Baldwin’s day in court continued to Dec. 18

Jackie Lynn Baldwin was scheduled to be sentenced Friday but that won’t be happening.

Baldwin, who was erroneously released from the St. Francois County Jail after entering Alford pleas to felony charges, is now scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 18.

This week, the 29-year-old Farmington man hired Scott Rosenblum of Clayton as his new attorney. Baldwin had been represented by Daris Almond.

Rosenblum filed a motion for a continuance telling Circuit Court Judge Kenneth W. Pratte that he is already scheduled for a trial in Dunklin County this week. He also stated he has asked for copies of the transcript of the plea hearing and wants time to confer with his client.

The judge granted the continuance after discussing the motion with Rosenblum and Prosecuting Attorney Wendy Wexler Horn.

Baldwin is back in the St. Francois County Jail after he was arrested while trying to cross the border into Canada with his wife on Oct. 6.

Baldwin was released on Sept. 14 just days after he entered an Alford plea to first-degree domestic assault and endangering the welfare of a child. By entering an Alford plea, he did not admit to any element of the charges but recognized there was sufficient evidence for trial.

Sheriff Dan Bullock said Baldwin was released as a result of a mistake made by his department. Several charges that had been filed against Baldwin were dropped as a result of the plea agreement. Information about the case he was supposed to be sentenced on had not been entered in the sheriff’s department computer system.

“When the night shift crew came on, the computer showed that we didn’t have any reason to keep holding him because that case was not entered in,” Bullock said. “So the officers released him.”

Bullock said Baldwin knew he wasn’t supposed to be released so he was in hiding.

Horn has refiled the charges that were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.