Lawyers Ask Jury To Spare Gilbert's Life, For Sons' Sake

March 23, 2001|By MARK SPENCER; Courant Staff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — Kristen Gilbert's two young sons have not seen their mother for years, but their names were repeatedly invoked by her lawyers Thursday as they begged a federal jury not to sentence the former nurse to death for four murders.

If Gilbert becomes the first woman executed by the U.S. government since 1953, it would devastate her sons, ages 7 and 10, ex-husband Glen Gilbert said in a statement read by a child psychologist who treats one of the boys.

``He believes that the execution of their mother, Kristen Gilbert, would have a profound and profoundly detrimental impact on his children and their well-being,'' said Cynthia Monahon, of the Northampton Center for Children and Families.

Kristen Gilbert, 33, left her husband and children for a lover in the midst of a then-undetected killing spree that resulted in the deaths of four patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1995 and 1996.

On the last day of testimony in a trial that began in October, defense attorney Paul S. Weinberg asked the exhausted-looking jury to remember Gilbert's ``essential humanity.''

``She is not a demon or a monster,'' he said. ``She is a human being.''

The day before, U.S. Attorney William Welch II described the same woman as a dark, empty and evil killer who enjoyed injecting her victims with a synthetic adrenaline and had showed ``no flicker of human conscience'' as they died of heart attacks.

The last two days have been raw with emotion, as victims' relatives who testified Wednesday wept for lost sons, brothers and husbands, and relatives of Gilbert wept Thursday for a daughter and granddaughter they may lose.

Gilbert was convicted March 14 of the first-degree murders of Henry Hudon, Kenneth Cutting and Edward Skwira, the second-degree murder of Stanley Jagodowski, and assault with intent to kill two other veterans. She was acquitted of a third count of assault with intent to kill.

Attorneys are expected to give closing arguments this morning before the jury begins weighing the three aggravating factors the prosecution says warrant the death penalty and the 12 mitigating factors the defense hopes will lead jurors to spare Gilbert's life.

Although U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor is still preparing his instructions to the jury, he has said the jury must decide unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt that the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating ones in order to impose the death penalty.

Even then, he has said, the jury is not required to sentence Gilbert to death, but can opt for life in prison without the possibility of release, the only other possible sentence.

Testifying Thursday, Richard Strickland, Gilbert's father, recalled the birth of the first of his two daughters, her years as a Girl Scout and her early entrance to college. Then, he broke down as he contemplated her execution.

``How do you deal with the death of a child?'' he asked, his head bowed and the fingertips of one hand lightly touching his temple. ``To have her life end under these circumstances would be unbelievable.''

Gilbert's grandmothers, Gertrude Strickland and Isabella Morgan, both 78, also wept when they were asked about the possible execution. Gilbert, who usually shows little emotion, cried with them.

One aggravating factor is Gilbert's conviction for making telephone bomb threats to the hospital in 1996 as the investigation closed in on her. She served 15 months in the federal prison in Danbury for the crime.

But Weinberg argued that Gilbert, who had been hospitalized several times for psychiatric problems, had committed her crimes after she ``clearly snapped.''

The bomb threat ``was the bottom of a very long downhill slide,'' he said.

Gilbert has been incarcerated since before her conviction, but has sent more than 300 letters and cards to her sons, who live with their father. All of Gilbert's correspondence was sent to the boys' therapists, who decided whether to read it to them.

In Glen Gilbert's statement, he said the execution of his ex-wife also would hurt his relationship with his sons, Alex and Andrew. Glen Gilbert testified during the trial that his wife confessed to him.

He had considered testifying for the government in the penalty phase that he believes his wife tried to kill him in 1995, also with a lethal injection. Citing his concern for his sons, he ultimately decided not to tell his story.

Monahon, the therapist, told the jury she agreed with Glen Gilbert's statement, but said she would not provide any other information, in order to protect the boys' privacy.

Prosecutors did not question Monahon and, through the judge, said they agreed with Glen Gilbert's statement. Although it was unclear why prosecutors endorsed the statement, it did not appear they were backing off their request for the death penalty.

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