Eventually, a homicide in rural Webster County in 2017 while then-County Attorney Jennifer Benson was out of the office, thrust Baldridge into prosecuting a first-degree murder case, laying the groundwork for the next step in his career.

“I remember kind of teasing her saying, ‘You know that now that you’re gone, something bad’s gonna happen and I’m going to be stuck with it,'” he said. “And that’s exactly what happened. I was literally just thrown into it and working with agents from the DCI (Division of Criminal Investigation) and the local investigators on that case.”

Shortly after, another homicide happened in Fort Dodge and he took that case on, too.

“Working through both of those cases kind of showed me that this was the type of work I wanted to do,” Baldridge said. “As I kind of got my feet wet with that type of work, it was apparent to me that that’s where my heart is, that’s the kind of work that I want to do.”

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert First Assistant Webster County Attorney Ryan Baldridge gestures on a sketch of the crime scene from the June 16, 2020 shooting, during testimony from firearms expert Michael Tate on Friday morning.

After nearly a decade of prosecuting criminal cases in Webster County, Baldridge is moving on to work as an assistant attorney general for statewide prosecutions for the Iowa State Attorney General’s Office. Baldridge’s official last day with the county is Sunday. On Monday, he’ll begin his new role with the Iowa State Attorney General’s Office.

Baldridge said that this new job will require him to commute to Des Moines a couple days a week, but most of the time he’ll be traveling to the counties where he’s assisting in prosecutions.

“I am hopeful in conversations with the supervisors there that they have enough workload in north central and northwest Iowa that I’ll be able to stay closer to home, because I’m continuing to stay in Fort Dodge,” he said.

In fact, he’ll be staying on to prosecute several of the high-level felony cases he’s already been working on in Webster County.

Baldridge said he decided to make this step in his career because he’s looking for more of a challenge. He recalled about eight years ago, the first time he worked with an attorney from statewide prosecutions, he didn’t even know that the statewide prosecutions division existed.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert First Webster County Assistant Attorney Ryan Baldridge holds up the modified shotgun that Justin Hurdel allegedly used to shoot his estranged wife, Maggie Flint, in August 2020. Firearms expert Michael Tate, a criminalist with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, testified for the state on Tuesday.

“Just watching his experience in the courtroom and working with him and the specialized knowledge they have in higher-profile and more complicated cases … it gave me the desire to work in an office where I could take my experience and use it on a broader scale,” Baldridge said.

The last several years have given Baldridge plenty of relevant experience to bring into his new role, he said.

“I think that anybody that’s paid attention to the news in Fort Dodge and Webster County knows that — fortunately for me, but very, very unfortunately for the families of the people involved — I’ve gotten a lot of experience with some very serious, very complicated cases,” he said. “And I’m glad that I’ll be able to take that experience and use it while I’m working with other county attorneys and other law enforcement agencies to do the same work that I’m doing here, but on a broader scale.”

Baldridge recalled working on a murder trial in the last couple years, where he spent the night before trial organizing crime scene photos he planned to show to the jury. Stacks and stacks of gruesome images covered the floor of his hotel room.

“It’s not until you do something like that, that you realize the magnitude of what you’re doing,” he said.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert First Assistant Webster County Attorney Ryan Baldridge holds up the zip-up sweatshirt defendant Josh Pendleton was wearing when he was arrested on Oct. 2, 2019, to show the jury during FDPD Evidence Technician Brandi Webb's testimony on Wednesday.

In 2018, Baldridge even had the opportunity to take on the role of the county’s top law enforcement officer when then-County Attorney Jennifer Benson resigned. The Webster County Board of Supervisors had then voted to appoint Baldridge to serve out the remainder of Benson’s term, but he decided to stay in the position of first assistant and recommended the appointment of Darren Driscoll, who is now serving his second full term as county attorney. At the time, Baldridge said he wanted to focus more on prosecuting criminals and less on the politics of the position.

It would be hard to put a number on the amount of cases Baldridge has worked on in the last decade, but many have stuck with him over the years. In April 2021, he secured a conviction during a jury trial of Josh Pendleton, who was charged with murdering the Rev. Al Henderson in Fort Dodge.

“Pastor Henderson’s case, that was important to me because he had a very close relationship with a lot of people in law enforcement and as we moved the case through the court system, I came to know his family really well,” Baldridge said. “That’s just one example of, you care about the job because of the family and you care about the job because of the friends and the people that are associated with the victims of these terrible crimes.”

In June 2021, Baldridge successfully prosecuted Justin Hurdel for the murder of his estranged wife, Maggie Flint, the year before.

“I feel like the closing I did in that case was probably the most passionate closing I’ve ever done,” he said. “It finally hit me toward the end of the case, like we spent all this time talking about Justin Hurdel. All this time talking about all the terrible, terrible things he did to Maggie, and we get to spend no time talking about how good of a person Maggie was.”

In his job, Baldridge said, he “gets to meet the nicest people through the most unfortunate situations” and he takes pride in being able to be a voice for the victims of the crimes he prosecutes.

“It’s every case,” he said. “It’s the domestic case where the victim doesn’t feel like they can get away, or a case where a young child’s hurt and they can’t stand up to the abuser… being able to be a voice for the people that are impacted by the crimes is why I do what I do.”

One of the things Baldridge has learned throughout his tenure as a prosecutor — and his lifetime as the son of a police officer — is that crime can’t be boiled down to just “good vs. evil.”

“People make terrible decisions,” he said. “Something my dad always kind of instilled in me with his years in law enforcement is there’s a difference between making a terrible, terrible life changing decision and just being an evil person and there’s a lot fewer evil people in the world than there are people that make terrible decisions. People make terrible life changing decisions every day. After doing this for any length of time, it becomes evident who is making terrible decisions and who is just a mean, evil, terrible person. And it is at least somewhat encouraging to see that there is just more bad decision making than there is evil.”