Gabrion Trail Underway

The emphasis now shifts from the prosecution to the defense, but the question still unanswered -- at least publicly -- is whether Gabrion will testify. He insists he wants to be the first witness for his side in a trial that could end with the death penalty.

With two guards posted outside a locked courtroom, U.S. Chief District Judge Robert Holmes Bell discussed the issue with Gabrion and his attorneys, Paul Mitchell and David Stebbins. Spectators and prosecutors were barred from entering.

Bell could be seen gesturing repeatedly during the 20-minute session. At one moment, he pointed directly to the witness box just a few feet from his chair.

"Don't even ask," Stebbins told reporters as he and Mitchell quickly stepped into an elevator. A transcript was not released.

Gabrion, 48, is charged in the death of Rachel Timmerman, 19, of Cedar Springs, who has accused Gabrion of raping her. Timmerman's body, weighted with cinder blocks and chain, was discovered in Oxford Lake in the Manistee National Forest in July 1997.

The government's witness list Thursday was tilted toward scientists. The FBI dispatched two experts from Washington, D.C., who analyze building materials and paint.

Agent Bruce Hall said blocks found chained to the victim were "consistent" with blocks in Gabrion's yard in Mecosta County.

"I've been doing this for 13 years," Hall said. "I've seen a lot of block. ... They could be different, but they're not."

Agent Ronald Menold II linked red paint on a block to paint found on other blocks owned by Gabrion. Separately, he said pink paint on a block "could have originated" from a spray-paint can seized from Gabrion's property.

Under cross-examination, however, Menold added: "I'm not saying it absolutely came from that source."

Prosecutors also mixed in other witnesses to reinforce their claim that Gabrion was seen with a woman at Oxford Lake around the time Timmerman disappeared and he fled West Michigan when authorities went hunting for him.

Cathy Kirk, 37, of White Cloud said she and her mother stopped at the lake while "just ridin' around" in June 1997. She said she saw Gabrion, another man and a woman inside a pickup a few feet from her truck. They also had a boat.

Kirk said she saw Gabrion alone in the area two other times. She admitted lying to the grand jury that investigated the case, but stepped forward this week to "do the right thing."

Edward Broome traveled from West Virginia to tell jurors Gabrion wanted to buy 5 remote acres in September 1997, nearly four months after Timmerman was killed.

Gabrion said "his wife was involved in a carjacking and got killed, and he wanted to get away from it. I never heard from him again," Broome said.

After prosecutors rested their case, Gabrion's lawyers asked for an acquittal, saying there is significant doubt about whether Timmerman was killed in the federally owned portion of the lake. Mitchell referred to testimony from a medical examiner who could not rule out suffocation away from the water but said the victim "most likely" drowned.

"What is likely is not absolute," Mitchell said.

But if the homicide occurred outside the lake, the judge said, why was the victim handcuffed and her mouth wrapped with duct tape?