Marine Held in Slayings Could Face Death Penalty

A Camp Pendleton Marine could face the death penalty if convicted on murder charges filed here Wednesday in the San Clemente shootings that left his ex-wife and daughter dead and another woman seriously wounded.

Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Steven Gibson, a 12-year Marine from Long Island, N.Y., and a decorated veteran of the Persian Gulf War, did not enter a plea during a brief appearance in South Orange County Municipal Court, where two charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder were filed against him. His arraignment was postponed until June 17 by Judge Blair T. Barnette.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Patrick K. Donahue said the murder charges were filed with a special circumstance--committing multiple murders--that could bring the death penalty, but prosecutors haven’t decided yet whether to seek a death sentence.

“We’re going through the process, but whether or not we will seek the death penalty will be determined by the district attorney’s office at a later date,” Donahue said. “The other possibility would be a life sentence without parole.”

Gibson, 32, is being held in Orange County Jail without bail following Saturday night’s shooting deaths of his ex-wife, Kristina Louise Gibson, 26, and his 5-year-old daughter, Amber Dawn Gibson. Wendy Lyndell Johnson, 32, who shared her two-bedroom apartment with the two victims, was also shot once in the chest and remains hospitalized in serious condition.

Gibson was arrested soon after the 10:15 p.m. shootings while making a call to his mother from a pay phone in a Mission Viejo gas station. A loaded and cocked .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol similar to the weapon believed used in the shootings was found on the seat of his blue Mazda truck, authorities said.

Gibson is being secluded in a one-man cell in the county jail’s mental health ward because he is depressed, said his attorney, Stephen J. Biskar, a deputy public defender appointed by Barnette.

At his courtroom appearance, Gibson, wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, was led handcuffed and shackled into the courtroom where he stood with his head bowed throughout the short proceedings.

“He is very depressed, he’s despondent,” Biskar said. “This is a tragedy of major proportions. We are going to do everything we can to find out why this thing happened.”

Biskar said he and his client were considering pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.

“It’s not going to be difficult for them to prove he is the person who did the shooting; they have witnesses to that,” Biskar said. “(But) shooting your 5-year-old daughter is an irrational act. We very often see violence against spouses, but not against a child. That makes you wonder what’s really going on.”

Police allege that Gibson sneaked up the outdoor steps to the second-story Avenida del Poniente triplex his ex-wife and daughter had shared with Johnson and her 8-year-old son for six months.

According to police, Gibson shot Johnson first and then, while she went screaming down the steps to get help, he shot his ex-wife and his daughter in a bedroom.

Johnson’s son, Lucas, 8, was also in the apartment but apparently went unnoticed and was not harmed.

Attorneys Biskar and Donahue both declined to discuss a possible motive in the case, but neighbors, relatives and a Marine Corps spokesman have suggested that the Gibson marriage was rocky from its start on New Year’s Eve in 1986. After separating, the couple were divorced May 12.

Chief Warrant Officer Mike Hedlund said military police at Camp Pendleton were summoned twice to quell domestic disturbances at the duplex the Gibsons once shared in the San Onofre housing area at the northern end of the base.

Gibson was never jailed or disciplined by the Marines, according to Hedlund.

Gibson, who was living at the base at the time of his arrest, spent four months in the Middle East during Operation Desert Storm, earning a medal for valor.

Biskar said Gibson’s military service could help in his defense.

“A decorated war veteran is not the type of person you would expect the prosecution to seek the death penalty on,” Biskar said.