HOUSTON — A 39-year-old Houston man is charged with capital murder
after allegedly shooting his estranged wife and 15-year-old daughter dead.
The incident happened about 7:30 p.m. Thursday at a southeast Houston
apartment complex. Police say Jaime Piero Cole was dropping off his
sons, ages 2 and 10, at Melissa Dawn Cole's apartment when a fight
developed between the adults. Police say that when the woman's
15-year-old daughter, Alecia Desire Castillo (kas-TEE'-yoh) tried to
intervene, Jaime Cole drew a gun and shot mother and daughter several times.
Police investigator H.A. Chavez says Jaime Cole left
his 10-year-old son behind and fled with his 2-year-old son. After an
Amber Alert was issued, the two were seen in a Walmart store in
Wharton, 55 miles to the southwest. A Texas Department of Public Safety
trooper arrested Cole. His sons are unharmed.

Girl, 11, details moments of deadly shooting
By BRIAN ROGERS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Updated 09:11 p.m., Monday, October 17, 2011



For a few torturing minutes, 9-year-old Chloe Mahalec wedged herself between a wall and a washing machine in the kitchen of her aunt's apartment listening to shouts, screams and gunshots.

She had just seen her uncle shoot her aunt several times over the apartment door's threshold, she testified Monday in the death penalty trial of Jaime Piero Cole, 41.

On the witness stand, the little girl, now 11, pushed her brown hair behind her ear as she described the aftermath. She said she peeked around corners to make sure she was safe after the deafening shots stopped ringing though the apartment.

Then she discovered her 15-year-old cousin, Alecia Desire Castillo, and her aunt, Melissa Dawn Cole, 31, were dead.

And at one point, the uncle aimed the gun at her, Chloe would tell her mother.

"She said 'He was just joking when he pointed the gun at me because it went click-click instead of boom-boom,'" Brooke Phillips testified earlier in the day.

The 37-year-old mother of two started to cry as she talked about arriving on the crime scene. She had been told her daughter was dead, but it was her sister and niece who had been killed.

Chloe's stunning admission, lost on the preteen, made jurors shake their heads and family members gasp.

Testimony from the girl and her mother capped the first day of Cole's death penalty trial in state District Judge Belinda Hill's court. It is expected to take two weeks.

Flipping a small teddy bear and looking away from Cole, the girl recounted watching television with her three cousins on Feb. 4, 2010, as her aunt and uncle argued outside the southeast Houston apartment.

The couple was going through a contentious divorce and did not live together.

From inside the apartment, Castillo banged on the front door and shouted at the couple to "be quiet," Chloe testified.

Moments later, her cousin opened the door and they saw Cole firing shots into his estranged wife.

"He was shooting her," the girl said. "She was lying down, she fell."

The girl spoke to Assistant Harris County District Attorney Sunni Mitchell in whispered starts. She said she ran from where she was sitting on the couch to the kitchen.

"I was scared," she said. "Scared I could get hurt."

Castillo ran past her and, testimony showed, was shot once in the chest in her bedroom.

It was unclear from testimony when Cole aimed the gun at Chloe.

She remembered only that another cousin, 8-year-old Piero Cole, was shaking his sister shouting, "Wake up!"

Defense attorneys Bob Loper and Jerald Graber did not cross-examine the girl. They also declined to comment on the case.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Girl-11-details-moments-of-deadly-shooting-2223402.php

Jurors hear accused killer's account in double murder
By BRIAN ROGERS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Updated 06:53 a.m., Wednesday, October 19, 2011

It was 10:30 at night when Jaime Piero Cole carried his 2-year-old son into the Wharton Walmart to buy cookies, milk, diapers and a stuffed animal for the boy.

He also bought a box of bullets.

Two hours earlier, prosecutors said, Cole emptied his pistol at his estranged wife's southeast Houston apartment, killing her and her 15-year-old daughter.

Cole's plan, other than placating the toddler, seemed to entail a murder- suicide ending with his death in a hail of police gunfire, according to his videotaped statement, played for jurors Tuesday during the second day of the 41-year-old's death penalty trial.

