Convicted sex offender charged with escape for leaving West Deer facility

A convicted sex offender was charged with a felony for leaving a West Deer behavioral facility where he was living under court order.

Brandon Jamal Baker, 32, who last listed his address as Surrey Lane in Elizabeth Township, was charged with one count of felony escape along with making terroristic threats, simple assault, loitering and harassment.

Baker is being detained in the Allegheny County Jail after failing to pay 10% of the $3,000 bond set at his arraignment, according to court records.

A preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for May 4 before District Judge Tom Swan.

Baker was charged with felony sexual assault and unlawful restraint by Pittsburgh police in 2014. He pleaded guilty to the charges in June 2015 and was sentenced to 45 to 90 months in jail.

Baker is classified as a Tier 3 sex offender, which means he will remain on the state’s Megan’s Law sex offender registry for the rest of his life and must report to the state police four times a year, according to state police.

Investigators said Baker was living at NHS Human Services along Cedarwood Circle under court order when staff on April 17 called police to report that he assaulted a fellow resident before walking away from the locked facility, according to a criminal complaint filed in support of his arrest.

Staff said Baker became “irritated’ with another resident about the lights being on and spit in the man’s face, with some of the saliva going into his mouth, the complaint said.

Baker refused attempts by staff to calm him down and started to “slam doors and call them names” before leaving on foot, according to the complaint.

Police searched the area and found Baker walking along Little Deer Creek Valley Road about half a mile away, the complaint said.

He told them he was “just trying to get away from everyone and be left alone” before being handcuffed and transported to the West Deer police station, police said.

While searching for Baker, police received a report about a suspicious man wearing clothes that matched Baker’s who knocked on a door in the 1000 block of MacArthur Drive asking to use the telephone and for a ride to the train station, the complaint said.