Police: Fort Collins woman who fatally shot husband waited in garage to shoot him

UPDATE, Oct. 14, 2021: Charges dismissed in fatal shooting case after woman found incompetent to proceed

ORIGINAL: Investigators say the woman who killed her husband at their Fort Collins home in October waited in the dark garage until he got home before fatally shooting him.

Nancy Baker, 63, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder after deliberation and is accused of killing her 60-year-old husband, Greg Baker, at their Fort Collins home on Oct. 2. 

During Friday's evidence hearing, the prosecution played the 911 call Baker placed that night, along with an interview Baker had with Fort Collins Police Detective Siobhan Seymour after being brought to police headquarters the following day.

While speaking with 911 dispatch and detectives after the shooting, Baker admitted to shooting her husband because he told her the day prior he didn't care about her anymore. She also told a 911 dispatcher she shot him because he hit one of their children, who is now in his mid-30s, "years ago." 

"He didn't care about the kids anymore," Baker told Seymour during their interview at the police station. "He was always on the phone with someone."

Baker told Seymour she and her husband got into an argument on the way to the grocery store Sunday, Sept. 30, and that was when Greg Baker told her he did not care about her anymore. 

Later that evening, Baker told Seymour she went to their closet and pulled out a revolver to see how it worked.

"She said she was sad while she was handling the weapon," Seymour testified Friday. 

Greg Baker went to work early the next morning and did not come home between his two jobs to eat dinner, like he usually does, Baker told Seymour after the shooting. 

Before Greg Baker came home about 10 p.m. Oct. 1, Baker told Seymour she grabbed the gun again and positioned herself through a doorway leading from the garage to the yard and waited for her husband.

When Greg Baker pulled his car into the garage, Baker told Seymour the glare of the headlights made it difficult to see him. She told the detective she waited to hear the slam of the car door before firing one shot into the darkness.

The shot from about 10-15 feet away, Seymour estimated, struck Greg Baker on the left side of his chest.

"I couldn't see good, I just shot," Baker recounted to Seymour in their interview.

Seymour said Baker later told her she sat in the garage for awhile to find out if her husband was going to say something, "but got cold so she went inside."

A few hours later, at about 12:45 a.m. Oct. 2, Baker called 911.

"I've just shot my husband," she can be heard telling dispatchers in the recording of the call. 

Baker told the dispatcher her adult daughter, Carly Baker, was also in the house. Carly Baker was also brought to the police station after the shooting, Deputy Public Defender Kathryn Hay said.

"He hit us ... He wasn't nice to us," Baker can be heard telling her daughter in a video of their conversation at the police station. "He stopped talking to us."

Carly Baker can be heard telling her mother that their father never hit them.

"You weren't the nicest to him, either," Carly Baker said in the video. "You could've divorced him if you were that unhappy. Then he would still be alive."

Seymour also said many of Baker's neighbors and children told investigators there was something "off" about Baker mentally. Baker also had trouble with physical balance, so much so that officers who responded to the shooting thought Baker was under the influence of drugs or alcohol as she exited the house, which she was not.

Neighbors told detectives they had not noticed any arguments or physical violence at the Bakers' house. Those that did hear arguments occasionally, including the couple's three children, said it never got violent.

Hay also pointed out that Baker sometimes had trouble fully grasping the situation — she locked the door from the garage into the house when she came inside after the shooting because she said she was afraid her husband was going to become violent.

Baker is next scheduled to appear in Larimer County Court for an arraignment March 14.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in court. Arrests and charges are merely accusations by law enforcement until, and unless, a suspect is convicted of a crime.