A convicted killer pardoned by former Republican Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin in a flurry of clemency grants during his last weeks in office has been arrested by federal agents and could face new charges in the case.

Patrick Baker, 43, was convicted in 2017 of a conspiracy to rob a local drug dealer of pain pills.  Baker was convicted of reckless manslaughter, first-degree robbery, tampering with evidence and impersonating a police officer in connection with the fatal shooting of Donald Mills while he and four others stole between $50,000 and $75,000 of pills from Mills.

Baker would only serve two years of his sentence as he was granted a pardon by Bevin as one of more than 500 acts of clemency Bevin issued in his final weeks as governor.  The clemency was questioned when it became public that Baker’s brother and sister-in-law raised more than $20,000 for Bevin’s campaign in 2018.  His family also raised money for other Republican causes. 

According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, US Marshals took Baker into custody Sunday and booked into a local jail, with the reason for detainment listed as “federal prisoner held-in transit/court/serveout.”

Baker’s pardon was highly controversial because the investigator charged with looking into Baker’s case by Bevin returned a report that recommended against clemency.  Bevin, however, said that the evidence was “sketchy” and also noted that he received a number of letters of support for a pardon, most of which came from GOP candidates, leaders and fundraisers.

It appears that the four other men convicted with Baker had not been granted clemency, although they were presumably convicted based on the same evidence as was presented in the Baker case.