Baron gear is electro-mechanical. The motor and gear box are in the spar box behind the front seats.
The electric motor drives a sector gear (about 120 degree sector I think) which is stopped at its up and down limits by limit switches. A Baron that I flew suffered a sector gear failure. The limit switches didn't do their job and the motor kept driving until the sector gear cracked about 3 teeth in from the end. Once the crack spread open a little the motor drive gear could no longer drive the sector gear.
Unfortunately the cracked sector gear means that the emergency system won't work either since the handle you turn manually is supposed to drive the sector gear.
Not saying that this is what happened here, but it wouldn't surprise me.