A Tennessee pastor, who worked to restore pastors caught in sexual sin, took his life hours after being released from jail on an accusation he molested a child.
Tennessee authorities said David Mark Baker, Sr., took his life on Sept. 11. The day before, the 57-year-old married pastor was arrested on an accusation he molested a child under the age of 12, Fox 17 Nashville reported.
An affidavit filed in Baker’s case accused the minister of aggravated sexual battery by touching a child’s breasts underneath her clothing between 2013—2015.
Missy Wray, an employee of Maury County Sheriff’s Department, said the sexual abuse allegation remains under investigation, and she could not comment on specifics.
Baker served as lead pastor of Family Baptist Church in Columbia. His name has been removed from the church’s website. Social media sites, including the church’s Facebook and YouTube, and Baker’s personal Facebook page are inactive.
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Baker is also associated with Fallen in Grace, a restoration ministry for pastors involved in sexual misconduct. The website sells Baker’s book on overcoming sin.
Court records show Baker was taken into custody around 4:40 p.m. on Sept. 10 and released from the Maury County jail around 3:15 a.m. on Sept. 11. on $200,000 bail.
The sheriff’s office did not have Baker’s bail conditions available when contacted by El Informe Roys (TRR). However, Wray said that in sexual abuse cases, the suspect is typically prevented from possessing a weapon or going near the victim.
Maury Regional Medical Center emitió un comunicado to Fox 17 Nashville, stating that a Code Silver alert was activated at approximately 12:45 p.m. on Sept. 11, almost 12 hours after Baker was released from jail. A Code Silver alert indicates a firearm has been discharged on campus, or a person is confirmed or suspected of possessing a weapon on the premises.
Baker entered a public restroom at the medical center, where “he administered a self-inflicted gunshot to the chest, discharging the weapon twice,” the statement reads.
According to the statement, the staff-initiated life-saving medical treatment, but Baker succumbed to his injuries.
TRR called the number for Family Baptist Church for comment, but no one answered, and the church does not have voicemail or a message service to leave a message.
In 2022, Baker came in third in a three-way race for Maury County Mayor, the Columbia Daily Herald reported.
Sheila Stogsdill is a freelance print journalist and digital reporter, primarily covering crime issues for KSN/KODE.
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11 kids. Care to presume he was one of those Fundy IFB Quiverfull, Gothard types (like Jim Bob Dugger)?
Yes he was an IFB Pastor
Where does it say he had eleven children?
That’s quite a knee-jerk comment, Mr Mallet.
You sound angry.
I can’t tell if Mr. Mallet is angry or not, but he clearly has a prejudice against IFBs and large families, and condemns a whole class of Christians based on his knowledge of a few bad ones.
Louis Zaragoza:
His church bio proudly stated that he had 11 children and named all of them.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230129181029/https:/familybaptistchurch.me/about-us/our-staff/
And it was repeated by ChristianPost and ChurchLeaders.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/pastor-father-of-11-baptist-college-exec-kills-himself.html
https://churchleaders.com/news/495549-tennessee-pastor-dies-suicide-sexual-battery-minor.html
I don’t know what authors IFB’s might appreciate, but I’m aware that Bill Gothard was greatly influenced by Watchman Nee’s teaching on Spiritual Authority. And certain groups which have claimed to be the direct descendants of Nee’s ministry – such as the Lord’s Recovery Movement of Witness Lee – are now known to have covered up sexual sins in leadership. A brave woman, who was 16 at the time when Lee’s son molested her in Taiwan, has come forward recently out of concern for the safety of others. Her public appeal to the greater Body of Christ can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/cQMO3le79y4
We can’t forget the victim in this story.
Before coming forward she was probably warned of all the bad things that could happen if she came forward with these accusations. But she bravely did it anyway.
She is probably dealing with some guilt right now, blaming herself for his death. “This is my fault. If I kept my mouth shut this would not have happened.”
He ran that Fallen in Grace ministry with David Hyles, son of Jack Hyles. David Hyles was proven to have had sex with at least 17 women when he was pastor of Miller Road Baptist Church in Texas. There is a book, https://www.bestofbooksok.com/book/9781481208680 written by Attorney Voyle Glover that is absolutely the best expose of Independent Baptist Fundamentalism and it’s emptiness.
May God give grace to the family and Church family. This is devastating to go through.
Similar happened over 20 years ago to a church youth lay leader in rural central Illinois. They were foster parents and the man was charged with a similar crime. The day his trial was to begin he took his life.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Baker’s wife and children. His actions have changed their lives forever, and not in a good way. A lawyer friend told me that in all likelihood the $200K bond will now be discharged, any bond collateral (house? car? land?etc.) is returned to its rightful owner, presumably the wife, but the bail bondsman keeps the 10% bonding fee ($20,000) . My friend said that sometimes sympathetic bail bondsmen will give a discount on that fee, so it might have been lower than 10%. I hope for the sake of Baker’s wife and surviving children, he had a will or some sort of estate plan. In most states, if he has paid the premiums on a life insurance policy for more than two years, it will pay out to the beneficiary; again, presumably the wife.
This article was inadequate. It should have explored Baker’s partnership with David Hyles (Fallen in Grace) — a man suspected of murdering his child and a serial adulterer who was the pastor/son of the infamous Jack Hyles. David Hyles is the former brother-in-law of Jack Schaap, who was followed Jack Hyles in the pulpit of First Baptist Church of Hammond and spent nearly a decade in prison for having sex with a minor. This is more evidence of a deep web of sexual perversion in the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement and just a little research will lead one to a complex web of sexual immorality, abuse, cover-ups and nepotistic alliances.
Even the Wikipedia page on Jack Hyles (the sections: “Family” and “Controversies”) would make an ageing rock star known for the wildest excesses and debauchery probably BLUSH…
This guy pulled a Tom White, of Voice of the Martyrs, who killed himself early the next morning after a father had gone to the police and demanded an investigation. That was April 10, 2010.
Right, VOM was never held accountable for allowing that pedophile to be in leadership. Just like New Tribes and their history of shielding themselves from all the pedo’s in their midst. This has to stop but these organizations want to be forgiven and continue to want donors to overlook their irresponsibility in protecting the innocent.
Pastors have a lot of solitary office time during which they are presumed to be writing sermons. But now we have the Internet. I wonder what his search history would reveal?
I don’t know if it means anything, but the article says he shot himself in the chest, twice. How does one do that? I’ve never heard of a man shooting himself in the chest even once. Male suicides are almost always head or mouth.