'Cold, calculating, manipulative, evil': Kayla Giles jurors hear closing arguments

The state and defense painted starkly different pictures of Kayla Giles during closing arguments in her second-degree murder trial on Saturday, her 35th birthday.

Jurors should begin deliberating the case after 9th Judicial District Court Judge Greg Beard finishes giving them instructions.

Giles faces life in prison if convicted of the homicide charge. She also faces an obstruction of justice charge.

She's accused of shooting her estranged husband, Thomas Coutee Jr., during a child swap in the Walmart parking lot on Coliseum Boulevard in Alexandria.

Louisiana Assistant Attorney General Joseph LeBeau said defense attorney George Higgins III had been correct in his opening statement when he said jurors would end the trial probably not liking Giles and wouldn't want to eat dinner with her.

"I wouldn't want to eat dinner with Kayla Giles, and I damn sure wouldn't want to meet her in a Walmart parking lot," said LeBeau.

Higgins told jurors Giles has never changed her story and that her post-traumatic stress disorder suffered because of her U.S. Army service means she just didn't show the emotion others expected of her.

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"Haven't seen much emotion out of her at this trial, have you?" he asked. "That's not her fault. Not her fault."

Louisiana Assistant Attorney General Brooke Harris began the closing arguments, also bringing up what Higgins said during his opening statement — that Giles was prepared.

She was very prepared, said Harris, who began reviewing evidence presented during five days of testimony.

She also asked jurors to use their common sense, which Harris said would tell jurors it was impossible that Giles drew her Ruger LCP .380 pistol from a nylon holster inside a door panel as Coutee opened it.

"It is not possible," Harris said, "and there is absolutely no way she did that."

Giles did call 911, but failed to mention Coutee had been shot, she said. Then, she placed another, longer call to the insurance company through which she had purchased a self-defense liability policy when she bought the gun in Dallas 12 days before the shooting.

"The police aren't even on the scene yet, and this woman needs to start her claims process," she said. "Is this really necessary? It's not."

Harris said Coutee, who was shot through his heart close enough that unburned gunpowder was found on his chest, "had basically no chance of survival."

She reminded jurors about Giles' sister having her bag containing her computer, which contained a "plethora of interesting information.

"Because, like I told you, she was a woman who prepared a lot," said Harris.

What Giles didn't count on was Coutee getting "sick and tired" of her abuse, she said. He began filing police reports documenting her abuse, she said.

And detectives couldn't talk to him about the third report he filed, about Giles' alleged theft of more than $5,000 from his Red River Bank account, because he was killed soon after.

Harris called Giles' Sony voice recorder one of the most interesting pieces of information because it showed the real Giles. She said it was "downright disturbing" to listen to it after Coutee's death.

She called Giles cold, calculating, manipulative and evil. The testimony of her 10-year-old daughter, who witnessed the shooting at age 7, was sad, Harris said.

"I had a chance to look back at her," Harris said of Giles during the girl's testimony. "Nothing. Zero emotion."

Harris said she would guarantee the jurors that Giles believes she's smarter than everyone in the courtroom.

"I'm asking you now to call her bluff," she said, "and find her guilty as charged."

Higgins was next, and he said he wouldn't rehash testimony because he trusted their memories. He said that Giles, as a former military member, was prepared as events in her relationship with Coutee escalated.

Even so, he said he believed Coutee was a good and decent man. He said that was evident by his family and friends who packed the courtroom Saturday and throughout the trial.

But he said the state's case rests on the "other crimes" evidence they presented during the past week — the misdemeanor domestic abuse battery, the felony theft arrests after Coutee's death.

"That's not good stuff to me, but it's got nothing to do with why we're here," said Higgins.

Giles never tried to hide any evidence, he said.

He said things began to change after the couple split up, but Coutee kept "checking up on her." He believed Coutee still had deep feelings for his wife, but it scared her so much that she moved from her Pineville dream house the two had shared to the gated duplex beside Walmart.

"Why would you do that?" Higgins asked. "She was scared."

He said Coutee did carry a gun sometimes, and pointed to Harris sitting at the prosecution's table.

"You bet. You bet. She prepared," he said.

Higgins also criticized the lead detective, the Alexandria Police Department's William Butler, for his conduct during the interview hours after the shooting. But he said Giles' story never changed and that she spoke to Butler without an attorney.

Higgins insisted Coutee was leaning into Giles' Dodge Durango when she shot him, insisting that Giles' story fit the forensic pathologist's testimony perfectly.

Then he read over parts of the instructions Beard was to give them later, but told them that LeBeau would tear his closing argument apart in his rebuttal. But he said he knew one thing.

"If I wanted to murder Mr. Willson, I sure wouldn't do it at high noon at Walmart," he said, pointing to his co-counsel Rocky Willson sitting beside Giles at the defense table.

Higgins asked jurors to discuss the case and follow the law.

And LeBeau pointed to the law as he began his rebuttal, saying it was something that Giles hoped no one would think since the shooting.

"You cannot preplan self defense. Period," he said.

He said Giles' planning of the shooting was "meticulous," and the law does not favor the defense. The defense kept focusing on stand your ground, he said.

LeBeau told jurors people do have that right, but it requires more than simply opening a car door before shooting someone.

"He was helping get the kids' stuff" from the Durango before he and the three girls set out for Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate the second birthday of the couple's daughter.

The PTSD defense blew his mind, said LeBeau. Where was the doctor to testify to that, he asked jurors. He said nobody testified about it or the severity of Giles' condition.

"It's a red herring, folks," he said. "She executed a plan, and then she executed Thomas Coutee with a bullet right through his heart."

He called Giles a "textbook narcissist and abuser," and said there was no evidence of any abuse from Coutee toward Giles. Coutee's main mistake was he had the audacity to push back against Giles over the custody of their daughter, he said.

And LeBeau said Giles even tried to throw her friend of 17 years under the bus by sending the computer bag to her West Monroe home. He said, to her credit, the friend told the truth.

LeBeau said Giles' evil knew no bounds as she used her three children in her plan. He echoed Harris when he said Giles believes she's smarter than anyone else.

While she's not stupid, she was desperate, and "desperate people make mistakes," he said.

He pointed to the evidence on her computer about the deleted searches and how she tried to get it far from her. That is the basis for the obstruction charge, he said.

LeBeau said the state had a mountain of evidence. He called Giles a liar and a thief and said she was guilty of second-degree murder.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Jurors hear closing arguments, begin deliberations in Kayla Giles trial