Raw Youngin Takes Plea Deal, 15 Years in Prison

Eric Baker, also known as Lake City rapper Raw Youngin, has been sentenced to 15 years in state prison, taking a plea deal Tuesday on charges of vehicular homicide, fleeing police, two counts of reckless driving and two counts of failing to stop after a crash.

Baker received credit for 396 days he already served in jail, meaning he’ll likely be released in 2039.

Baker pleaded no contest, meaning he didn’t formally admit or deny guilt, but waived the right to contest the facts of the case. Judge David Kreider accepted the plea deal and handed the sentence.

The victim of Baker’s crime was Chris Alvord, a young adult who moved to Gainesville from Kansas to live with his girlfriend. 

One of Alvord’s friends from Kansas, Hunter Hughes, made a YouTube video following his passing to honor his memory. 

“Chris was an extraordinary person and his story deserves to be told,"Hughes said. 

Born in 2005, Alvord spent most of his life in Salena, Kansas. Hughes said he was close friends with Alvord in high school and had some of his best memories with him. 

Describing Alvord, Hughes said, “He was more than happy to help fix my car. He came over to my house. He brought all his tools over and let me use all his tools. He walked me through how to fix my brake pad. I’ll never forget the confidence that gave me to have somebody helping me with something I had no clue about. He didn’t charge me anything; that shows the side of Chris that he’s willing to help others even though he can be sarcastic, exaggeratory, or hyperbolic; he still has a side to him where he can stop and help people out who need him.”  

Hughes went on to describe Alvord’s death, saying, “Friday, July 26, the day before his 19th birthday, his life was tragically cut short in a hit-and run accident in Florida. His girlfriend was waiting for him to come home that night and he never showed up back home and that was unlike him, so she started posting that he hadn't come home that night and nobody knew where he was. Once news got to Kansas that he hadn't come home, the next day his family had called the police department to file that he was missing, and that's when they told him that he had passed away in the car accident the night before. Chris had been killed in a hit and run accident from the rapper Raw Youngin, which I hadn't heard of until this point. A traffic stop was conducted on him, he stopped, the police officer got out to conduct the traffic stop and he fled. He took off, the cop got back into his patrol car, turned the lights off, dropped the pursuit but the rapper decided to continue fleeing, going over double the speed limit in a residential [area], which ultimately led to my friend getting killed. My friend did not deserve that and it hurts to see my friend be a no-name victim to a rapper in their accident. Nobody's taken the time to find out who was affected by this and that's why I'm making this video, to show that this impacted people—real people, not just some wannabe rapper, not just some news story—that this was a real kid that lost his life. The rapper had previously fled from the police before, he didn't have a license, and he had a warrant out for his arrest. The stars aligned the right way that night and that's what led to my friend getting struck and killed. I can't get the image out of my head of the car that my friend had just been so excited to show me about less than 2 months ago. I can't get the image out of my head of what that looks like after the accident.”