Monday brought more surprise developments in the capital murder trial of Milton Gobert.

Gobert was convicted of capital murder last Tuesday for the 2003 stabbing death of 30-year-old Mel Cotton.

Now in the punishment phase of the trial, the prosecution seeks the death penalty, hoping to prove Gobert is a future threat to society.

On the other side, the defense hopes to present a mitigating circumstance in Gobert's childhood to seek a life sentence.

The defense called upon Gobert's mother, Alice Gobert, to help argue that an injury he sustained after being hit by a car when he was 5 years old is a mitigating factor to warrant sparing his life.

She told the jury his history of violence got worse as he aged.

"Just told me something about I shouldn't be saying what I was saying and just hit me with the broom. I was trying to keep him from attacking me," Alice Gobert said.

Later in the day, the prosecution delivered a surprise rebuttal.

Tasha Lass, the guard who testified last week that she gave Gobert a cell phone, told the jury she felt guilty for helping him, and that her conscience was forcing her to testify again.

"The minute I gave it to him, I felt bad and asked him to destroy it and I knew that I had put my coworkers, the City of Austin, and everyone in danger," Lass said.

She then told the court that Gobert had told her he had an elaborate plot to escape using emergency fire equipment and had asked her to bring him a gun.

"He was then going to come around to a certain slider that the camera couldn't see, come through and shoot the control room operator, and he wanted me in the control room so I could take the keys and hand them to him," Lass said.

Lass testified that Gobert intended to hide out in a storage unit that he wanted her to get for him, and eventually escape to Dubai where he could not be extradited.

Gobert's defense attorneys intend to cross-examine Lass Tuesday. Closing arguments and a decision from the jury is expected, as well.