Former jailer testifies in court

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Former jailer, Tasha Lass, took the stand Monday and detailed convicted murderer, Milton Gobert's plan to escape from the Travis County Jail.

Lass admitted she had a secret relationship with Gobert and snuck him a pay-as-you-go cell phone in jail.

Lass walked the jury through Gobert's plan to shoot a guard, steal his uniform and then steal his car.

She said Gobert watched the guard, who was not named, for months through jail windows.

Lass also said she talked with Gobert in person and over the cell phone she snuck in to him and testified that he'd asked her for a gun with a silencer, but she repeatedly refused his requests.

She also denied being in love with Gobert, but said why she originally went along with his plan.

"He just made me feel needed,"  explained Lass.  "When he talked, he made me feel needed. Like he needed someone to talk to someone to share his problems with."

Lass said it was ultimately her conscience that prompted her to tell her attorney about Gobert's plot to escape.

"I didn't want anyone to get hurt," Lass said.

Earlier in the day, the defense began its arguments in a Travis County courtroom with family testifying about Gobert's character. The defense prepared to make its case that Gobert should not be executed for killing Mel "Nina" Cotton in 2003, stabbing her more than 100 times.

Alice Gobert, Milton Gobert's mother,  told jurors her son did not deserve the death penalty and that his problems even started before his birth.

Alice testified that Milton's biological father beat her while eight months pregnant resulting in Milton's premature birth.

"He came earlier than he should have come and I was threatening a placenta previa," said Alice.

Never once did Alice or other families deny what prosecutors have been aiming to prove--that Milton has a violent history.

Instead, they blamed head injuries from getting hit by a car at age five, for turning Milton from a normal "hyper" kid into an all out problem child.

"The demons had gotten into my child," Alice explained. "He changed so much. I didn't know him."

Milton's brother backed up his bad behavior starting after that accident.

"He began to have more temper tantrums," said Michael Gobert, Milton's brother.  "He got a little angry a lot faster."

Despite Milton's mother having noted that her son never underwent neurological testing, prosecutors pointed out counseling attempts and times when Milton attacked his own mother.

"He hit me over the head with a broomstick," Alice testified.

Prosecutors didn't directly ask Alice if she was afraid of her son, even when he held her at knifepoint.

Alice left court upset and did not speak to reporters.

Defense attorney did tell KXAN Milton may take the stand tomorrow and plead for his life, with testimony wrapping up Tuesday or Wednesday.

Lass is expected in court at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning where defense attorneys will finish questioning her.

Travis County sheriff's officials said Lass was already on administrative leave before the cell phone discovery, pending an administrative investigation into allegations she was involved in a relationship with Gobert.

"During the administrative investigation a separate criminal investigation was conducted by detectives when it was learned that she had provided the inmate with a cell phone in violation of state law," said Roger Wade, with the Travis County Sheriff's Office.

The 36-year-old jailer said she put $40 on a pay-as-you-go cell phone so that she and Gobert could talk, according to court documents.

"It's easy for him to arrange with someone outside to arrange an escape," said Travis County Sheriff's Deputy Craig Smith, detailing the danger of having an inmate with a cell phone. "They can also find out about witnesses or jurors and create a threat."

In the sentencing phase of Gobert's murder trial, prosecutors continued to press their case Friday that the convicted murderer continues to be a menace to society and that he should be put to death.

Travis County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Nate Gillespie testified he was assigned to search Gobert's cell Thursday after officials revealed Lass gave Gobert a cell phone in order to make secret calls to him during his sentencing hearing, which is happening this week.

Gillespie said while it looked as though Gobert's cell had already been searched by the time he arrived, he found found the cell phone at the bottom of a cheese puffs bag.

"I tilted the bag and thought it was odd there were Doritos stuffed into the bottom of the Cheetos bag," said Gillespie. "I stuck my hand into it and found a cell phone. I realized it was going to be a crime scene, so I put it back into the bag and alerted my superior."

Gillespie is a witness for the prosecution in a case against Gobert, who was awaiting sentencing after being convicted of capital murder for stabbing Cotton, 30, more than 100 times while attempting to kidnap and rob her in 2003, eventually killing her. Cotton's son Demetrius, who was 5 at the time, was stabbed