Robert Baker was 47 years old when he died on Tuesday, March 27, 2007, a day after he was hurt inside California State Prison, Los Angeles County, in Lancaster. According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner, he died after sustaining blunt force trauma at 44750 60th Street West, the address of the prison. His death was ruled a homicide, and it is listed as a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau case.
According to the Los Angeles Times Homicide Report, Robert apparently was assaulted by another inmate on Monday, March 26. Authorities said he was involved in a fight in his cell and was taken to Holy Cross hospital, where he died at 12:05 p.m. the next day. Medical examiners said he appeared to have been struck in the head. The Times reported that the suspect was his cell mate, also a Black man in his late 40s, who had a bloody nose after the fight and had been serving a 14-year term for assault on a spouse. Robert had been imprisoned for burglary.
That is nearly everything the public record holds. Beyond those few lines, almost nothing about Robert Baker has been made public. No obituary, memorial page or family fundraiser could be found, and no news outlet appears to have followed up on his death. His name is a very common one, and searches turned up only other men who share it, including a defendant in an unrelated Los Angeles murder case and men in Pennsylvania and Ohio, none of them connected to this death. He surely had family who were told that he had died in custody, and who may still wonder what happened in that cell.
California State Prison, Los Angeles County, sits on the western edge of Lancaster in the Antelope Valley, the high desert north of the San Gabriel Mountains. It holds men serving long sentences, many of them at high security levels. Killings inside state prisons are investigated by outside agencies, and in Los Angeles County that means the Sheriff's Department's Homicide Bureau, working with prison investigators and the district attorney.
Being in prison for burglary did not make Robert's life worth less, and his death is still a homicide under the law. A fight between two cell mates leaves few outside witnesses, but correctional officers, nearby inmates and medical staff would have seen or heard part of what happened, and the Times report shows that investigators had a suspect from the start.
Hundreds of people are killed in Los Angeles County every year, and a large share of those killings end without an arrest.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Robert Baker could be found in news archives or public records. More than 18 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who was housed or worked at the Lancaster prison in March 2007, or who knew Robert Baker, may hold information that could help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a vehicle seen nearby or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or leave an anonymous tip with Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS.
