ALLENTOWN, PA – District Attorney Jim Martin announced the arrest in a 2019 homicide case that took place in Allentown. The accused, William Clifton Baker, from Allentown, voluntarily surrendered in the presence of his attorney, Joshua Karoly.
On September 29, 2019, at 12:50 a.m., Allentown police responded to East Sider’s at 2204 Union Boulevard following an EMS assist call. They found the victim, Thong Pham, unconscious on the ground with a laceration above his left eye.
Pham was immediately transferred to St. Luke’s Bethlehem and later to a long-term care facility in Plymouth Meeting, Montgomery County. He remained unconscious throughout his stay and died on December 29, 2021, at Suburban Community Hospital in Montgomery County. He was 35 at the time of his death.
The autopsy report declared Pham’s death a result of complications from blunt impact injury to the head. The investigation, after the review of thousands of pages of medical records and numerous interviews, concluded that these complications were the direct result of an initial assault on September 29, 2019.
Baker, who was working as security at East Sider’s on the night of the incident, is charged with Voluntary Manslaughter, Aggravated Assault, Involuntary Manslaughter, and Simple Assault. The charges reflect the conclusion of the investigation and the District Attorney’s findings that the defendant acted in a reckless or grossly negligent manner. However, Baker is presumed innocent until proven guilty.