FAYETTE COUNTY — A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling has a 2011 double murder case returning to Fayette County this month for re-sentencing.

Clifford Baker was convicted in 2011 for the shooting deaths of his neighbors 60-year-old Michael Mahon and 53-year-old Debra Tish as they slept in their Loogootee home, along with the home invasion of the couple’s neighbors.

Baker, who was 15 at the time of the murders, was tried as an adult and sentenced in that case to two life sentences for each murder plus 30 years for each home invasion assuring he would never be released from prison.

The case has now been remanded back to Fayette County Court for new sentencing due to the U.S Supreme Court’s ruling on Miller v. Alabama that states an mandatory natural life sentence on a person under 18 violates the 8th amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

In the Baker case, the Appellate Court ruled that the one of the three home invasion charges must be vacated as only one of the two home invasion charges concerning Mahon and Tish are supported under the one-act, one-crime rule.

The more serious of the two home invasion charges will be kept while the less serious charge will be vacated.

The mandatory natural life sentences for the two counts of murder have also been vacated and Judge Allan Lolie will now determine Baker’s new sentence. Attorney Monroe McWard will again defend Baker, along with Public Defender Ed Potter.

A conference call is scheduled for Feb. 22 when the attorneys will pick a sentencing date.
Baker, who is now 20-years-old, remains in custody of the Menard Correctional Center in Chester