By CHRIS BUTLER

SEBRING — The trial of an Avon Park man charged with attempted second degree murder and aggravated child abuse had not yet ended as of press time Thursday.
State attorneys said Ronald Wayne Baker, 54, 3323 N. Horseshoe Drive, took matters into his own hands in September 2005 after a long spate of anger over ATV noise being generated throughout his neighborhood.

Baker’s defense attorneys told jurors Thursday that their client indeed knocked a then 13-year-old boy off his ATV with a large stick. Tenth Circuit Court Judge Peter Estrada later said the stick was most likely a fallen tree branch.
That act resulted in the boy having a large bruise across his chest.

Baker said in a taped interview with sheriff’s deputies the night of the incident that his complaints about ATV riders to the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office had gone largely unanswered.
“You could almost set your watch by the four-wheelers going by,” Baker said on the stand in response to questioning by defense attorney Ginger Cooper. 
“I figured the stick would break when I smacked him. I did not intend to knock him off,” he later said under cross examination by state attorney David Ward.
Baker’s two defense attorneys said their client later shot the boy’s father in the chin with a 32 caliber semi-automatic handgun. That occurred after the father and his son came looking for Baker at his front door. 

But they also said Baker’s shooting act was entirely one of self-defense. They said Baker was physically vulnerable after severely injuring his ankle two weeks before the incident even occurred. 

A Sharp Disagreement

The name of the boy and his father are not being released by Highlands Today.
Whether the boy’s father came to calmly discuss the matter or was looking for a physical confrontation was something Baker’s defense attorneys and state prosecutors sharply disagreed on Thursday. 

Baker said his intention was simply to scare the boy’s father away by holding the gun to his side. But he also said the boy’s father made threatening physical gestures toward him.
The boy’s father denied Baker’s testimony and said he “simply wanted to find out what really happened” after his son had been knocked off his ATV. 
“My initial response was ‘Let’s go find out what he did to make him hit you.’ I was mad, but only to a point.

“I never even had a chance to announce my presence,” the boy’s father said in his testimony to Ward.
The bullet pierced the man’s jaw, leaving him unable to eat anything but soup for almost three weeks. Ward said the man is now missing a portion of his jawbone, although the bullet has long since been removed.

“Did you ever give Mr. Baker permission to shoot you”? Ward asked the man.
The man said he hadn’t. 
Baker faces a maximum penalty of up to 30 years in prison for the aggravated child abuse charge if convicted. He faces a mandatory 25-year to life sentence if convicted of attempted second degree murder.

The now 15-year-old boy said on the stand that he and his father had had a friendly relationship with Baker prior to the incident. The boy said Baker and his father helped one other with cleanup efforts after Hurricane Charley struck Highlands County almost three years ago.