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.