Juvenile Sentenced to Prison for 2010 Theodore Wirth Park Killing

Leonard Bernard Baker will serve at least 23 years behind bars for his role in the July 2010 murder of fellow 17-year-old James Teto Grant. Baker was sentenced today in a Hennepin County courthouse after his guilty plea in January.

Baker told police he and then 16-year-old Emmanuel Garmodhen Myles led Grant, a Liberian immigrant, to a wooded area of Theodore Wirth Park on July 10, 2010, for a gang initiation beating and in retaliation for a previous fight involving Grant.

Baker said he and Myles, along with another juvenile who was 14 at the time and has not been named, beat and kicked Grant before returning to the scene and hitting Grant over the head with a shovel, killing him. The boys initially planned on digging a shallow grave for the body, but instead tied a car battery to Grant’s body and submerged it into the nearby pond. His decomposed body was discovered eight days later in Bassett Creek by kayakers.

Baker was ordered to stand trial as an adult in November. Today, Baker was sentenced for separate felony counts of intentional and unintentional murder.

Baker was sentenced to 280 months—just over 23 years—in prison, with the eligibility for parole after 15 years. Myles, his accomplice, was charged with murder in December and was sentenced to 31 years in prison in January.