Husband accused of killing wife will take case to jury


A Thousand Oaks filmmaker accused of killing his wife in their Westlake apartment will stand trial for first-degree murder.

At a Jan. 28 preliminary hearing, a judge ruled there was enough evidence against Tim Gautier, 55, to allow the case against him to proceed. Testifying were three Ventura County sheriff’s deputies, court records show.

On Wednesday at his second arraignment, Gautier pleaded not guilty for a second time, and a trial date—likely to be continued— was set for March 22.

The DA alleges that on the morning of Jan. 11, Gautier shot and killed Gina Gautier, 57, in their second-story unit at the Westlake Canyon Apartments on Fountain Crest Lane.

Though Tim Gautier told emergency dispatchers that he shot his wife after she attacked him with a skillet, surveillance cameras found in the home told a different story, Deputy District Attorney Andrew Sullivant said.

The cameras did not capture the act itself but rather audio of the fight that led up to the shooting, the DA’s office said in a statement.

Reached via email, Sullivant said he could not go into detail about what was heard on the audio because “whether the defendant acted in self-defense ultimately will be a question for the jury to decide.

“I will say, however, that the charges presume the defendant did not act in self-defense, and I am very confident in our case,” he said.

Gautier’s attorney, Public Defender Michael Albers, could not be reached by press time.

According to police, the shooting happened just before 7 a.m. on a Monday. Deputies arriving at the complex found Gina Gautier unresponsive; she had been shot multiple times, police said.

She was taken by ambulance to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead a short while later.

About the short length of time (three weeks) between Tim Gautier’s arrest and his preliminary hearing—a process that typically takes months—Sullivant said all defendants are entitled to a hearing within 10 days.

“If the defendant chooses not to waive that right, the hearing must be completed within 10 days of arraignment, which is what happened in this case,” the prosecutor said.

Gautier remains in jail with bail set at $750,000.

Acorn staff report