Convicted killer without lawyer combative in court with judge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/10/2023 (749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man convicted in the ruthless murder of a woman he labelled a “rat” continued to proclaim his innocence as prosecutors urged a judge Tuesday to sentence him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years.

“I’m wrongfully convicted, I’m wrongfully accused … I wasn’t there,” claimed Jesse Gamblin, who was found guilty of second-degree murder in the September 2019 killing and torture of 28-year-old Norma Andrews.

Gamblin, who arrived at court two hours late after he refused to leave his Stony Mountain Penitentiary cell, was combative and disruptive, repeatedly interrupting and shouting down Crown attorney Chantal Boutin and King’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser as they spoke.

Asked by Keyser if he had anything to say to members of Andrews’ family, many of whom were present in court, Gamblin, 24, remained coldly defiant.

“I have nothing to do with the family, I have nothing to do with the f—ing homicide,” he said.

Keyser convicted Gamblin last October, at which time he fired his lawyer. At a scheduled hearing in the spring, Gamblin had still not retained a new lawyer. Keyser agreed to adjourn sentencing, but when Gamblin returned to court Tuesday, he told Keyser he still did not have a lawyer and wanted another adjournment, sparking the first of several fiery exchanges.

“Well, that’s not going to happen,” Keyser told him.

“Well, OK, I expect it to happen,” Gamblin shot back.

Court heard evidence at trial Gamblin 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 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.

“This prolonged and relentless attack was committed in front of others as if it were a lesson,” Boutin said Tuesday. “Norma Andrews was slaughtered.”

After killing Andrews, security video captured Gamblin “calmly … waltz(ing) down the street” and “casually” punching a clerk at a nearby convenience store, Boutin said.

Gamblin “uses violence as a means to whatever end suits him,” she said.

Gamblin had been released on bail days earlier for an “eerily similar” machete attack on another sleeping female victim who managed to escape but suffered permanent injuries, Boutin said. Gamblin was convicted of aggravated assault in October 2020 and sentenced to four years in prison.

Gamblin’s criminal record is “replete with violence,” committed both in and out of custody, Boutin told court. While in custody for killing Andrews, he was charged with assaulting a corrections officer at Brandon Correctional Centre and later sentenced to two years.

Gamblin was transferred to prison in Kingston, Ont., where he was charged with stabbing another corrections officer in the neck.

“Given just how many times Mr. Gamblin has stabbed, smashed the heads of, (or) strangled his victims, this murder seems almost predictable,” Boutin said. “His brutality is chilling in its repetition.”

A pre-sentence report prepared for court described Gamblin’s upbringing as being marred by poverty, neglect and abuse.

“It cannot be denied that Mr. Gamblin never had a chance,” Boutin said.

The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. Given a chance to argue his case for sentencing, Gamblin repeatedly interrupted Keyser as she attempted to give him instruction, accusing her of muzzling him and denying him his “constitutional rights.”

“No, you don’t tell me what to do,” Gamblin said.

“OK, we’re done here, “ Keyser said, before setting a sentencing date for Dec. 20.

“Mr. Gamblin will need to be here in person. If he needs to be extracted (from his cell), extract him.”

In June, Keyser sentenced Gamblin’s father, Tron Gamblin, to three years in prison for contempt of court after he purposely violated a publication ban protecting the identities of two women who testified at his son’s trial.

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.

In posts found on Tron Gamblin’s Facebook page 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.”

Keyser called Tron Gamblin’s actions “a direct attack on the administration of justice.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca