, arson and aggravated sodomy in the brutal beating, stabbing, strangling and alleged sexual assault of Baker.

Baker was killed in her off-campus rental home which was set ablaze on Jan. 19, 2001 — one day before her 24th birthday.

The case remained unsolved for more than two decades until advanced DNA evidence linked Faust in 2024, leading to his arrest and a 12-count indictment.

Credit: Elijah Nouvelage

Credit: Elijah Nouvelage

Prosecutors in opening statements previewed how forensic breakthroughs tied Faust to the killing. The defense argued the state’s DNA findings were not supported by other evidence at the crime scene and suggested the investigation overlooked other possibilities, including Baker’s boyfriend, at the time of her death.

Assistant District Attorney Kris Bolden, of the Western Judicial Circuit, said the lengthy investigation “hung over the Baker family and this entire Athens community like a specter.”

Baker’s mother, Virginia, and siblings, Meredith, Adam, and Kevin, were in attendance in the courtroom gallery.

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Four jurors did not appear on time Monday, after a weekend winter storm swept through northeastern Georgia, pushing opening arguments back roughly 90 minutes.

After the jury was seated, Bolden outlined what firefighters discovered when they responded to a call in 2001 of a burning house on Fawn Drive, about four miles from downtown on the east side of Athens.

After extinguishing flames in a bedroom, they found Baker lying naked between her mattress and dislodged bed footboard. She had been stabbed. A printer cord was wrapped around her neck. Police later determined she had been sexually assaulted.

“The state is going to have to present some grisly evidence,” Bolden said.

“Some of this trial is going to be difficult. It’s unfortunate but necessary.”

Bolden noted there were no fingerprints or hair at the crime scene that pointed to any suspects, and initial DNA testing yielded no clues. As years passed, case files swelled to tens of thousands of documents, with more than a dozen persons of interest ruled out.

The Coleman-Baker Act — a Georgia law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2023 to provide resources and attention to cold cases — led to the break. The GBI assigned new agents to conduct additional DNA testing and reexamine evidence. Swabs from the original sexual assault examination produced DNA profiles that matched Baker, her boyfriend and another male.

Using a national database, authorities found a probable match that led them to Faust, who had lived off and on at a residence roughly two football fields from the crime scene.

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Credit: abbey.cutrer@ajc.com

Crews objected to Bolden’s description that the DNA evidence “matched” Faust, rather than stating probabilities, and called for a mistrial. Judge Lott overruled, and Bolden concluded his opening.

Crews, in his initial arguments, did not contest his client’s DNA presence but spent more than two hours laying out a defense centered on reasonable doubt and an alternate suspect.

He questioned the relationship of Baker and her boyfriend, Chris Melton, as well as police interactions with Melton, both immediately after the crime and more than 20 years later.

Crews also said no witness accounts immediately after the killing or physical evidence outside of DNA linked Faust to Baker. He noted that until 2024, Faust never appeared in police files about the case.

“It is not sprinkled through this case, reasonable doubt lives in this case,” Crews said.

District Attorney Kalki Yalamanchili twice objected when Crews ventured into potential explanations for how Faust’s DNA could have been present in swabs from Baker’s body.

Crews was warned by Judge Lott after the first objection. After the second, she found Crews in contempt and ordered him to pay the fine.

Evidence about a victim’s sexual behavior is typically barred under a federal “rape shield law,” unless a defense motion is filed for a separate hearing, where the court can weigh whether it is admissible. Lott said Crews had not filed such a motion.

Last month, Crews filed a motion for Lott to recuse herself from the case for her refusal to reconsider previous preliminary rulings and argued Faust would not receive a fair trial. The motion was denied by Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard, citing a lack of sufficient evidence.

Witness testimony began late Monday afternoon and will continue on Tuesday. The trial is expected to last at least two weeks, with testimony from first responders and investigators anticipated early in the proceedings.

The trial initially was scheduled to begin last October but Lott agreed in August to a delay after Crews asked for more time and resources to manage what he described as “voluminous” amounts of case files and evidence. Yalamanchili, leading the state’s case, did not oppose the delay, describing it as “the largest case file I’ve ever worked with.”