PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. – Disclaimer: Some may find the details included in this story to be graphic in nature. Discretion is advised.
Testimony continued Wednesday in the trial of a man accused of killing two young brothers in 2020 in Putnam County.
Mark Wilson Jr. was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Tayten Baker, 14, and his 12-year-old brother Robert Baker, who were stabbed and bludgeoned in their home in Melrose. Wilson, who was dating the boys’ aunt at the time of the slayings, is facing the death penalty if convicted. It’s the first capital murder case in Putnam County in a decade.
The state is still calling witnesses in the trial. The accused killer’s mother gave emotional testimony Wednesday about how she worked with the authorities to have her son arrested after the murders.
Chrisy Adkins, Wilson’s mother, testified that her son confessed to her that he is the one who harmed the two boys. With that, she said, she went right to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and agreed to talk to her son while being clandestinely recorded by investigators.
RELATED: Mother, grandmother of slain Putnam County boys testify in accused killer’s trial
Adkins testified that she went to the Baker home after hearing about the killings. Later, she said, her son and his then-girlfriend, who is Robert and Tayten Bakers’ aunt, came and stayed at her home that night. The next morning, she said, she spoke to Wilson’s girlfriend, who told her, “‘Mark needs to cooperate.’” That’s when, Adkins said, she went to the room where he was sleeping and told him he needed to cooperate and take a lie detector test to clear his name.
“I said, ‘son, you need to cooperate, and you need to talk to these people,’” Adkins said. “You need to take a lie detector test and you need to clear your name. He started to get out of the bed and he put his pants on. He said, ‘Mom, I can’t do that., I said, ‘Why, Mark? Did you hurt those babies?’ Mark’s left arm went straight down. His head went sideways. And in a voice that was not his own, he says, ‘Yes, mom, I did it.’”
Adkins said she immediately when to the Sheriff’s Office because it “was the right thing to do for Robert, Tayten and Mark.” After talking with investigators, she said, she agreed to wear recording equipment and recorded the conversation she had with her son. The audio was then played in court. It was difficult to understand what Wilson said, but his mother is heard pleading with him for an answer.
“I need an answer. I need to know why. Why did this happen? You are my child. You are my son. Why can’t you tell me?” she can be heard saying.
She testified in court about that conversation.
“He just said he thought he was supposed to do it,” Adkins said. “She told me there was something in his head. ... He said that ... he was supposed to do the two boys and Cindy was supposed to do Sarah and the little boy.”
Sarah is the boys’ mother. She and her four-year-old son were also home at the time of the murders.
In a video recording of an interview of Wilson with investigators played in court, Wilson gave conflicting and confusing answers — also saying he wasn’t angry or upset during the murders.
“I’d been thinking about it and just psychological ******* hell,” Wilson can be heard saying.
In the interview, Wilson admitted to being high on meth the morning of the killings, saying that he had been up for three days.
Wilson said he wasn’t angry or upset during the murders.
“It’s really foggy,” he said. “I wasn’t really conscious.”
He said he loved the boys but said he suspected they were abusing his daughter or having relations with his girlfriend. An investigator testified Wednesday there is no evidence that any of that was happening.
“It would be like if somebody was making your wife and your daughter do **** and hide it from you, and you keep walking around,” he said.
Wilson also said he thought his girlfriend wanted him to kill them.
“She was making me feel like it was something I that had to do you know, but without saying it,” he says in the video.
The boys’ aunt has not been charged.
One of the main questions that have come up since this happened is how these murders could have taken place without anyone hearing. One of the detectives explained that was something he and his team addressed during their investigation. He said they all stood in different parts of the house. They started calling each other, shouting, making noise, banging on walls, and sure enough, due to the layout of the home, they couldn’t hear each other through the walls.
The trial will begin resume at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
