Gobert convicted of capital murder

It took great courage, prosecutor Allison Wetzel told a Travis County jury Tuesday, for an 11-year-old boy to come to court last week and testify about the morning in 2003 when he was injured and his mother was fatally stabbed in their North Austin apartment.

"This child was left for dead by this coward over there," Wetzel said while pointing at Milton Dwayne Gobert.

Wetzel said the boy, who was stabbed four times in the chest but recovered, did it for his mother, Mel Kernena Cotton, a Velocity Credit Union teller.

Wetzel then called for jury members to find Gobert guilty of capital murder.

They did, convicting Gobert in about 3½ hours.

Gobert, 37, could receive the death penalty during the punishment phase of the trial, which begins today in state District Judge Bob Perkins' court and is not expected to conclude until next week.

This is the 11th time in the past decade that Travis County prosecutors will seek the death penalty at trial. In the previous trials, Travis County juries chose death six times and life four times.

At the close of the punishment phase, the jury will be asked two questions: whether Gobert is a continuing threat to society and if there is any mitigating evidence to warrant a sentence of life in prison instead of death. If the answers are "yes" and "no," Gobert will become the seventh person on Texas' death row who was convicted in Travis County.

In the coming days, jurors will learn more about Gobert's background. Prosecutors are expected to offer evidence of his criminal history — he has been convicted of numerous crimes, including robbery and burglary. In the year before his arrest for murder, he had been accused of abusing two different women. The jury will probably hear evidence of those accusations.

For the defense, one of the goals is to humanize Gobert. Leonard Martinez, one of Gobert's lawyers, said he will call Gobert's relatives to talk about how family is important to him. Martinez also said he would present evidence of a head injury Gobert suffered when he was 5. Family members have said Gobert began to anger quickly after suffering that injury, when he was hit by a car.

Prosecutors say Gobert killed Cotton because she had helped his ex-girlfriend move out of his apartment. In profanity-laced voice mail messages Gobert left for that ex before the killing that were played in court, Gobert said some of his things had disappeared during that move.

Gobert told his family in calls made from jail and heard by jurors that Cotton drew a knife on him first and that he killed Cotton after wresting the weapon from her and becoming fearful that she would retrieve a gun to shoot him. No gun was found in the apartment.

Gobert said Cotton was jealous because he would not fully commit to a relationship with her. Gobert said the boy was stabbed accidentally during the melee.

During closing arguments, Martinez said that Gobert might be guilty of murder — which is punishable by life in prison — but not capital murder. Gobert is charged with committing capital murder by intentionally killing Cotton in the course of committing kidnapping or attempted kidnapping of Cotton and her son and in the course of robbing or attempting to rob Cotton.

"The evidence far more supports a domestic violence situation gone way bad," defense lawyer Kent Anschutz said, "than the offense of capital murder with the intent to rob or kidnap."

With its verdict, the jury rejected those legal arguments along with Gobert's claims of self-defense.

Wetzel told the jury she believes that Cotton had expected Gobert to come to her apartment, on Interstate 35 near U.S. 183, the night she was killed. Wetzel said Gobert's vacuum cleaner was sitting out in her living room so she could return it to him.

There was no sign of forced entry at the apartment, so Gobert was probably allowed in. A neighbor testified that he heard banging and yelling in the apartment about 2 a.m. but did not call police.

Cotton was stabbed and cut 107 times in the melee, which left blood splattered all over her bedroom walls and ceiling and pooled on her floor. More than 30 of those wounds were concentrated on the left of her chest, which an expert testified meant she probably was not moving when they were inflicted.

Gobert used duct tape and a phone cord to bind Cotton, prosecutors said.

Her son, Demetrius, testified that he heard yelling coming from his mother's room in the middle of the night and found a man inside stabbing her. That man later choked him, he said. When he awoke, the boy found his mother dead and a hole in his chest, he told the jury.

Gobert's ex-girlfriend later told police to look at him as a suspect, and he was arrested. The clothes in his washing machine had Cotton's blood on them, according to testimony.

Outside court, Wetzel said she was satisfied with the verdict. "It was justified by the evidence," she said. "This is a terrible violent crime; he deserves a capital murder verdict."

skreytak@statesman.com; 912-2946