Jury convicts Gobert of capital murder

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The jury convicted Milton Gobert of capital murder. The punishment hearing begins Wednesday at 10 a.m. The death penalty is still on the table.

Gobert, 37, stabbed 30-year-old Mel "Nina" Cotton to death while attempting to kidnap and rob her in 2003. Cotton was a friend of Gobert's ex-girlfriend. Cotton's 5-year-old son also was injured in the attack.

During closing arguments, the prosecution walked the jury back through the crime scene with photographs and argued that Gobert bound Cotton with duct tape and a phone cord in a kidnap attempt, not to help him dispose of her body or to restrain Cotton from getting a gun.

Prosecutor Gary Cobb also played audio recordings of voice messages Gobert left on his ex-girlfriend's phone. Those messages, Cobb argued, showed Gobert was angry state of mind in the hours leading up to the murder.

Once Cobb rested his case, the defense offered their closing argument and tried to persuade the jury that Gobert is not guilt of capital murder because he did not attempt to rob or kidnap while in the process of killing Cotton. The speech did not convince the jury, however.

Defense claimed the crime was a domestic violence situation gone terribly wrong, and that there was no question Cotton was killed by Gobert, but he acted in self-defense.

Gobert's defense attorneys, Leonard Martinez and Kent Anschutz, both delivered closing arguments to the jury.

Anschultz told the jury there is no question Cotton died at the hands of Gobert, but that Gobert was acting in self-defense in what they're calling a "domestic violence situation gone very wrong."

Anschultz had asked jurors to consider that eyewitness testimony from the victim's son came from a now 11-year-old boy looking back on an incident he perceived at the age of 5.