Michael Ryan Baker Sentenced to Four Years for Robbery of Collectible Cards

A Tulare County Superior Court judge on Feb. 27, 2026, sentenced Michael Ryan Baker, 31, of Fresno, to four years in state prison after prosecutors tied him to the theft of roughly $1,000 worth of Pokémon trading cards from a Visalia gas station.

According to GV Wire reporting, the incident occurred about 9:30 a.m. on April 25, 2025, at a gas station on Dinuba Boulevard in Visalia. GV Wire further reports that Baker pleaded no contest on Oct. 6, 2025, to felony second-degree robbery, and that the plea included a special allegation that he possessed a prior serious felony robbery conviction in Fresno County from 2016.

Multiple outlets, including GV Wire and National Today, say employees and witnesses confronted Baker during the April incident and reported that he lifted his shirt as if to display a weapon in his waistband. After a brief chase inside and outside the store, employees observed a vehicle parked directly behind the store with the trunk open and Baker fled the scene. GV Wire and National Today state that surveillance footage later identified Baker and that he was arrested two days after the theft.

National Today estimates the loss at about 100 to 120 packs of Pokémon cards, a quantity it values at roughly $1,000. The National Today story frames the sentencing in the context of a wider trend of criminals targeting collectible items and notes the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office announced the sentencing. Local television coverage from Channel3000/KFSN confirmed the four-year prison term and corroborated that Baker had a 2016 robbery conviction in Fresno County.

GV Wire reported that the sentencing took place in Department 4 of the Tulare County Superior Court. The reporting available in the public excerpts does not include the name of the judge who imposed the sentence, nor does it list whether the court ordered restitution for the roughly $1,000 loss or applied additional enhancements tied to the 2016 special allegation.

Public records that would clarify those remaining details include the Tulare County Superior Court minute order for the Feb. 27, 2026, proceeding in Department 4 and the charging and plea documents maintained by the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office. Visalia Police Department incident and arrest reports from the April 25, 2025 theft would confirm the arrest timing and surveillance identification described in news reports.