Schaumburg man's killer pleads guilty

ROCHESTER, Ind. -- A man convicted of killing his grandmother when he was 12 pleaded guilty Friday to a second murder, the 2005 slaying of the owner of a hotel the defendant managed.

Mark Shane Baker, 34, could avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty to charges of murder, robbery and criminal confinement in the October 2005 attack on Mustansar Chaudhry, 69, of Schaumburg.

Under a deal with prosecutors, Baker will receive a sentence of life in prison without parole on the murder charge, plus an additional 40 years for the two remaining charges. Fulton Superior Court Judge Wayne Steele still must approve the deal at a sentencing scheduled for Oct. 26.

Baker's plea came a day after his accomplice, Bianca Newgent, 22, was sentenced to 93 years in prison for her role in the crimes.

Police found Chaudhry's body Oct. 28, 2005, stuffed inside a water softener's brine tank in the garage of the Rose Dale Motel on the south edge of Rochester. He had died the day before.

Authorities said Baker, who managed the motel at the time, strangled Chaudhry and beat him with a hammer, then left him bound and gagged. Investigators said the men had argued over money missing from the motel.

When Baker was 12 he pleaded guilty to the 1985 shooting death of his maternal grandmother, 61-year-old Myrtle Hilficker. He was held in state custody until his 21st birthday.

Newgent, who was a maid at the motel at the time of the 2005 crimes, was sentenced Thursday to 65 years for murder, 20 years for criminal confinement and eight years for assisting a criminal. A jury convicted her Aug. 1 following a seven-day trial.

"The nature of this crime was brutal, purposeful. It was unprovoked. It was the most callous I've been exposed to in 27 years of law," Steele said at Newgent's sentencing hearing.