Weber facing death sentence

Erica D. Johnson

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2003 | 11:24 a.m.

Eighteen-year-old Chris Gautier this morning told the jury that was to decide Timmy J. Weber's fate that he misses the mother and brother whom Weber was convicted Monday of killing.

"I miss the brotherly bond you share with your brother," he said through tears. "I miss him being here to console me."

The jury pronounced Weber guilty Monday of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault, in the April 4, 2002, slayings of Kim Gautier, 38, and Anthony Gautier, 15, and the rape of Kim Gautier's 14-year-old daughter.

Weber was also convicted of attempted murder for an April 14 attack on Chris Gautier and his guardian, William Froman, at the Gautier home at 700 N. First St.

As the penalty phase of Weber's trial began this morning, jurors who on Monday convicted Weber of all 17 felony counts he was facing heard a litany of Weber's previous crimes.

Weber, 29, was an eight-time convicted felon at the time of the slayings, Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas said. But Weber had avoided long prison sentences because he pleaded guilty to lesser charges and most of the sentences ran at the same time, Daskas said.

Gautier in emotional testimony then described his brother as a handsome boy who wanted to go to college and play football and get married one day.

"He was one of those kids where if you were down, he'd come in the room and put a smile on your face," Gautier said.

When asked what he missed most about his brother, Gautier sobbed and said, "I miss playing football with him and watching television.

"When you lose someone, you miss all the nonsense things you never thought you would miss."

His mother, despite a drug addiction, worked hard to provide for her three children, Gautier said.

"People have problems and they can be helped," he said. "But she never had an opportunity to get help."

His sister, he said, "tries to be strong, but if you say my mom's or my brother's name around her, she breaks down." The girl, now 16, lives in Chicago with their grandmother, he said.

Saying he feels "lonely in the world," Gautier noted that his son was born earlier this month.

"It was supposed to be the happiest day of my life. But yet I feel empty inside because he'll never know his grandmother and he'll never know his uncle," he said.

After the jury's verdict Monday, Gautier said he hoped to witness the Weber's execution.

"I'd like to see T.J. Weber get the worst sentence possible," Gautier said. "But as long as he's in jail for the rest of his life I can't ask for more. Now my mother and my brother can finally rest in peace."

Jurors were expected to begin deliberating this afternoon to decide whether Weber would be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.

"It's a matter of life and death," Lynne Henderson, a professor of criminal law at the Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said. "The decision whether to sentence someone to death is an important one. It's huge. You want to be certain you made the right decision."

During the penalty phase, prosecutors introduce aggravating factors, or reasons a defendant should be put to death for his crime, Henderson said.

Defense attorneys present mitigating factors, or reasons Weber should receive life in prison rather than the death penalty.

Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys would comment on the verdict while the sentencing was pending.

But observers said an apparent lack of remorse could work against Weber, who appeared unmoved and even nonchalant during some portions of the trial.

Weber showed no reaction Monday as the verdicts were read aloud. He smiled as a team of security guards led him out of the courtroom.

Brenda Hicks, Kim Gautier's sister, who also testified this morning, said she hoped jurors noticed Weber's courtroom demeanor.

"I would have liked to have seen remorse," she said. "But he's dead inside. To commit these crimes you have to be dead inside."

Her Christianity has led to a struggle with the question of whether Weber should be put to death, she said.

"I've resolved that it's not my place," she said. "Whether it's here or in the hereafter I'll sleep better at night knowing he's not on the street. I hope he lives a miserable life."

Gautier said Weber's attitude made it difficult to maintain his composure during his testimony.

"He'd smirk and smile at me," he said. "I was holding myself (back) from jumping him. I still have a lot of anger toward him."

Prosecutors alleged Weber's crime spree was sparked by a longtime obsession with Gautier's daughter, whom Weber had been molesting since she was 9, they said.

The teen took the stand, describing for jurors how Weber duct-taped her to her bunk bed before sexually assaulting her, then left her restrained with the volume on the television turned up loud before Chris Gautier rescued her hours later.

Defense attorneys claimed there were several holes in the prosecution's case, including an absence of blood evidence at the home and various fingerprints at the crime scene that were never analyzed.

They maintained Kim Gautier was a methamphetamine user who was high on the drug at the time of her slaying. As for the sexual assault, defense attorneys alleged Weber and the teen had consensual sex, which resulted in the teen benefiting financially from Weber.

Though prosecutors presented a strong case against Weber, which included incriminating fingerprint and DNA evidence, it was up to jurors to decide among numerous charges when deliberating the case.

Jurors had to choose between a first- or second-degree murder charge in the slayings, as well as attempted murder or battery in the attack on Chris Gautier.

Jurors also had to choose between sexual assault or a lesser charge of statutory sexual seduction in the relationship between Weber and Gautier's daughter. Statutory sexual seduction implies consent.