"I wanted to be shot by y'all. I didn't even have any bullets," Cole can be seen saying to detectives. "I wish I had the guts to do it myself."

Cole told investigators he left the scene, rented a motel room and planned to wait for police. But he also said he went to the car wash where he was the general manager and took about $1,300 from the safe.

On the tape, he said he did not know what he was doing. "You're right about one thing," Cole told an investigator. "It was not planned."

Despite that assertion, jurors heard that Cole bought the murder weapon, a .22 caliber semiautomatic pistol, at a sporting goods store the day before the shooting.

During his statement, videotaped hours after the Feb. 4, 2010, shooting, Cole cried several times and lamented that his children saw the killings.

Cole told investigators they had enough evidence to convict him of killing 15-year-old Alecia Desire Castillo and Melissa Dawn Cole, 31.

He also talked about bringing his son with him after the shooting, a fluke forced by a frightened toddler who rushed into his arms after the gunfire.

As Cole hurried from the chaos, 2-year-old Lucas Cole trailed his father, shouting "Daddy!" according to several witnesses.

Cole picked up the boy, put him in his pickup and took off. Lucas' involvement may have been what short-circuited Cole's plan.

"If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead already," Cole told police. Bursting into tears, he doubled over, whimpering: "Please kill me now."

12-year-old takes stand

The father of two seemed to give the statement to ensure that his older son would not have to testify against him.

"They're not going to make a 10-year-old testify against his dad," Cole told police on the tape.

Earlier Tuesday, Piero Cole, now 12, testified about the hours before the shooting.

He and the toddler had been staying with Cole in Pearland and were being shuttled back to their mother's apartment when they stopped to eat.

Over a dinner of hamburgers, Cole had two beers and said something that might have given pause to an adult.

"He said, 'If me or your mother dies, you would go live with your aunt Karina,' " the boy testified.

The aunt, Cole's sister, lives in Ecuador. The boy said, "OK." He now lives with his maternal grandparents.

Angry over divorce

Cole told police that he and his wife were going through a divorce, and he was upset, angry and frustrated. He arrived at her apartment and the two argued in the bedroom. Cole said he began to cry because he did not want the divorce.

"I began to beg and whimper," he said.

The couple went outside, where they continued to argue. Melissa Cole stood on the threshold.

"I don't know why I shot her," Cole said as he demonstrated opening fire on his wife. Jurors saw Cole pantomime stepping over the body to chase his stepdaughter down the hall. The teenager died after being shot once in the chest in her bedroom.

Piero Cole said he ran into the bathroom, and his cousin, 9-year-old Chloe Mahalec, hid in the kitchen until the shooting stopped.

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Jurors-hear-accused-killer-s-account-in-double-2225113.php

Man convicted of capital murder in deaths of wife, her 15-year-old daughter
By BRIAN ROGERS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Updated 02:32 p.m., Thursday, October 20, 2011

Jurors this afternoon convicted a 41-year-old Pearland man of capital murder in the shooting deaths of his estranged wife and her 15-year-old daughter last year.

The jury deliberated for about an hour, and the case will reconvene on Monday for punishment phase.

"On Feb. 4, 2010, that man, Jaime Piero Cole, went on a shooting spree," prosecutor Natalie Tise said in closing arguments. "And he didn't stop until two people were dead."

Tise asked the jury to convict Cole for killing Alecia Desire Castillo and Melissa Dawn Cole, 31.

Bob Loper, a defense lawyer for Cole, said prosecutors did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Cole killed the two women, "intentionally and knowingly" a legal element to capital murder.

"There was a lot of emotion, it was a very charged scene," Loper told jurors. "If you find that he did it, I absolutely insist that this was a crime a passion."

During the punishment phase, the jury will hear evidence about whether to sentence Cole to death or life in prison without parole.

The defense has not commented on their strategy in the case, but may seek to sway jurors to save Cole's life.

