SAN DIEGO — A court date for the man being held in the fatal assault on former Yachats resident Martin Baker last year has been moved from Jan. 13 to March 16.
Baker, a formerly homeless man who found shelter and friendship through the Yachats Community Presbyterian Church, died a few days after the February 2021 attack in Borrego Springs, Calif. Baker had left Yachats in 2020 to return to his California hometown, a small desert community northeast of San Diego.
The alleged assailant, Eugene Focarelli, 37, was charged with murder and other offenses, some not related to the attack on Baker. His preliminary hearing was postponed multiple times. Focarelli is being held in the George Bailey Detention Facility in San Diego.
According to Deputy District Attorney Kim Coulter, Focarelli could face a maximum term of 25 years to life if convicted of the first-degree murder charge. “He does have a few other open cases with our office,” Coulter told YachatsNews. Those cases — all of which occurred within a few days in February of last year — include felony vandalism and elder abuse, and could add time to his potential jail term.
“He (Focarelli) has one strike already,” Coulter said, a first-degree burglary conviction from 2003. Under California’s “three strikes” sentencing law, defendants can be sentenced to prison for 25 years to life if they’re convicted of three violent or serious felonies. “Second strikers,” which Focarelli would be if convicted, also receive a double sentence.
