The 28 year old Airway Heights man arrested with a large quantity of narcotics during a fall 2021 traffic stop in Colfax is going to federal prison.
Joseph Baker was arrested by the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office during traffic stop in November of 2021. Baker was found with a stolen loaded handgun, over 800 dollars in cash, over 100 fentanyl pills, two ounces of methamphetamine, two ounces of heroin and digital scales. He was initially charged at the state level in Whitman County Superior Court. The U.S. Department of Justice moved the case to federal court in February of 2022.
After Baker’s federal indictment he was released from custody to attend drug treatment. He stopped going to treatment and was arrested on a fugitive federal warrant 7 months later. Baker had failed to appear in court at least a dozen times previously and has at least 6 felony convictions on his record.
A federal judge in Spokane sentenced Baker to 8 years in prison on Monday for possession of meth with intent to deliver.
