A 35-year-old woman with a history of violating restraining orders and drug possession was convicted this week of fatally stabbing her mother, apparently with a screwdriver, fork and scissors, in Lake Forest.
Courtney Elizabeth Baker was convicted Thursday, Sept. 25, of second-degree murder and faces 16 years to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 7.
Baker killed Elizabeth Mary O’Leary, 72, on March 1, 2023.
The day before, Baker called her father asking to be picked up from a Brea motel, Senior Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney said. Her father picked her up and brought her home.
At 1:40 a.m. the following morning, Baker woke up her father, saying, “I did something horrible, I killed Mom,” Birney said.
Her father thought she might be delusional and was skeptical but he found his wife in her bedroom in a pool of blood and dialed 911, Birney said. O’Leary was pronounced dead at the scene.
The victim sustained more than 400 “sharp-force injuries,” Birney said.
Baker tested positive for PCP, methamphetamine and fentanyl, Birney said, and investigators believed a screwdriver, fork and scissors were used in the attack.
The daughter had threatened her mother before, been sentenced to jail, violated restraining orders and ordered to attend anger-management courses, the deputy district attorney said.
In a restraining order O’Leary sought against her daughter in September 2015, she accused Baker of beating her.
“I am older and have some health issues that occasionally benefit from the care of others,” she wrote in the restraining-order request. “When here with Courtney alone, she has often beaten me, kicked me, made numerous threats to myself, my pet and other family members.
“I have been punched, kicked and threatened by Courtney numerous times. I am only attacked by Courtney when no one else is here to protect me and I am defenseless. Courtney has threatened me, saying that she wants me and my dog to die.”
Baker pleaded guilty in July 2018 to resisting arrest, violating a protective-stay-away order and possession of drug paraphernalia, all misdemeanors. In April 2018, she pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, violating a protective-stay-away order and destroying evidence, all misdemeanors. Previously, she pleaded guilty to other charges.