Matthew Baker Receives Sentence In Starke Circuit Court

Starke County Courthouse

Matthew Baker was sentenced in Starke Circuit Court Thursday after pleading guilty to four counts against him.

The Knox man was sentenced to 10 years in the Department of Corrections with two years suspended, on a charge of Dealing in Methamphetamine, a Class B Felony. On the Class D Felony charge of Attempted Battery, he was sentenced to 18 months in the DOC with none of that sentence suspended. He will spend one year in the Starke County Jail on each of the two misdemeanor counts of Taking a Child to a Nuisance. None of that sentence was suspended. The three lesser counts will be served concurrently, but the Dealing in Methamphetamine charge will be served consecutively to those charges.

He will also serve two years on probation. He will be applying to the home detention program when he is eligible to serve his sentence on probation, and if he successfully completes the CLIFF Program, he can petition the court to modify his sentence.

Four Arrested for Methampetamine Lab in Knox

While serving three arrest warrants on Robert Singleton and Matthew Baker, officers found the suspects Friday at 415 N. State Road 23 in Knox—along with an active methamphetamine lab and a slew of drugs in the presence of two young children.

When they arrived at the residence, officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department and Knox Police Department found Baker entering a vehicle and moved to detain him before finding an active one-pot methamphetamine lab in his hand. A brief altercation ended with a handcuffed Baker in the back of a squad car.

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