Posted 4:13 pm Wednesday, May 23, 2012
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UPDATE: Aquaintance Testifies Cargill Stole Her Identity
Updated Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 4:12 p.m. CDT
Jill Lowe, who met Kimberly Cargill when their younger sons played baseball together, said that Ms. Cargill used Ms. Lowe's personal information open a Verizon cell phone account two years ago. She said her credit is still affected to this day, and that Cargill had charged $936 in Ms. Lowe's name.
Cargill's mother, Rachel Wilson paid the bill, Ms. Lowe testified.
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Cargill's mother, Rachel Wilson paid the bill, Ms. Lowe testified.
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Updated Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 1:32 p.m. CDT
The 12 year-old son of Kim Cargill testified this morning that he could not call the defendant "mom," but referred to her instead by her initials "K.C."
The boy described a choking incident that happened when the defendent placed both thumbs on his Adam's Apple and pressed. The boy said it felt like a blood pressure cuff around his throat.
"I can't count the number of times she has slapped me," he said of his mother.
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The boy described a choking incident that happened when the defendent placed both thumbs on his Adam's Apple and pressed. The boy said it felt like a blood pressure cuff around his throat.
"I can't count the number of times she has slapped me," he said of his mother.
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Updated Wednesday, May 23, 2012 at 10:47 a.m. CDT
The father of Kim Cargill's third eldest son cried openly as he testified about the abuse the now 12-year-old endured at the hands of Ms. Cargill as the sentencing phase of her conviction of capital murder continued this morning. The Smith County district attorney asked that the man's name not be used.
He recounted numerous incidents of abuse during the time they lived together beginning in 1998.
"She is the meanest woman I ever met. Her temper scared me and I was a grown man. I was an ironworker and that's a tough crowd," the man testified.
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He recounted numerous incidents of abuse during the time they lived together beginning in 1998.
"She is the meanest woman I ever met. Her temper scared me and I was a grown man. I was an ironworker and that's a tough crowd," the man testified.
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By DAYNA WORCHEL
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
Kimberly Cargill often told her four sons they were "worthless slobs" and cursed at them regularly, her two eldest boys testified on Tuesday.
The two sons, who are now 21 and 17, were visibly shaken as they took the witness stand Tuesday, the second day of testimony in the punishment phase of Ms. Cargill's capital murder trial. Testimony continues today.
Ms. Cargill, 45, who was convicted of capital murder on May 18, could receive the death penalty.
Cherry Walker, her mentally challenged babysitter, had been subpoenaed to testify against the defendant in a child custody hearing on June 23, 2010.
Autopsy findings did not reveal of cause of death for the victim.
Ms.
Cargill testified during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial that she dumped and burned the body of Ms. Walker on June 18, 2010. She said Ms. Walker had a seizure while in Ms. Cargill's vehicle and she panicked, afraid she would be blamed for the death.
The defendant's 21-year-old son told the jury Tuesday he had been in therapy for much of his life because of the abuse he endured from his mother.
He said to the jury in response to questioning from Smith County District Attorney Matt Bing
ham that he was not able to refer to Ms. Cargill as his mother and that he did not consider her to be his mother.
Wiping his eyes at times as he testified, Ms. Cargill's eldest son said he remembered the defendant as "scary and abusive" and that she choked him on "numerous occasions." Looking at a photo of himself from the first grade, which was displayed for the jury, he talked about a red mark visible on his neck.
The oldest son said the red mark was from Ms. Cargill choking him that morning as he got ready for school and for his picture to be made. "I couldn't remember what set her off, but she hit me over the head with a hairbrush and choked me," he said.
The young man, who will graduate from college this summer, said he has not talked to Ms. Cargill since he was 12 years old, when he asked to stop supevised visits with her. He testified that the defendant "had thrown lots of things at him over the years," including a television remote control, dishes and glasses.
Sonja West, the current wife of Michael West, who was Ms. Cargill's first husband, testified about a 1997 incident in which the defendant arrived at their home in Rockwall to pick up her eldest son, who was 7 at the time, for a visit. Arrangements were made for Ms. Cargill to also pick up Mrs. West's 7-year-old daughter and take her to the home of Mrs. West's ex-husband.
When Ms. Cargill arrived inside the West home to pick up the children, she decided they "weren't moving fast enough," Mrs. West said.
Mrs. West said she was kissing her daughter goodbye, but the defendant, who she described as "agitated," picked up the girl by the arm, walking with her up a flight of stairs to the driveway of the home as the girl cried.
"Why didn't you take a baseball bat and knock her head off? That's what I would have done," Bingham asked Mrs. West. After objections from the defense, Judge Jack Skeen Jr. told the jury to disregard the comment.
"I wanted my kids to understand that violence is not the way to resolve things," Ms. West said.
Mrs. West testified that Ms. Cargill set the girl down, then began kicking Mrs. West in the stomach and threw Mrs. West's arm into a brick wall. Ms. Cargill's oldest son tried to stop the attack by swinging at his mother with a duffel bag. Ms. West said Ms. Cargill was arrested after the incident.
She added that her daughter had to go to therapy after that incident. The daughter, now 21, testified Tuesday that she thinks of the incident daily.
Ms. Cargill's 17-year-old son testified that he ran away from home to get away from her beatings and attempts to choke him. He testified that he ran to a grocery store, where he hid in the stock room, hoping he would not be discovered. He said he ran away because the home where he lived with his mother "was not a good place to live."
Two teachers from a Whitehouse elementary school who taught one of Ms. Cargill's younger sons in the fourth grade testified about Ms. Cargill's behavior with them at a "Meet the Teacher Event" at the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year.
Ms. Cargill got angry as she waited in line with her son to meet Johna Booker when some of Ms. Booker's former students came around the line to greet her. Ms. Cargill stood directly in front of the teacher so she was in her line of sight as the teacher tried to engage her son in conversation and said, "I'm talking to you."
Ms. Booker and teacher Tracey Carter testified that the boy, who is now 12, often came to school with bruises on his face and neck. Ms. Carter described Ms. Cargill as "highly emotional," and said she could be "as sweet as sugar one minute and madder than a hornet in the next."
Defense attorney Brett Harrison asked Ms. Carter if she thought the defendant had a mental disorder, to which Bingham objected. Defense attorney Jeff Haas asked Ms. Booker if she knew the bruises had come from his client. "He didn't say," Ms. Booker responded.
Former husbands Brian Cargill and Michael West testified about the violence and difficulty that marked their relationships with the defendant. "It was the worst time of my life," Cargill testified of their marriage, which lasted from June 1994 to December 1995.
The defendant told him she could not become pregnant, but after dating for three months, Ms. Cargill told him she was pregnant. He said he wasn't planning to get married.
West said the two had a violent marriage on both sides and that he had shoved her into a wall after she had thrown an object at him and cut his ear.
West said the two had a violent marriage on both sides and that he had shoved her into a wall after she had thrown an object at him and cut his ear.
