After he finished begging a jury to spare his son?s life, Chris Gaumer doubled over in tears. He hugged his son, John ? who was convicted last week of killing a young woman he met on MySpace.com ? and had to be separated by Baltimore County sheriff?s deputies.
“I love my boy with all my heart,” Gaumer said. “I would do anything for my boy.”
Gaumer?s relatives spent Monday pleading with a jury to not order the execution of John Gaumer, 23, whom they found guilty of the Dec. 29, 2005 first-degree murder and rape of Josie Brown, 27.
Brown, the mother of a young girl, was found naked, except for her socks, just off Interstate 95 in Arbutus.
A medical examiner testified that Brown suffered more than 70 bruises ? and had most of her face removed, including her jaw, nose and teeth. Her fingertips were also cut off. All of the dismemberment was an attempt to cover up the crime by making the victim impossible to identify.
“If you bury my brother, you may as well bury my parents,” said Erin Burke, Gaumer?s sister. “Please don?t kill my mom and my dad.”
But Brown?s mother, Theresa, reminded the jury of her family?s pain, including how they couldn?t view their daughter after her death because her body was so mutilated.
“There?s anempty place where Josie once was,” Theresa Brown said. “No one can ever know the pain we are feeling all our lives.”
After meeting Brown on the Internet, Gaumer told police, he spent more than $100 on the victim at several Baltimore nightspots before attempting to take her back to his University of Maryland, Baltimore County, dorm room.
But after kissing, touching and agreeing to go to back to Gaumer?s dorm room with him, Brown changed her mind while riding back along I-95 in Gaumer?s car, he told police.
Brown took a call from an ex-boyfriend and began cursing at the former Kutztown University football player and biochemistry major. In response, Gaumer threw her phone out the window, and she scratched his face, he said.
The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Gaumer then threw her out of his vehicle and over a guardrail and beat her to death with his fist and a stick, he admitted.
Gaumer?s mother, Janet, said despite the horrific nature of her son?s crime, she can?t turn her back on him.
“I?ve had people suggest I should walk away and be ashamed and not care about him,” she testified. “But he?s a child from my body.”
The jury is expected to deliberate on Gaumer?s sentence today.
