(SEYMOUR) – More details have been released in the murder that happened last Sunday in the parking lot of the JayC Store in Seymour that left 33-year-old Dustin Payne of Scipio dead from a single gunshot wound.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jeff Chalfant filed the probable cause affidavit Friday charging 61-year-old William E. Baker of Seymour with the murder of his brother-in-law.
According to police, officers were called to the grocery store parking lot on West Tipton Street at 5:57 p.m. Sunday, March 10.
Police say Payne was picking up his children, ages 7 to 12, from his ex-wife Kayla Lamb for a visitation. The children witnessed the murder of their father.
Also present were Payne’s fiancee Jessica Fowler.
According to witnesses, Payne, Fowler and his four children were leaving the parking lot when Payne asked his children who were in the vehicle their mother was approaching.
Payne discovered his Lamb was approaching a vehicle who had her sister Patricia and Baker inside.
Police say Baker got out of his Chevrolet Suburban vehicle and approached Baker’s car and tapped on the window. Baker opened the window and Payne allegedly shoved Baker in the shoulder.
Surveillance video shows Payne then walking back to his vehicle and that he was followed by his sister and ex-wife. Fowler and Patricia Baker then got into a verbal fight after he instructed her to fight his sister.
There is no video of the fight, but there is audio of the confrontation. Police say the women can be heard arguing and then 12 seconds later the shot is fired that killed Payne.
He was hit with one shot in the upper-right part of his body by a single .357 Magnum handgun. There is no video of the shooting because of the camera coverage of the lot.
Payne, who worked at Dave O’Mara Contractors, was conscious and talking at the scene. He was transported to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour and was in stable condition before being flown to the trauma center at the University of Louisville Hospital, where he died at 9:40 p.m. on Sunday, March 10.
Police recovered the gun in Baker’s car.
“I didn’t mean to hurt that boy,” Baker told detectives.
Fowler says Baker brought a gun that day knowing what he was going to use it. Fowler told police Payne and Baker did not have a good relationship.
Seymour Police Chief Bill Abbott says investigators do not think it was a random run-in on Baker’s part.
“I think he knew he was going to be there,” Abbott added.
Baker told police Payne pushed him as the women began to argue, so he put his hand on his gun, which was at his waist, to discourage the situation from escalating. He told police he pulled the gun from his waist and that is when Payne shoved him again and then a third time. That is when Baker fired a shot.
But witnesses to the incident did not see the shoving but did say the men were face to face. Some witnesses say Baker was the one who grabbed Payne’s should and turned him around.
Police say Payne was not armed with any weapons.
Baker says the children began screaming after the shooting. He returned to the car and put the gun inside and then went to help apply pressure to Payne’s wound.
When police arrived they found Patricia standing over her brother and yelling “it was self-defense.”
Both Baker and Patricia say they were not invited to be at the visitation exchange but went to support Lamb.
Baker told police he and Payne were in a confrontation a week before during a visitation exchange in the parking lot of the Save A Lot grocery store lot. It was only a verbal confrontation. He also confirmed there had been tension for years between his Patricia, himself and Payne.
Baker has not appeared for an initial hearing in Jackson Circuit Court. Judge Richard W. Poynter will preside over the case.
