Day 2: Trial of ETX mom accused of killing babysitter

TYLER, TX (KLTV) - Testimony resumed this morning in the trial of an East Texas mother accused of killing her baby sitter.

45-year old Kimberly Cargill is accused of murdering her baby sitter to keep her from testifying against her in a child custody hearing.

Before the jury is brought in Kimberly Cargill submits paperwork (Sate's exhibit #72) saying she is the sole user of the Verizon number 903-570-2880, even though the billing name is Jill Low and user is listed at Kimberly Low. She says the red Samsung phone the state has in their possession is hers and only hers and has never been used by anyone else. This clears up any doubt or confusion that the phone records presented yesterday were not hers.

The jury is brought in and this exhibit is read to the jury.

State calls in first witness of the day, Laura Gillispie, who now works in Longview. Gillispie was an ETMC clinic manager in Whitehouse. Gillispie met Cargill through Cargill's son being brought in to the clinic. Gillispie says she had more than one conversation with Cargill that stands out in her mind.

Gillispie tells the jury about Cargill's calls to the clinic regarding her son who has been removed from Cargill's home. Gillispie says they were instructed to give information to Cargill's son's current caretaker and not Cargill, but Cargill would still call and try to the get information out of the clinic. Gillispie and the State go over Cargill's phone records that were admitted into evidence yesterday. The state asks Gillispie if she remembers a call on June 18 at 11:07 am that lasted for about 12 minutes. Gillispie says she does remember that call because she just let Cargill vent. Gillispie says she has never received a call like that from a patient before. Gillispie says Cargill would scream so loudly that she couldn't even talk over her. She says Cargill would be very angry and tell the doctors office they had no right to keep an appointment with her knowledge. Gillispie says the call was very upsetting because she is a mother and was trying to maintain a professional persona in the office. She says Cargill would call on multiple occasions in such an angry rage that she would have to tell her she was going to hang up the phone. Gillispie tells the jury she was concerned about the safety of people at the clinic after talking to Cargill and told her employees to make sure the back door to the clinic remained locked.

Bingham passes the witness.

Defense has no questions for Gillispie.

Bingham calls next witness, a DA investigator who has also worked for Bullard PD and the Smith County Sheriff's office.

State's exhibit 73 is admitted into evidence. Exhibit 73 is the original subpoena for Cherry Walker. Walker was delivered a copy; the attorney keeps the original.

Investigator goes over the events of delivering the subpoena. Investigator says in the parking lot he met Paula Wheeler who identified herself as Walker's caregiver. The investigator went upstairs, delivered the subpoena, briefly met Walker and left. 

The state and the investigator go over Cargill's phone records showing Cargill calling the DA's office at 7:34 pm on the day Walker was delivered the subpoena. Investigator identities a photo of Walker. He describes her as pleasant and courteous. 

State passes the witness.

Defense asks how many other subpoenas the investigator delivered that day. He says about 10.

Defense asks if Kimberly Cargill, the woman charged with capital murder of Cherry Walker, called the district attorneys office hours before she's accused of committing the crime.

Investigator says yes.

Defense asks if the number Cargill called at the DA's office was the number of the assistant of the assistant DA handling Cargill's CPS case. Investigator says yes.

State calls next witness, Gina Vestal, who's job in 2010 was to place and staff nurses. She was a staffing coordinator with Excel staffing. Vestal says she had staffed Cargill in Pittsburg, Quitman, Athens and UT but had never met her in person.

Vestal knows Cargill was making $22-$24 per hour.

Vestal recounts the night of June 18 when she could not get ahold of Kimberly Cargill when ETMC Athens was asking her to. ETMC Athens didn't know if Cargill had given a patient medicine or not. Vestal says Cargill is almost always one to answer her phone so it was very out of character for her not to be answering on the evening of June 18.

Vestal says she was getting irritated with Cargill because the hospital was getting mad at Excel staffing. Vestal says Cargill finally called her back around 12:30 am and told her she had been sleeping.

State shows Cargill's weekly time sheet to vestal. Showing Cargill worked 10 hours on Friday the 18th.

On June 19, Vestal called Kim Cargill to see if she could work and she declined.

State admits into evidence Cargill's time slips, job application, etc.

Time slip on June 18 shows Cargill clocked in at 6:45 am and out at 7:30 pm with a 30 minute lunch break.

State goes over the week of the 18th with Vestal. The only three days Cargill worked that week were the 13th, 16th and 18th.

State asks Vestal if it would be out of the ordinary for her to call Cargill at 4 am to report to work at 6 am. Vestal says no. She says Cargill liked to work and would usually take a shift after calling her babysitter to watch her son.

State is looking for a document they need to finish questioning Vestal. Ten minute recess.

State shows Vestal two of Cargill's paycheck stubs from June 2010 and they go over how much she's making.

Pass the witness.

Defense: Bottom line, the defendant worked a 12 hour shift on June 18? Vestal: Yes.

The state says they have no further questions. The defense asks for a minute to look over something.

Defense says the phone records from June 18 don't show a call from

State shows Vestal the calls Cargill was making while at work.

