‘Directly compromised the safety of witnesses’: three-year sentence for breaking ID publication ban

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/06/2023 (870 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man who identified two women on social media after they provided testimony that helped convict his son of murder has been sentenced to three years custody for what a judge called a “direct attack on the administration of justice.”

Tron Gamblin, 63, was cited for contempt of court after he purposely violated a publication ban that protected the identities of two women who testified at the trial of Jesse Gamblin.

Jesse Gamblin was convicted in October of second-degree murder in the September 2019 killing of 28-year-old Norma Andrews.

“(Tron) Gamblin’s actions directly compromised the safety of witnesses who already were reluctant to testify and who now are looking over their shoulders for the foreseeable future,” King’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser said in a written ruling released last week.

“What he did goes to the very heart of the administration of justice.”

Tron Gamblin’s disruptive behaviour and outbursts at trial resulted in Keyser ordering he not be allowed in the courtroom when the two women testified and their names not be published or broadcast in any way, including via social media.

“Gamblin was in court when that order was made on May 10, 2022, at the start of Jesse’s murder trial,” Keyser said.

“There were real concerns expressed for the safety of both witnesses, as well as for their willingness to testify,” the judge said, noting Gamblin threatened the same women at an earlier preliminary hearing.

In posts found on Tron Gamblin’s Facebook page June 22, four weeks after his son’s trial ended, he identified the two protected witnesses by name, called them “rats” and in the case of one woman said: “If (she) isn’t dead, she deserves to be.”

“More disturbingly,” Keyser said, Tron Gamblin “somehow managed” to secure the cover pages of the women’s police statement transcripts and posted those online as well.

Court heard evidence at Jesse Gamblin’s trial he attacked Andrews as she slept at a Balmoral Avenue drug house, saying she was a “rat” and “deserved to die.”

The Crown’s case against Jesse Gamblin relied heavily on the testimony of the two female witnesses who were in the house at the time of the killing.

An autopsy found Andrews bled to death after receiving multiple “sharp force” and “blunt force” injuries to her head, neck, back and arms. Andrews had been beaten with a bat, strangled, and two of her fingers were cut off.

The fatal wound, a long, deep cut to her neck that severed her carotid artery, “was consistent with having been inflicted by a machete,” chief medical examiner Dr. John Younes testified.

Jesse Gamblin is still awaiting sentencing.

At the time of his arrest, he was on bail for a machete attack on a female friend who had been sleeping. He was convicted of aggravated assault in October 2020, and sentenced to four years in prison.

Tron Gamblin’s “misguided” actions were the result of his genuine belief his son was not guilty of killing Andrews and fears he would be “railroaded by those in charge,” defence lawyer Brett Gladstone told court at a sentencing hearing in April.

“This rings somewhat hollow given that Jesse was already incarcerated for a machete attack on a different woman while he was being tried for the murder of Norma Andrews, which was also committed using a machete,” Keyser said.

Tron Gamblin has been in custody since his arrest in July. He received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to approximately 21 months.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca