Weber will stand trial for murder

Kim Smith

Friday, Oct. 4, 2002 | 10:50 a.m.

Murder suspect Timmy Weber will face trial in the April deaths of his girlfriend and her 15-year-old son.

District Judge Joseph Bonaventure this morning rejected defense attorneys' arguments that there is not enough evidence to tie Weber to the deaths of Kim Gautier, 38, and her son, Anthony.

According to prosecutors, Weber sexually assaulted Gautier's 14-year-old daughter, bound her with duct tape and left her in her bedroom for three hours while a TV played at full volume. In that time he killed her mother and brother, prosecutors allege.

The girl was rescued by her 17-year-old brother Chris, and police summoned to the home found the bodies of Kim and Anthony Gautier in their bedrooms.

Autopsies showed Kim Gautier was beaten and strangled to death and Anthony Gautier died after being tortured and suffocated.

Deputy Public Defender Will Ewing argued prosecutors failed to prove Weber had contact with the victims on the day they died or that he had a recent dispute with them.

In fact, Ewing said, Gautier's daughter told grand jury members she never saw her mother or brother that morning.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas countered that Weber can be tied to the duct tape used to bind the victims through a sales clerk and fingerprints.

Weber also told Kim Gautier's daughter in the middle of the sexual assault that he had to "go check on Anthony," Daskas noted.

Daskas said that while prosecutors only have to prove their case by "slight or marginal" evidence at the grand jury level, he believes they proved it "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Weber's trial is set for Jan. 6.