A Kentucky jury found a Detroit, Michigan man guilty on two counts of murder for killing a man and woman in 2019 in Louisville.
After three long days of expert and witness testimony, the judge told the jurors they’d be in for a long night on Thursday. At 4 pm the jury left to deliberate and came back with a decision at midnight then at 3 am, that sentence was handed down to Gaskin. Overnight Antonio Gaskin received two life sentences for the murders of 24-year-old Marquis Harris 25-year-old and Sharmaine Carter.
According to the medical examiner, an autopsy revealed the two were shot in the back of the head and the chest with a revolver.
An investigator with the public defender’s office stated there were many calls placed to Harri’s phone the day he was shot, including some from Gaskin, and 39 calls from an unknown number from a Detroit area code.
At one point Charmaine’s boyfriend took the stand when he admitted that he had sent her threatening messages two weeks before her death, saying that he would kill her.
The defense argued though that there was not enough evidence collected.
“She knew these messages were important because she said. Wait until I show these messages but the detectives didn’t look for these messages, they never saw them,” says Sarah Langer, one of Antonio Gaskin’s attorneys.
The prosecution spent two days showing that cell tower records showed that Gaskin’s phone interacted with a cell tower that serviced a general area of Lexington including Alexandria drive. The prosecution from there used those records to make a case that Gaskin was in the general area of the homicide. Witness testimony added to it and indicated that Gaskin was at the apartment that night. The prosecution also noted that cell phone records showed Gaskin leaving town that same night.
“The only evidence of anyone in this apartment on October 15th, 2019 is of 3 people, the defendant Charmaine and Marquis. After this happened the defendant went to Cincinnati, where both of his phones were located. That night the next morning both of the phones come down from Cincinnati,” says Kathryn Webster on the commonwealth’s side.
11 hours after the jury was sent to deliberate the judge handed down two life sentences to Gaskin. So far Gaskin has already served 3 years. He’ll have to serve another 17 years before he’s eligible for parole.
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