A Shreveport man who shot and killed an acquaintance in 2023, then stole the dead man’s car to flee to Texas, was convicted of that and other crimes in Caddo District Court Wednesday, October 28, 2026.
The three-woman, nine-man jury in District Judge Donald E. Hathaway Jr.’s court deliberated less than an hour before returning its guilty-as-charged decision against Kenavion Marquis Baker, 29, for second-degree murder, armed robbery and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon for the July 5, 2023 slaying of Terry Morris, 20.
Morris and a friend, Kaleb Washington, went to Baker’s house in north Shreveport, where Baker was to work on Morris’s car. Shortly after arriving, without provocation, Baker shot Morris in the head with a firearm he was not legally allowed to possess due to a prior felony conviction for aggravated flight from an officer. Then at gunpoint, he robbed Washington of his phone. Washington pleaded for his life, which was overheard by a person on the other end of a phone call with Morris. Baker then ordered Washington to retrieve a blanket to wrap the body in and to help him load the body into Morris’s car.
After driving Washington home, Baker fled in Morris’s car to Natchitoches. Investigators traced the car through the cell phone, and Baker led authorities on a high-speed pursuit to San Augustine, Texas, where he wrecked the car and fled into a wooded area and was arrested the next day. The wrecked car still held Morris’s body, and the gun used in the shooting was located nearby.
Jurors heard an eyewitness, the earwitness on the phone with Morris at the time of his killing, SPD investigators, a forensic pathologist, a DNA expert and a firearms examiner.
Baker will return to court November 5, 2026 for sentencing, where he faces a mandatory hard-labor life term without benefit of probation, parole or reduction of sentence for the murder conviction, at least 10 and up to 99 years for the armed robbery with a five-year enhancement for the use of the firearm, and at least five and up to 20 years for the firearm conviction.
Baker was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Courtney N. Ray and Stephen Folk-Cruthirds. He was defended by Harry Johnson and Silver Sanders.
The case was docket No. 396253.