HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — This week, a jury found Georgia resident Matthew Baker not guilty in the murder of four Henry County friends back in 2016.
The case made national news back in 2016 when the young people were killed at a home on Moccasin Gap Road in Jackson, Georgia. Matthew Hicks, 18, Keith Gibson, 29, Sophia Bullard, 20, and Destiny Olinger, 20, were killed after the house party just before Halloween on Oct. 26, 2016.
In 2018, a man by the name of Jacob Koski confessed to the murders and was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill.
However, prosecutors charged Baker, who was just 19 at the time, as an accessory to the crime and sought the death penalty. But advocates for Baker maintained his innocence.
"There's no fingerprints, his fingers didn't touch the gun. There was no blood or gunpowder on him," one of his case advocates said. "They don't have enough to say this kid committed this crime."
For nearly eight years, Baker has sat in jail without a court date. A trial finally began this month. In 2022, 11Alive exclusively spoke with him over a video call as he waited for that date to arrive.
"I know that I am innocent, 100%, so there is nothing that anyone can tell me that happened, or can say happened that didn't happen. I know I am innocent," Baker said.
A petition alleging racial bias in the case eventually reached nearly 60,000 signatures before the trial. Baker was the only person of color connected with the crime. The district attorney and Baker's public defender declined to speak to 11Alive before the trial began.
11Alive has also reached out to Baker's mother for a comment on the news that her son will be going free.
UPDATE: 'I'm free' | Henry County man found not guilty in quadruple murder case 8 years after shooting
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