Cole was arrested hours after the shooting and gave two confessions. The murder weapon, which he bought the day before, was found in his truck. Neighbors also saw Cole fleeing the scene in the truck moments after the shots were fired.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Man-convicted-of-capital-murder-in-deaths-of-2228178.php

Punishment phase starts for man who killed wife, her daughter
By BRIAN ROGERS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Published 06:50 p.m., Monday, October 24, 2011

Jaime Cole, the 41-year-old father convicted last week of capital murder in the shooting deaths of his estranged wife and her 15-year-old daughter, has twice before brandished a gun when women wanted to leave him, prosecutors said Monday.

"Two women were able to get away," said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Sunni Mitchell. "And, as you know, two women weren't able to."

Mitchell said she expected Cole's high school sweetheart and his first wife to both testify during his punishment phase this week that Cole threatened them with guns, both times in a jealous rage.

"We're here because of who this man is, not because of what he did," Mitchell said. "This man is a continuing threat to society."

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the February 2010 deaths of 15-year-old Alecia Desire Castillo and Melissa Dawn Cole, 31.

Defense lawyers for Cole said they expect more than a dozen witnesses to testify that his life is worth saving.

"The presumption is for life," said attorney Jerald Graber. Graber said Cole was a hard-working man who provided for his family.

When Melissa Cole left him, Graber said, Cole sank in to a deep depression and sought therapy. He also drank heavily.

"He didn't want to feel that way anymore," the attorney told jurors.

Graber is expected to portray Cole as a man at the end of his rope when he took his two sons to his estranged wife's new apartment and began shooting.

The jury last week saw evidence that Cole shot his wife several times as she stood over the apartment's threshold. He then followed her daughter to her room where shot her.

As he fled the scene, his toddler son followed him to his truck.

Cole picked up his son and took him.

Cole later told police he wanted to be killed in a gunfight, but was stopped because his son was with him.

He was arrested without incident hours after the shooting.

The trial, in state District Judge Belinda Hill's court, is expected to continue through the week.

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Punishment-phase-starts-for-man-who-killed-wife-2234331.php

Father of victim hopes death sentence raises awareness
By BRIAN ROGERS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Updated 10:27 p.m., Friday, October 28, 2011

A day after the man who killed his 15-year-old daughter and ex-wife was sentenced to die for his crimes, Joe Castillo said he is on a mission.

"Domestic violence is everywhere, for men and women," Castillo said Friday. "And there are people out there who can help them."

Castillo said he hopes the few seconds in which Jaime Cole shot Alecia Desire Castillo and her mother, Melissa Dawn Cole, can serve as a warning to others.

"By reading their story, I hope people realize how quickly things can escalate, how quickly things can get out of hand," Castillo said.

Cole, 41, was sentenced on Thursday to die for killing his estranged wife and her daughter in a shooting spree last year.

The capital murder trial, held in state District Judge Belinda Hill's court, took two weeks.

Cole was arrested hours after the Feb. 4, 2010, shooting and gave two confessions.

The murder weapon, which he bought the day before, was found in Cole's truck. Neighbors also saw him fleeing the scene in the truck moments after the shots were fired.

Prosecutors painted Cole as a jealous man, full of rage when women in his life tried to leave him.

Defense lawyers said he was in a deep depression because Melissa Cole, 31, wanted to divorce him and sought therapy. He dealt with that depression by drinking heavily, his lawyers said.

On the way to drop off his two sons at his estranged wife's new apartment, he took the boys to eat hamburgers and had two beers.

Cole told police he went in to the apartment and tried to talk to his wife. In a video recording jurors saw, Cole said he began crying because he did not want to divorce.

His wife walked him to the front door and continued talking to him as she stood over the threshold.

Just feet away, his stepdaughter was watching television with one of the boys and a cousin.

As the couple began shouting at each other, Alecia Castillo banged on the door and shouted for them to be quiet.

Moments later, Cole shot his wife several times as the door opened. He then followed her daughter to her room, where he shot her.

"Jaime was a monster," Castillo said after he praised the jury's decision. "I just wish I had known."

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Pearland-man-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-wife-2241187.php