Friday, Sept. 16, 2005 | 9:14 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death penalty for Timmy "T.J." Weber, who was convicted of the April 2002 slayings of his live-in girlfriend and her 15-year-old son in Las Vegas.
Chief Justice Nancy Becker, who wrote the majority opinion, said the killing of the teen was "untimely, senseless and brutal." The death penalty was not excessive given the "appalling nature and circumstances" of the killing of the boy, Becker wrote.
"Weber also destroyed a family, murdering the mother of three children after sexually abusing the young daughter over a five-year period," Becker noted.
The court also struck down the appeal to overturn Weber's convictions for first-degree murder, sexual assault of a child under 14 years old and production of child pornography.
Weber killed his 38-year-old girlfriend, Kim Gautier, with a blow to the head. He bound her son, Anthony, and put a bag over his head, tied an electrical cord around his neck and stuffed a T-shirt into his mouth. Anthony died a slow death of asphyxia suffocation, compression and restriction of the torso, medical experts testified during the trial.
Weber was also convicted of attempted murder for attacking Gautier's other son, Chris, and a friend of his about two weeks after the murder.
Weber was sentenced to death for Anthony's murder and life without parole for killing Anthony's mother.
The court in upholding the death penalty said there was no evidence the sentence "was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice or any arbitrary factor." The court rejected arguments that there should have been multiple trials rather than lumping all of the charges together. The defense wanted to separate the murder and sexual assault charges from the attempted murder days later of the two boys.
But the court said the groups of crimes charged and proven in this case are connected.
The court said it was evident that after sexually abusing the teenage girl for years, Weber "murdered or attempted to murder those who appeared to threaten to end or expose this long-running abuse."
Justices Bob Rose and Jim Hardesty wrote a separate opinion concurring with the majority of the court on everything except the combination of all of the offenses for one trial.
The court also rejected claims by the defense involving challenges of prospective jurors and jury instructions.
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