Man sentenced for attempted murder of ex’s boyfriend in Pierce County
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- Judge sentenced Gabriel Gilbert to 20 years for shooting in Pierce County.
- Gilbert pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder and two assault counts.
- Defense argued Gilbert’s mental-health history and victim’s trolling mitigated culpability
A man who shot his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend through the door of a South Hill home was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison. Court documents show threats among the three people and trolling online preceded the shooting.
Gabriel Elijah Gilbert, 22 of Auburn, pleaded guilty in November to second-degree attempted murder and two counts of second-degree assault for the Oct. 21, 2024 incident.
Prosecutors originally accused Gilbert of first-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and drive-by shooting. According to court documents, the state sought to amend those charges as part of a plea negotiation that considered a packet of materials offered by the defense.
The defense materials detailed Gilbert’s mental health issues, upbringing in an unstable and abusive household, the abusive relationship with his ex-girlfriend and the victim threatening and trolling him on social media.
Gilbert’s defense attorney, Michael Stewart, wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Gilbert’s untreated schizophrenia diminished his capacity to appreciate the severity of the consequences of his actions and to perceive the nature and wrongfulness of his conduct.
“At the time of the offense Gabriel Gilbert was a 20-year-old unmedicated schizophrenic who was experiencing multiple crises in his life,” Stewart wrote.
The sentence Pierce County Superior Court Judge Philip Sorensen imposed was recommended by prosecutors and the defense, and it was near the high end of the standard sentencing range, about 15 to 21 years in prison, including a five-year firearm sentencing enhancement. Gilbert had no prior criminal history.
According to court documents, Gilbert arrived at the home where his ex-girlfriend was staying with her new boyfriend and the boyfriend’s mother shortly before midnight. He knocked and rang a doorbell. The boyfriend opened the door for him, and Gilbert pulled a pistol.
The boyfriend shut the door, and Gilbert fired the gun through the door and at an upstairs window several times, striking the boyfriend in the arm. Gilbert drove away. Charging documents said a doorbell camera captured the shooting. Auburn police and a Pierce County deputy arrested Gilbert hours later.
Gilbert’s ex-girlfriend previously reported to police that Gilbert had been trying to find out where she lived and threatened to shoot her and her new boyfriend. She said she dated Gilbert for a year before they broke up, and she started dating another man two months before the shooting.
Stewart wrote in the sentencing memo that Gilbert was threatened and “tormented” by his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, including ridiculing him for his mental health issues. During Gilbert’s relationship with his ex, the defense attorney said, the girlfriend subjected him to verbal and physical abuse, such as strangling and punching him during arguments.
On social media, the new boyfriend threatened Gabriel and posted photos to Instagram of himself and others wearing masks and holding guns. A private investigator said by the time of the incident, Gilbert was afraid for his life.
Based on interviews with Gilbert’s family and friends, the private investigator concluded that Gilbert went for a drive the night of the incident and that, on a whim, he tried to see if his ex’s new boyfriend was home. The investigator wrote that Gilbert didn’t intend to kill the boyfriend, and he just wanted the man to leave him alone.
“Twenty or thirty minutes after the Incident (sic), Gabriel resumed his duties as a Door Dash driver as if nothing had happened because in his mind it did not seem real,” the investigator wrote.
