Columbus, OH: $1.1 million bond set for man in sister's slaying

Thursday, May 20, 2010 2:58 AM

BY BRUCE CADWALLADER

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


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Venita Baker, above, died of a gunshot allegedly fired by her brother, Matthew Gardner. Police say Baker was caught in the crossfire when Gardner shot into a car where she was a passenger.

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Bail was set at $1.1 million today for Matthew Gardner, accused of firing two shots into a car carrying his sister and the woman he says is the mother of his child.

One bullet struck his sister, Venita Baker, killing the 18-year-old Mifflin High School junior, Columbus police said.

Gardner, 19, said nothing this morning during his appearance before Franklin County Municipal Judge H. William Pollitt Jr. as a police liaison read the allegations into the record.

"The defendant pulled a handgun from his waistband, aimed the weapon at the car and fired two times," Officer Irma Holmes read. Gardner later told detectives, "It was not his intention to kill his own sister."


But police and family members said Gardner, who has had emotional and behavior issues when he is not taking medicine, also pulled a knife in August during a fight between his sister and ex-girlfriend, a 17-year-old girl from the Reynoldsburg area.

"He has threatened to kill (the girl) and her parents," the detective said in court.

Gardner was arrested at a friend's house hours after the Tuesday night shooting at 2066 Parkwood Ave. on the North Side. He is charged with murder as well as three charges from the August incident: aggravated assault, assault and domestic violence.

Outside the courtroom, Gardner's mother, Romel Gipson, 44, said her son appears to be disoriented and in need of medication in the Franklin County jail.

"He told me he wasn't trying to kill nobody. This girl told him in a phone call the baby's not yours. I have it on a recording. I told her to leave him alone and she keeps coming around," Gipson said.

On Tuesday night, Gipson said, Gardner and the girlfriend were arguing over their infant son and Gardner became incensed when she began calling him names.

Police say Gardner was aiming at his girlfriend but shot Baker instead.

"It was a horrible accident," Gipson said. "He wasn't even trying to kill her; he was trying to scare her."

Gipson said she doesn't believe her son really understood what he was doing.