Attorneys for the ex-UMBC student charged with killing a woman he met over the Internet face at least one major roadblock as they address jurors for the first time ? their client?s taped confession.
John Gaumer, 23, faces first-degree murder and rape charges in the slaying of Josie Brown. Brown, the mother of a young girl, was killed on Dec. 29, 2005 after a date with Gaumer. Opening arguments in the trail are expected for early this week in Baltimore County Circuit Court.
Judge Mickey Norman ruled back in November that the confession Gaumer shared with two Baltimore County police detectives was given “freely and voluntarily.”
Gaumer and Brown met on MySpace.com and arranged for their first date, according to Gaumer?s statements to police.
They went out in Mount Vernon, where Gaumer said they had a good time. They drank sangria and white wine. He bought her cigarettes. She kissed him.
But then, Gaumer said, things turned ugly.
“It was almost like a blind rage,” Gaumer told police.
Gaumer said he pulled his car over to the side of Interstate 95 and kicked Brown out after she announced she didn?t want to go home with him. He drove off, then turned around, came back and killed her.
Gaumer described to the detectives how he groped Brown?s naked body and mutilated her. Late one night two weeks later, Gaumer said in the recording, he returned to the ravine and found her body how he?d left it ? resting in a stream, with her nose and teeth cut out.
Investigators discovered a 44-second voice mail message on Brown?s cell phone that helped lead them to Gaumer, prosecutors said.
His phone had apparently accidentally dialed hers during the attack, recording the sounds of Brown “pleading for her life” in a ravine by the side of the highway, according to prosecutors.
In the videotaped confession, Gaumer slammed his fist into a table with a thud to show how at one point he hit her.But, he said, “I had my head turned … I don?t have a good stomach for blood.”
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Gaumer. The trial is expected to last for several weeks.