State: Isn't she supposed to be working?

Vestal: Yes.

State: Y'all are paying her aren't you while she's making all of these calls?

Vestal: Yes.

State: Would that be good with y'all?

Vestal: No.

State goes through the call records counting 78 calls Cargill made while she was at the hospital working.

State asks Vestal if she sill feels like there was another call at 8:30 pm. She says yes.

Recess until 1pm.

Witnesses after lunch are Sonya Burton and Gethry Walker, Cherry Walker's father.

State calls witness Sonya Burton

Sonya Burton has been a hair stylist for 15 years. She knew Cherry Walker for about 10 years. Sonya saw Cherry June 18, 2010 at about 12:30 when she got to the shop. Her hair usually takes 1.5-2 hours to do. Paula Wheeler, Cherry's case worker, dropped her off. Sonya says Cherry was cheerful and talkative. Sonya says she saw no scratches or bruises around Cherry's face or head.

Sonya says Cherry would carry her coin purse and the phone number of the person who was supposed to pick  her up so she could remember who she was supposed to call after she was done getting her hair done.

The state shows Sonya a photo of Walker's body the way it was found on June 19 and asks her to identify the person in the photo. With a quivering voice Sonya looks at the picture and responds, "That's Cherry."

State calls next witness Angie Grant, a registered nurse at ETMC in Athens. Grant has been a nurse for 17 years.

State approaches Grant with a time slip. Grant explains she signed off on Cargill's time slip because she was a house supervisor. Grant says she doesn't know Cargill personally.

Grant goes over what Cargill's responsibilities would be... Taking care of patients, bathing them, giving them mediation, checking on their families.

State begins going over Cargill's phone records with Grant. State asks if Grant would expect a nurse to make as many calls or texts as Cargill did on June 18. State lists off the exact times of 78 different calls or texts Cargill made at work that day. Grant says "no" this is not what she'd expect from one of her nurses before the state finishes listing off all of the call/text message times.

State asks Grant about access cards to get to particular rooms.

Grant tells the jury there would be a reason for an LVN to have access to things like lab rooms, med rooms and equipment rooms.

State: Do you remember anything about the lady Kim Cargill who's time slip you signed?

Grant: No

Defense has no questions for Grant.

State calls Angela Hardin, an RN at ETMC in Tyler. Hardin tells the court she is nervous. Hardin met Cargill in 2002 at orientation. Hardin says she would consider Cargill a friend from 2002-2010. Hardin says she never worked with Cargill. Hardin remembers Cargill asking her for help with a child custody case.

The state begins going over Cargill's cell phone records with Hardin.

Hardin says Cargill called her on June 18. She says Cargill was very upset because she said her mentally challenged babysitter had been subpoenaed and Cargill said something along the lines of "[Walker] is going to ruin me or destroy everything."

Hardin says she remembers Cargill asking her to go to the child custody hearing but she told Cargill she couldn't go.

Hardin says the next time she spoke to Cargill was the following Sunday. Hardin says she spoke to Cargill a lot in June.

Hardin says when she talked to Cargill on Sunday, Cargill seemed much more calm. Cargill asked Hardin to reconsider going to the hearing. Hardin said she would not reconsider. Cherry Walker was brought up in this conversation.

State: What did Kimberly Cargill say about the babysitter?

Hardin: That she had tried to get her to go to do dinner so they could discuss some of the questions that might come up

State: Did she go to dinner?

Hardin: She told me the babysitter told her --- defense objects to Hardin answering this question, attorneys consult at the bench, Hardin answers the question.

Hardin: She did not take the babysitter to dinner. That the babysitter told her she could not go out. She said that the babysitter told her that she wanted to go out and get her a white man. Then she asked me if I heard her and she repeated it again.

Hardin tells the jury that he thought it was odd that Cargill was telling her this and telling her twice to make sure she heard something that she didn't even think Cargill should be telling her. Hardin says she never met Cherry Walker.

Defense begins questioning the witness.

Hardin tells the jury prior to June 2010 she spoke to Cargill off and on. They'd talk frequently then just get busy and not talk for weeks.

Hardin says the first person she spoke to about the June conversation was a person in the DA's office a few months later. Hardin was subpoenaed for the Grand Jury hearing but she did not testify there. Hardin says she never spoke to anyone in law enforcement about the conversation with Cargill. She says she never told anyone else about her conversations with Cargill because she didn't think she should and she didn't want to talk about it.

Defense asks Hardin what the conversation on June 20 was about again. She says, "It was basically about letting her know I would not be at the hearing and about Ms. Walker and about her not wanting to go to dinner with Mrs. Cargill."

Hardin says she did not know she was listed as an emergency contact for Kimberly Cargill in July of 2010.

Hardin says she was contacted by someone from the Sheriff's office briefly.

Hardin says this testimony hard for her and she is about to cry. She says it's a very tragic situation because a life was lost, another is being destroyed, children don't have their mother and a family lost their daughter."

15 minute recess before state calls next witness Lauren Puig, Cargill's neighbor.

