Share and Follow
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 on how she helped and worked with the authorities when she found out what her son told her he had done.
Chrissy kins, Wilson’s mother, admitted that her son confessed to her that he is the one who killed 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 wearing a wire.
RELATED: Mother, grandmother of slain Putnam County boys testify in accused killer’s trial
kins testified that she went to the Baker home after hearing about the killings. Later, she said, her son and his 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, kins said, she went to the room where he was sleeping and told him he needed to cooperate, take a lie detector test and clear his name.
“I got up from the couch and took Caitlin from Cindy and I went to the back room where Mark was and I just sat on the edge (of the bed) and I said, ‘son, you need to cooperate and you need to talk to these people,’” kins 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. He said, ‘Yes, mom, I did it.’”
kins said, shortly after, 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 hard to understand, 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,” kins said. “She told me there was something in his head. … He said that he, he was supposed to, Oh, God, he was supposed to do the two boys and Cindy was supposed to do Sarah and the little boy.”
In an interview with investigators, Wilson gave conflicting answers and confusing answers— also saying he wasn’t angry or upset during the murders.
Also in court Wednesday, prosecutors played a recording of Wilson’s interview with investigators.
Read Related Also: What Did Sofiiiiagomez Ex Xobrooklynne Webb Do? Age Difference & Their Drama Explained
“I’d been thinking about it and just psychological **** hell,” Wilson can be heard saying.
In the interview, Wilson gave conflicting answers and confusing answers and also said he wasn’t angry or upset during the murders.
“It’s really foggy,” he says. “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 today there is no evidence that any of that was happening.
In that interview, he admitted to being high on meth the morning of the killings, saying that he had been up to two or three days beforehand and that his girlfriend had been up, too. He went on to say he suspected the 12- and 14-year-old boys were sexually abusing his infant daughter and having relations with his girlfriend. Wilson said he thought she was keeping that from him.
“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 says.
An investigator testified that there is no evidence that any of that was happening.
Wilson also said he thought his girlfirend wanted him to kill them.
“She was making me feel like it was something I had to do without saying it,” he says in the audio.
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 again at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.