WACO (April 15, 2009)--Prosecutors Wednesday filed a motion seeking permission to collect the DNA of former Waco-area pastor Matt Baker, who’s charged with murder in the April 2006 death of his wife Kari.

First Assistant Criminal District Attorney Crawford Long filed the motion Wednesday asking 19th District Judge Ralph Strother for permission to collect DNA from Baker by swabbing his mouth.

The motion asks Judge Strother to direct the defendant to, "to submit to the taking of a DNA sample by the swabbing of the interior of the defendant's mouth for the purpose of obtaining DNA for comparison to an item taken and collected in relation to the offense that is the basis of this prosecution.

Baker was released from the McLennan County Jail Friday afternoon, a day after a state district judge reduced his bond from $500,000 to a $250,000 surety bond, which required him to post $25,000 in cash.

Baker, who was indicted late last month for murder in the 2006 death of his wife, pleaded not guilty last Thursday morning during a hearing that attracted national attention.

The indictment alleges Baker drugged his wife and then suffocated her with a pillow.

Paramedics arrived at the house at 12:15 a.m. on April 8, 2006, by which time she was already dead.

The death was initially ruled a suicide, but the ruling was later changed.

Baker was arrested and charged in 2007, but the charge was later dismissed.

The original arrest warrant for Baker was issued in September 2007.

The affidavit submitted for that warrant indicated that authorities thought Kari Baker was suffocated with a pillow or similar object after she was “rendered defenseless” by a combination of alcohol and Unisom.

On March 25, 2008, McLennan County Justice of the Peace Billy Martin signed an order dismissing the original murder charge against Baker at the request of Baker’s attorney because the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office had not sought an indictment within the required 180 days of Baker’s arrest.

The murder indictment was handed up a year to the day later.

Baker was a former pastor at several area Baptist churches and once served as chaplain at the Waco Center for Youth.

He holds degrees from Baylor University and Baylor’s Truett Seminary.