It was a stroke of poetic justice that led homicide detectives to UMBC student John Gaumer, prosecutors told a Baltimore County jury Monday.
As Gaumer, 23, beat Josie Brown, 27, the mother of a young girl, to death Dec. 29 2005, on the side of Interstate 95, his cell phone inadvertently dialed her phone, recording forever the sounds of the “violent assault,” Baltimore County Assistant State?s Attorney Sue Hazlett told jurors during opening statements in Circuit Court.
“Please consider the violence ? the sheer number of blows,” Hazlett asked jurors. “Consider what it takes to kill someone with your bare hands.”
Both Hazlett and defense attorney Gayle Robinson described in detail how Gaumer beat Brown to death after Gaumer and Brown?s first date ? which included drinks at Tapas Teatro, Red Maple and Dionysus ? turned sour.
Brown told Gaumer she wouldn?t go home with him, causing him to become enraged, lawyers said. Gaumer and Brown met on MySpace.com earlier that day.
“He throws her over a guard rail, down an embankment,” Hazlett told the jury. “He rapes her. He mutilates her face. He cuts her fingers off. He left her to die.”
Robinson acknowledged that Gaumer, a biochemistry major at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, beat and killed Brown, but said he didn?t rape her and should not be convicted of first-degree murder because he did not plan the killing.
“John believed Josie was coming home with him,” said Robinson, a supervisor in the Baltimore County Public Defender?s Office. “All of a sudden, Josie Brown … does a 180.”
A former football player for Kutztown University, Gaumer, who stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 225 pounds, dwarfed Brown, who was 5-foot-3 and weighed 122 pounds.
“She scratches his face. He loses it,” Robinson said. “He flings her down a ravine. He strikes her with a branch from a tree. He must have hit her 50 times. … That is a case of blind rage.”
Robinson said Gaumer was “using MySpace to try to make some friends, to meet somebody to connect with.”
Gaumer mutilated Brown ? pulling out her jaw, cutting off her nose and fingers ? in an attempt to hide her identity and cover up the crime, Robinson said.
“He remembered what he watched on CSI,” she said.
Prosecutors are seeking thedeath penalty against Gaumer, who confessed to killing Brown in a taped interview with police.
Hazlett told jurors how Gaumer, prior to his confession, tried to cover his tracks: He sent Brown an e-mail after her death.
“Thanks,” he wrote. “I had a nice time.”
The trial is expected to last for several weeks.
