By GARY POPP
gary.popp@newandtribune.com
NEW ALBANY —
The murder case of a New Albany woman, which lay cold for nearly 22 years, went to trial this week in Floyd County Superior Court No. 3.
Christopher Baxter, 54, was charged in February with the 1990 murder of his 32-year-old wife Robin Baxter. His arrest came after New Albany Police Department Detective Perry Parsons revisited the investigation into Robin Baxter’s death last year — more than two decades after the New Albany woman’s remains were found in the Ohio River on June 23, 1990.
Parsons was the first witness called to take the stand Wednesday by Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson after he and defense attorney William Grey, of New Albany, completed their opening arguments before presiding Judge Maria Granger.
Parsons’ father, retired new Albany Police Department Detective Paul Parsons, originally investigated Robin Baxter’s murder more than 20 years ago, but could not close the case.
“I approached [the case] with a fresh set of eyes and an open mind,” Perry Parsons said Wednesday. “I followed up on everything I received.”
The investigation was reopened after New Albany police learned of an informant in a nearby jail who claimed Christopher Baxter had confessed to the murder when the two were at a party together.
The detective said he was now certain of his findings and Christopher Baxter’s guilt when questioned by Henderson.
“I have absolutely no doubt Christopher Baxter committed murder, killed his wife,” Perry Parsons said.
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Throughout Wednesday’s proceedings, Christopher Baxter sat silent wearing wire-rimmed glasses and a silver necktie that matched the shade of his hair and thin mustache.
A jury and two alternates, comprised of four men and 12 women, listened as Henderson called six current and retired New Albany police officers to the witness stand.
According to officers’ testimony, on June 19, 1990, Christopher and Robin Baxter became involved in a physical altercation at their home in the 1800 block of Troy Street in New Albany — instigated by Christopher Baxter’s disapproval of how his wife had prepared a meal of spaghetti and garlic bread.
Days later on June 23, New Albany Police received a call that a body had been found in the Ohio River across from Shawnee Park in Louisville. The body was soon identified as Robin Baxter.
Christopher Baxter was interviewed by NAPD detectives twice. The first time just hours after the body was found and a second time on June 25. Police said both times Christopher Baxter claimed he could recall being in a fight with his wife and breaking a window during the incident, but that he blacked out during the alleged time of Robin Baxter’s death, only to wake at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. the next morning to find her missing.
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Much of the opening day of the trial focused on the admission of a solid metal rod as evidence.
It was determined Robin Baxter died of trauma to the head by a blunt object, and a solid metal rod was previously in police custody and processed by the Indiana State Police Lab in 1990, but has since been lost.
After the initial investigation into the murder, the case fizzled out. But when Robin Baxter’s mother provided a photo to NAPD Detective Keith Whitlow just a few months later — on Oct. 16, 1990 — police had a new lead to follow.
The photo shows Christopher Baxter sitting with another woman in the Troy Street home with what appears to be a metal rod leaning against a wall in the background.
Whitlow, who is still with the NAPD, testified Wednesday that the same day the photo was received, he and a crime scene investigator visited the home on Troy Street, which Christopher Baxter no longer resided, to take photographs and measurements. The resident living in the home at the time was shown the photograph and told police he recognized the metal pipe.
From the witness stand Whitlow testified the resident told him that while he was shampooing the carpet soon after taking residence, he accidentally knocked out a piece of wall board in the closet and found the rod lying against a wooden stud in the wall.
Whitlow said the resident told him he gave the rod to a friend who worked as a machinist and planned to fashion the aluminum rod into a tool.
The following day officers collected the rod from the vehicle of the resident’s friend. A photo was taken that day of Whitlow standing next to the vehicle and holding the metal rod.
Years later the photo was used by police to produce a replica of the metal rod that measures 3 feet long and 3 inches in diameter.
Judge Granger accepted Henderson’s request to submit the imitation rod as demonstrative evidence, following several objections by Grey.
After the rod was eventually submitted as demonstrative evidence, Henderson handed the item over to the jurors for each to inspect.
Other evidence submitted by Henderson included a worn, white cloth and a glove, both of which were discovered inside the wall near the aluminum rod, according to police.
A stained piece of tissue paper found in a garbage can outside of the home and a pair of women’s tennis shoes found inside the home were also entered as evidence.
The trial is scheduled to continue in Floyd County Superior Court No. 3 this morning.
If convicted, Christopher Baxter could face 45 to 65 years in prison.
