Man sentenced to life for 2019 machete attack

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/12/2023 (678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jesse Gamblin, who was convicted of ruthlessly killing a defenceless woman he called a “rat,” has shown no sign he will change his violent ways, a judge said in a written ruling released this week.

“I have never dealt with a person less likely to ever be rehabilitated,” King’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser wrote in a decision Wednesday as she sentenced Gamblin to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years for the killing and torture of 28-year-old Norma Andrews in September 2019.

“Gamblin is utterly contemptuous of anybody or any institution that tries to interfere with what he wants to do,” Keyser said.

The 24-year-old was found guilty of second-degree murder following a trial last year.

Court heard evidence 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 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. She 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.

Gamblin had been released on bail days earlier for what Keyser called an “eerily similar” machete attack on another sleeping female victim who managed to escape through a broken window. Gamblin was convicted of aggravated assault in October 2020 and sentenced to four years in prison.

While in custody for killing Andrews, Gamblin assaulted a corrections officer at Brandon Correctional Centre. He knocked the man unconscious and broke his nose. He was later sentenced to two years.

That attack resulted in Gamblin being transferred to prison in Kingston, Ont., where he was charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing another corrections officer in the neck.

One day after that attack, Gamblin was transferred again, this time to the special handling unit at the Regional Reception Centre, outside Laval, Que. The unit is reserved for inmates who can’t be safely managed at a maximum-security prison.

“While there, he has been caught with contraband including blades, metal plates and shanks and has made a very realistic dummy,” Keyser said. “The psychological risk assessment has concluded that there is a high-risk of violent repeat offences by Gamblin.”

Following his October 2022 conviction for killing Andrews, Gamblin fired his lawyer, which set off a series of sentencing delays. At a scheduled sentencing hearing last spring, Gamblin had still not retained a new lawyer. Keyser agreed to adjourn sentencing, but when Gamblin returned to court last October, he still hadn’t hired a lawyer.

When Keyser refused his demand for another adjournment, Gamblin became combative and accused her of denying him his “constitutional rights.”

At his October sentencing hearing, Gamblin refused an opportunity to express remorse to Andrews’ family and continued to proclaim his innocence.

“Because they didn’t get anything from Mr. Gamblin, I want to acknowledge the loss of Ms. Andrews and the pain that her murder has caused to the family,” Keyser said Wednesday, as family members monitored the hearing remotely.

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

“It cannot be denied that Mr. Gamblin never had a chance,” Crown attorney Chantal Boutin told court at an earlier sentencing hearing.

The mandatory sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for between 10 to 25 years.

But for Gamblin’s age and disadvantaged background, Keyser said she would have ordered a longer period of parole ineligibility than the “restrained” 20 years recommended by the Crown.

“The Crown was correct when she described his background as depriving him of any realistic chance to grow up in a pro-social environment,” Keyser wrote in her ruling. “Nonetheless, that does not decrease his moral culpability, nor does it decrease his overall dangerousness.”

“The only surprising element is that Andrews was the first person (Gamblin) has actually murdered.”

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 to protect the identities of two women who testified at his son’s trial.

Tron Gamblin’s disruptive behaviour and outbursts at trial resulted in Keyser banning him from the courtroom when the two women testified. He was ordered not to publish or broadcast their names in any way.

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.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca