Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 | 9:41 a.m.
Defense attorneys representing a Las Vegas man facing the death penalty in the slaying of his girlfriend and her 15-year-old son say there isn't enough evidence to take the case to trial.
Prosecutors, however, say they have ample evidence to tie Timmy Weber, 28, to the April 4 deaths of Kim Gautier, 38, and Anthony Gautier.
District Judge Joseph Bonaventure will decide Sept. 27 if the case against Weber should be dismissed.
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.
Chief Medical Examiner Lary Simms told grand jurors in May that Kim Gautier died as a result of being struck in the head from behind with an object, possibly a baseball bat, and being strangled.
Her body, with her head covered by a garbage bag, was found upside down in a plastic container inside her closet.
Anthony Gautier was tortured before he died, Simms testified.
A shirt was shoved into the boy's mouth, duct tape wrapped around his face and head, and a plastic bag placed over his head and tied on with speaker wire, Simms said. Dumbbells weighing 190 pounds were placed on his back and his legs were bound as he lay face down on his bed.
Deputy Public Defender Curtis Brown declined to comment on the case Monday.
Court documents, however, indicate he believes prosecutors have failed to prove Weber had contact with the victims on the day they died or that he had a recent dispute with them.
Brown and fellow defense attorney Joseph Abood also argue that Weber cannot be linked to a computer on which dozens of pornographic pictures of Gautier's daughter and others were found.
In court documents filed last week, Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Daskas said a Walgreen's clerk positively identified Weber as the man who bought three rolls of duct tape the day of the slaying.
"Crime scene analyst Daniel Holstein recovered a latent print from a piece of the duct tape removed from Anthony's ankle," Daskas said. "Latent print examiner Joel Geller testified (at the grand jury) that the latent print recovered from the duct tape was the thumb print of defendant Timmy Weber."
Weber also told Kim Gautier's daughter in the middle of the sexual assault that he had to "go check on Anthony," Daskas wrote in his response.
Weber's words create "the inference that it was indeed the defendant who kidnapped and killed Anthony," Daskas wrote.
As for the computer, Daskas said witnesses testified Weber brought it with him when he moved into the Gautier home and he created his own website.
Daskas and Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lalli are in separate murder trials this week and were unavailable for further comment.
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