Family describes troubled life of victim

Keith Paul

Friday, April 12, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

Kim Gautier's family lived in town, but she wandered in and out of their lives often.

She would drop out for years for various reasons -- feeling down about her life, not wanting to listen to advice, meeting the wrong man.

"That's what she said. She told me before, 'My biggest problem is I don't know how to pick a good mate,' " her father Jerry Breclaw said. "I was working just two miles from where she was living, but didn't hear from her. I didn't know where she was."

Then as quickly as she left their lives, she reappeared. The Friday before Easter she went over to her father's house. On Easter Sunday, she came over again with her three teenage children and her boyfriend T.J. -- Timmy J. Weber.

The family didn't spend much time talking to Weber, they wanted to get reacquainted with their daughter, their sister.

"We saw this as a beginning and a chance to re-connect," said Brenda Hicks, Gautier's younger sister. "We thought we had time."

But a few days later, on April 4, Gautier and her 15-year-old son were found dead in their North First Avenue home. She had been beaten to death and Anthony Gautier had been asphyxiated.

Weber, the quiet man who Gautier had nothing but good things to say about at Easter, is on the run, charged with the two slayings.

"Deep down I think she was telling us she needed help, but just didn't know how to say it," Hicks said about the Easter visit.

It was after her death that Gautier's family found out that she had tried to get out of the on-again, off-again relationship with Weber, and that he continued to pursue her.

"He promised her he was a changed man and wanted to be with the family," said Ella Breclaw, Gautier's stepmother. "She tried to get away from him many times. She believed him this time."

Hicks said there is no way her sister could have imagined Weber would harm her children.

"She made some poor choices for herself, but she made the best choices she could for the kids," Hicks said. "She would have laid down her life for her kids, and she may have."

Gautier worked various jobs -- convenience store clerk, cocktail waitress, manicurist -- any legitimate job to keep her kids with her and care for them.

"She was a good mom and those kids always knew that they were loved," Hicks said. "She would have never chosen a man over those kids.

"If she had any inkling of what was going to happen, she would have left."

Weber and Gautier apparently had been back together for three weeks or so before the slayings. He had been previously convicted of seven felonies, mostly breaking into stores. However, in May 2000 he was arrested for domestic violence and home invasion involving Gautier. He apparently started screaming at her from outside of a locked fence and seemed jealous that she had a friend over, according to court records.

He kicked in the front door -- of the same house where Gautier eventually was killed -- and struggled with her over some keys. Weber, who was on parole, was sent back to prison in August 2000 and then released again in February 2001.

Gautier's family didn't know about the violence.

"If I had known there ever was abuse, I would have told her to get away," Hicks said. "One time is too many, I mean look at the outcome."

Easter Sunday, Weber didn't say much. Hicks was getting to know her sister again. Breclaw and his wife, Elle, were just happy to have Gautier and her kids back in their lives again after so long.

There was talk of Gautier leaving her downtown home and moving into a vacant trailer home Breclaw owned.

"She was having problems and she came and looked up her dad, which was great with me," Breclaw said. "I was just trying to be a father."

Hicks said Gautier's daughter and other son are devastated by the death of their mom and brother. For any failings Gautier may have had, she loved her children and always made sure that they had what they needed, Hicks said.

"Her children respected her and loved her," Hicks said. "They are easily the three best behaved children that I have seen and that's not easy with three teenagers. To have a parent that loves you that much, that goes a long way."

A memorial service will be held 3 p.m. today at J.D. Smith Middle School. A funeral will be held Sunday at Palm Mortuary's downtown location.