A man with a violent criminal history has been sentenced to more than 36 years for shooting a man to death outside an Eagan hotel a year and a half ago.
Robert Lee Baker III, 30, was sentenced Friday in Dakota County District Court. In April, jurors convicted him of second-degree murder in connection with the Nov. 9, 2020, killing of 29-year-old Maurice A. Anderson of Minneapolis outside the Sonesta Suites, just off Interstate 35E's Lone Oak Road exit.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Baker is expected to serve about 22 3⁄4 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
Baker was released from prison in May 2020 after being sentenced in 2016 for illegal weapons possession. He also has convictions from 2012 for first-degree robbery and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the murder case:
Police arrived outside the hotel about 9 p.m. and saw Anderson on the ground, shot several times. Officers stopped a vehicle nearby and detained Baker and a woman driving the car.
She told police that three people, two of them with guns, got in their car's back seat and robbed them. She said Baker got out of the car shortly before she heard gunfire. He got back in the car once the shooting stopped and drove off.
Baker told police that one or two of the robbers pointed their guns at him and that he opened fire while giving chase. Officers, however, found no gun near Anderson's body.
