WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT: Matthew Robertson Terry was jailed for three years after stabbing his girlfriend Michelle Rogers seven times in 2017. Five years later, teacher Kay Baker — who had testified in his defence — became his next victim
A witness in a case surrounding a brutal knife attack was herself slaughtered by the very same man she was defending.
In 2017, Michelle Rogers was mercilessly stabbed by her then-boyfriend, Matthew Robertson Terry. “Matt Terry had attacked me that night when he returned from a bar,” she told a court.
“He had stabbed me seven times, beaten me quite badly, broken my nose, and given me a concussion. I said to him ‘Why are you doing this? I love you,’ and he said, “No, you don’t. F*** you, I’m going to kill you’.”
Michelle revealed to a Channel 4 documentary crew how Terry’s relatives had hired a “very expensive” solicitor to represent him in court. The barrister successfully presented a string of character witnesses that assisted him in downgrading Terry’s charge from attempted murder to a simple assault.
One of those crucial witnesses was a teacher called Kay Baker. Five years later Kay would be viciously murdered, having been “virtually beheaded” by Terry in a frenzied assault that bore an unsettling resemblance to his attack on Michelle Rogers..
Kay Baker had testified in Terry’s defence(Image: Facebook)
Kay Baker was discovered shortly after midnight on May 28, 2022 by one of her neighbours in Lithia, Florida. The 43 year old mother of two was barely clinging to life, having been stabbed multiple times in the neck and shoulder.
Police subsequently stated that the “deep and large” wounds to her throat indicated that someone had attempted to sever her head completely. Florida prosecutor Justin Diaz painted a grim picture: “Kay Baker is lying face down on the ground in the yard of her neighbour. With every beat of her heart, her life is ending.”
Earlier that evening, Kay had been enjoying drinks with Terry at a local pub. CCTV footage from inside the pub revealed that she nearly collided with another patron on her return from the loo, and had jovially “danced” with the man for a few seconds as they figured out how to manoeuvre past each other.
CCTV footage revealed the brief playful moment that sparked Terry’s murderous rage(Image: Court TV)
That fleeting interaction was enough to ignite Terry’s jealousy. After they got home he grabbed a carving knife from a block and stabbed it multiple times into Kay’s neck. Despite bleeding profusely, she managed to break through a window and stagger a short distance away from Terry before collapsing in a neighbour’s garden. She died before medical assistance could arrive..
When police arrived, they discovered a second trail of blood leading from the house into nearby woodland. As he had done five years earlier following his assault on Michelle Rogers, Terry had also inflicted several cuts on himself. When located by police, he claimed that he had stabbed Kay “in self defence. “.
In a chilling echo of the 2017 court case, Michelle Rogers testified at Terry’s subsequent trial. Terry’s defence team had tried to prevent her from taking the witness stand but the judge ruled that she should be permitted to testify in court. She recounted to the jury how, in March 2017, she and Terry had been cohabiting..
Terry had harmed himself and attempted to plead self-defence(Image: Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)
After a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at a pub, Terry suddenly became aggressive. “He was taking both of his hands and grabbing my head and slamming it into the floor, so every time he would do that, my vision would go black,” Michelle recounted through tears.. Terry momentarily ceased his assault only to fetch a knife from the kitchen. “The next thing you know, Mr. Terry comes around behind me and stabs me in the neck,” she said..
Michelle managed to escape the house and was spotted by neighbours, bleeding profusely, who alerted the police. Despite an attempted murder charge initially levelled against him, Terry’s “expensive” lawyer succeeded in having it dismissed, resulting in a mere three-year prison sentence for Terry.
At Terry’s trial, prosecutors initially sought the death penalty(Image: Court TV)
During the 2022 trial, Justin Diaz noted how Kay’s testimony had aided Terry’s defence. “It was a hard thing to hear to think that the woman who had died at the hands of Matthew Terry had previously gone to court, raised her right hand, had promised to tell the truth, and had defended him in a courtroom to say that ultimately he was a good guy and he would never do what he was accused of doing in Michigan,” he said.
However, during the subsequent trial, the jury remained unconvinced and found Terry guilty of murder. Initial plans to enforce the death penalty were replaced with a life sentence at the behest of Kay’s family.. “We’re not really people who are hugely in favour of the death penalty,” Kristine Empey, Baker’s stepmother, shared with the Tampa Bay Times. “We just don’t want him to get out.”
