Jessica Masulli Reyes

The News Journal

Editor's Note: We're republishing the top stories of the last year. This was the 4th most-read story of 2017 on Delawareonline.com

A 47-year-old woman has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for poisoning her husband to death with antifreeze, according to the Department of Justice.

Jamie L. Baker of Smyrna entered her plea in Superior Court in Dover on Monday morning.

Her husband – 42-year-old James D. Baker II –was found dead on the bedroom floor of their home by his wife on Sept. 16, 2013, according to police.

An autopsy determined that his kidneys contained a substance suspected to be ethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze. If taken in small dosages, ethylene glycol will crystallize in the kidneys and eventually kill a person, police said in court records.

The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide by poisoning after bottles of steroids found at the scene were tested at a laboratory and found to also contain ethylene glycol, police said.

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Further investigation and interviews indicated that James Baker, who was a competitive weightlifter, had ordered steroids in June with a friend over the internet and had them shipped to the friend's house.

The friend told detectives that the steroid bottles were not tampered with when they arrived and that James Baker kept the bottles in a locked toolbox in a closet of his home, police said.

Almost a year after his death, Jamie Baker admitted to police in an interview that she had used a hypodermic syringe to extract antifreeze from a container stored in the garage and injected several bottles of steroids with the antifreeze, police said.

The lengthy investigation ended in March of 2014 with Baker being charged with first-degree murder and possession of a deadly weapon during a felony.

According to James Baker's obituary, Baker worked as an environmental specialist for 22 years at the DuPont Experimental Station. He had been married to his wife for 21 years and had two daughters.

His wife is expected to be sentenced in late March and faces 15 years to life in prison.

Contact Jessica Masulli Reyes at 302-324-2777, jmreyes@delawareonline.com or Twitter @JessicaMasulli.