Weber defense to take over double murder trial

Erica D. Johnson

Monday, Feb. 17, 2003 | 10:06 a.m.

Defense attorneys in the murder trial of Timmy Weber this week will claim that Weber was not at the house when his girlfriend, Kim Gautier, and her 15-year-old son, Anthony, were killed at the family home last April.

Weber's trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday, with the defense presenting its case.

Weber, 29, is charged with first-degree murder in the slayings of Kim and Anthony Gautier and is charged with the sexual assault of Kim Gautier's daughter, who is now 15.

If convicted, Weber could face the death penalty.

Weber's defense attorneys will start Tuesday by calling several expert witnesses to the stand, Deputy Public Defender Joseph Abood said. But he said Weber's defense team hasn't decided whether Weber will take the stand.

On Friday District Judge Joseph Bonaventure read Weber a lengthy admonition regarding his possible testimony. The judge advised Weber that while he has a constitutional right to take the stand in his own defense, prosecutors will have the right to cross-examine him.

If Weber chooses not to testify, jurors will be instructed not to make any inferences regarding his decision, Bonaventure said.

As for the sexual assault charge, Deputy Public Defender Will Ewing, during his opening statement last week, told jurors that the state must prove sex between Weber and the teen was nonconsensual.

"There is nothing in the law that suggests a 12-, 13- or 14-year-old young woman cannot consent," Ewing said.

The prosecution concluded its case against Weber on Friday after a Metro Police detective described to jurors how Weber surrendered to authorities at a mobile home in northwest Las Vegas more than three weeks after the slayings.

Metro Detective Eric Kerns said he was called to the mobile home park near Jones Boulevard and Craig Road on April 28, 2002, about 7:30 p.m. A neighbor had called police, saying she noticed a black trash bag taped to a bedroom window.

Kim Gautier and Weber had been fixing up the mobile home, which belonged to Gautier's father, because they were preparing to move into it, witnesses testified. But the home had been empty since the slayings.

Kerns said he entered the mobile home with a police dog trained to search for suspects and narcotics. He shouted a warning telling anyone in the home to make themselves known, he testified.

"Immediately after I made the announcement I heard a male voice say, 'I give up. I'm on the ground,' " Kerns said.

The man identified himself as Weber, Kerns said. Weber, who had been on the run since the April 4 slayings, was then taken into custody, Kerns said.

Kerns was one of the last in a string of witnesses for the prosecution, which included Gautier's surviving children, Chris Gautier and his 15-year-old sister.

At the mobile home where Weber was captured, police found several rolls of tape, tools, a box cutter, rope and two backpacks filled with toiletries, according to Vincent Roberts, a Metro crime scene analyst.

On one wall of the trailer was a bumper sticker that read, "I'm back by popular demand," Roberts said.

Chris Gautier also took the stand for the second time on Friday.

He told jurors that Weber attacked him and his guardian, William Froman, at the family's home at 700 N. First St. when they returned on the day of his mother and brother's funeral.

Froman had crossed the threshold of the front door when Weber, who had been hiding behind the door, hit Froman over the head with an aluminum baseball bat, Chris Gautier testified. His story matched Froman's account of the incident.

"I saw T.J. lunge at him," he said. "He had the bat in the air and he was biting his bottom lip. My first impulse was to run."

During the scuffle that ensued between Weber and Froman, Chris Gautier hit Weber several times on the shoulder and the head with a wooden nightstick and Weber hit him three times on the head with the baseball bat, he said.

"The third time he hit me on the side of my head above my right ear," he said. "That's when I felt the blood spatter all over my face and drip down on my shoulder. I decided to grab my head and pray."

After fleeing the house through the back door, Chris Gautier eventually made his way to the street and hid under a parked car, where he was rescued by Froman, he said.