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Winnipeg man gets life sentence for fatal shooting of bystander

By: Mike McIntyre

Posted: 06/18/2012 12:51 PM | Comments: 0 | Last Modified: 06/18/2012 8:04 PM | Updates

A memorial rests near the site where Darcy Coutu, 34, was fatally shot in this 2008 photo. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ARCHIVES) Photo Store

A Winnipeg gang associate described as a "sadistic lunatic" has admitted to gunning down a bystander outside a city bar only weeks after being released on parole for another public shooting.

Garrett Alexander Gamble, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Monday for the May 2008 incident on Pembina Highway. The Crown agreed to drop a more serious charge of first-degree murder. Gamble was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 18 years, which was raised from the mandatory minimum of 10 years.

"This case was... an act of barbaric selfishness," Queen's Bench Justice Glenn Joyal said Monday in accepting a joint recommendation from Crown and defence lawyers. "Mr. Gamble's small and vindictive personality once again led him to assert himself in the only way a coward knows — with a gun."

Darcy Coutu, 34, was killed while standing on the patio of the Quality Inn's Winn City Pub. Police say his cousin — a known gang associate — may have been the intended target but was inside the bar at the time the bullets started flying. Coutu's death stunned his family and left three young children to grow up without their father. Several grieving relatives submitted victim impact statements that were read aloud in court Monday.

"There's an emptiness inside of me due to Darcy's death which will haunt me the rest of my life," said his mother, Sandra Munroe. "Darcy knew what was good and right in this world. His greatest love was his three beautiful children. I cry every day for him. This is, without a doubt, the nightmare that never ends."

Munroe said she hopes Gamble is never released from prison, to protect other families from future harm.

"So much has been lost because of a sadistic lunatic. I feel like Darcy has been given a death sentence, and we have been given a life sentence," she said.

Gamble had just been released from Stony Mountain Institution in January 2008 after serving two-thirds of a two-year sentence for a public shooting involving a rival gang member outside the Charleswood Motor Hotel in January 2006. A stray bullet from a machine gun nearly hit an employee of a nearby bakery. By law, an inmate must be released after serving two-thirds of his sentence unless justice officials make a recommendation to keep the offender locked up for the full term. No such move was made with Gamble.

"He is a violent, vindictive individual who is merely concerned with himself," Crown attorney Brent Davidson said Monday. By contrast, he said Coutu was clearly a very genuine and kind individual who was "in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The key witness against Gamble was another person who was in the vehicle at the time of the drive-by shooting and agreed to testify against him in exchange for immunity, court was told. Gamble told the man he wanted to "kneecap" his target — Coutu's cousin — because of ongoing hostilities between gang members over previous violent acts.

Gamble has admitted to being connected with the Zig Zag Crew, the longtime puppet club for the Hells Angels in Manitoba. Defence lawyer Ryan Amy said Gamble was a high school football star who had dreams of playing professionally but gave in to the lure of easy crime. Prior to the deadly shooting, Gamble had been warned by police that his life may be in danger, which caused him to be extremely paranoid.

"Mr. Gamble decided he needed to act in a way that, thankfully, most of us would not understand," said Amy.

www.mikeoncrime.com

History

Updated on Monday, June 18, 2012 at 1:26 PM CDT: corrected time before chance of parole to 18 years

8:04 PM: adds details

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