On the air, officer nabs rape suspect passing by

It was the kind of arrest that happens only on television.

In fact, it did.

Snohomish County Sheriff's Detective Christopher Leyda was about to face a KING-TV television camera Wednesday to plead for help finding a man wanted on rape charges when the suspect strolled by. Leyda couldn't believe his luck.

"I was just shocked for a second," Leyda said. "I immediately went into [thinking] 'What do I need to do to take this guy into custody safely?' I had no radio, no backup ... my hands were shaking."

But Leyda did have a gun. The detective ordered the suspect to the ground and held him at gunpoint while he used his cellphone to call for backup. The arrest was filmed by the television-news crew.

According to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, the suspect, identified as Larry Baker, 35, was on his way to surrender to authorities when he encountered Leyda and the news crew in front of the county courthouse in Everett. Baker had earlier tried to surrender at the Snohomish County Jail, but was told by jail officials to turn himself in to police.

Baker was charged Tuesday with first-degree rape in connection with an Aug. 19 assault of a 17-year-old girl at a South Everett apartment complex. The girl said a man held a box cutter to her neck as he raped her, according to court charging papers.

DNA taken from the girl matched that of a suspect in an unsolved rape in Waterloo, Iowa, in 2004. Police in Iowa helped Snohomish County detectives develop information that led them to Baker. Baker recently moved to Everett, but lived in Iowa at the time of the rape there, Leyda said.

When shown a photo of Baker, the girl said it looked like the man who had assaulted her, court papers said.

Baker was arrested for investigation of rape on Sept. 26, but released from the Snohomish County Jail on bail a short time later. It wasn't until Tuesday that investigators had the DNA evidence linking Baker to the rape and then sought to rearrest him, Leyda said.

Jail Director Steve Thompson said staff turned Baker away because he didn't have a driver's license or any other identification to prove he was the person sought by deputies.

Baker was asked to go to the Sheriff's Office, inside the courthouse, to straighten things out, Thompson said.

"Surprisingly, many people show up without their ID, like [Baker] did," Thompson said. "It's illegal for us to detain people when we can't confirm who they are."

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com