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| Inmates may have stopped murder |
| By Sarasota Herald-Tribune |
| Published: 07/02/2004 |
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A murder-for-hire scheme collapsed when two jail inmates refused Van Delbert Baser's entreaties to kill his wife, a detective said. One of the men instead called Baser's wife to tip her off. Sheriff's investigators swiftly launched a criminal investigation after the inmate called Baser's wife, Patricia, in late April. The two had been married for less than two years. Authorities last Friday charged Baser, 63, with solicitation to commit the murder of his wife, 64. Baser is a retired commercial airline pilot who, court records indicate, has a history of domestic violence in Charlotte County. He was being held last Monday at the county jail. Because of a probation violation charge, no bail had been set. Baser was jailed for six months this year, from Jan. 7 until June 8, on aggravated stalking and domestic violence charges. A judge had sentenced him last year to five years of probation for the aggravated stalking of a Port Charlotte man. In late April, Baser approached inmates Donald Gray and Edgardo Gonzalez about the plan to kill Patricia Baser, whom Baser married in February 2003, after his 40-year marriage ended in divorce the previous year. Gray, 35, told detectives Baser, who was then his cellmate, offered him money to kill Patricia Baser, who had filed divorce papers in Sarasota County. The inmate declined the offer. He called Baser's wife on April 24 at her Port Charlotte house. "Mr. Gray told him (Baser) he was crazy," Faul wrote in a report. Baser replied that "his wife made him that way." Faul said the divorce was still pending. Patricia Baser said, according to civil court records, that a woman called her house the day after Gray called. Baser, the second caller said, wanted his wife dead. Patricia Baser filed for a restraining order against her husband, according to records. She reported in the paperwork that Baser was arrested in Maine after a violent tirade in their driveway. But, earlier this month, she said she wanted the restraining order dropped because Baser was moving from Florida. "I am no longer in fear of him," she wrote. A judge ordered Baser to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and said he could not have contact with his wife. Judge Peter Bell's order said Baser had been diagnosed with dementia. When deputies arrested Baser outside his Grassland Terrace house, he was preparing a utility trailer for a trip to Maine, a sheriff's report stated. Faul said the Sheriff's Office considers Baser's effort to commit a crime serious "based on the conversations and based on the past history." |
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