Loren (correct spelling) Puig is brought to the witness stand. Puig lives in the Waterton subdivision of Whitehouse. She owns two businesses and works at Texas Spine and Joint Hospital. Puig met Cargill years and years ago. They worked together a few times at Texas Spine and Joint hospital. Puig would consider Cargill an acquaintance. They had each others' cell phone numbers.

Puig goes over seeing Cargill on Saturday the 19th. "I had just come home from work. It was about 7:25 in the morning, Puig says." She says she pulled in to her driveway and Kim was pulling out of her driveway.

Puig: I said what are you doing out so early? She said she was going to go clean her car.

She said that particular night she didn't sleep well. She said whoever she was working for kept calling her all night.

State: Did she tell you anything about her financial situation at the time?

Puig: She said she was behind on her house payments and was picking up extra shifts.

Puig talks about how Cargill asked her to testify in the June 23 hearing. She says she didn't think she should testify because she didn't really know Cargill and the kids well enough to do so.

State begins going over phone records with Puig.

State shows Puig text messages between her and Cargill on the evening of June 20. Puig was in the hospital and Cargill kept bugging her.

Text message reads, "I can't believe you're at the hospital still." Puig remembers thinking that text was odd as she was getting 6 units of blood that night. Puig says Cargill came by her house a few times but she didn't answer the door.

Pass the witness.

Defense asks Puig if she has been neighbors with Cargill for about three years. She says yes.

State calls next witness Bill Selmon.

Selmon says he was employed by the City of Whitehouse in the utilities department.

Selmon says he knows Cargill. He identifies her in the courtroom.

Selmon says by June 2010 he'd known Cargill for about 4 years. He met her through the city when they were fixing her waterline. He says he did not date Cargill. He says she took him out to dinner once to pay him back for mowing her lawn, fixing her plumbing, etc.

Selmon says he received 5-8 text messages from Cargill a day. He said  he'd been in her house a few times. She paid him the first 2-3 times he mowed her lawn but he told her she didn't have to pay him after that because she was complaining of money problems.

Selmon went through a CPS background check so he could be a supervisor for her visits with one of her sons.

State asks Selmon if he knew Cherry Walker. He says he'd heard Cargill talk about Cherry and that Cargill described her as "slow."

State: Have you ever seen Kimberly Cargill hit herself?

Selmon: Yes

Selmon starts telling the jury about one time when he was driving with Cargill to pick up one of her sons and he told her he couldn't spend the whole day overseeing her visitation and she raised her voice and got angry.

Selmon says Cargill began slapping herself back and forth in the face. Selmon says if he could have he would have gotten out of the car (Cargill was driving). He was concerned because he'd never seen her act that way before.

State begins going over phone records with Selmon.

Cargill texted Selmon to call her "ASAP" around 2pm on June 18. Selmon says he called her after that at 2:17 and they talked about 25 minutes. He remembers knowing Cargill was very upset.

Selmon talks about how Cargill kept her car. He says she hardly had time to keep her car clean. There were always a lot of fast food bags, coffee cups. "I was always having to move stuff around to get my feet in there."

State shows Selmon two large photos of opened dairy fresh creamers from Burger King. He says he has seen those creamers in Cargill's car before and that he knows she really likes Burger King. State says these creamers are photos of the creamers found at the crime scene.

Selmon says on Friday the 18th he and his fiancé and some family went to a pool hall in Jacksonville. They got back home around 3am. Saturday he hung out at his fiancé's and then went to the lake that afternoon.

After the lake they go to Burger King and see Cargill in the drive-thru line. They walk up to Cargill's car and talk to her for a few minutes before going in to place their order.

State: Did anything stand out about the vehicle that you saw?

Selmon: It was clean.

State: Clean on the outside? It'd been washed?

Selmon: Yes. The wheels were actually shiny. The inside of the car, the dashboard was shiny.

Selmon says he told Cargill that her car was so clean he hardly even recognized the car.

State: when you talked to her Friday she was very upset

Selmon: Yes

State: How's she acting on Saturday the 19th? Does she appear upset or look nervous?

Selmon: No. She was laughing. Seemed like she was in a good mood.

Selmon says he mowed Cargill's yard on fathers day. Selmon says they got to talking about setting off foggers in her house. He said he assumed she had a roach problem if she was setting off foggers.

Selmon and the state discuss text messages she sent to him implying he should have come over Friday night or Saturday morning. State says she sent these texts to infer she was just sitting around at home and he didn't stop by.

We will post courtroom updates all day long. Keep checking back to KLTV.com.

Related stories:

• Day 1: Trial of ETX mom accused of killing babysitter
• ETX mom accused of killing babysitter pleads not guilty
• Hearing for ETX mom accused of killing babysitter
• Trial date set for Smith Co. woman indicted for killing babysitter
• Woman indicted in death of babysitter
• Parents worst fears confirmed with the loss of their daughter
• Murder victim was set to testify
• Looking for safety when subpoenaed
• Mother charged with killing babysitter
• Woman indicted in death of babysitter

Copyright 2012 KLTV. All rights reserved.