Mark Gilby’s killer gets minimum 14-year sentence
Carl Quinton maintains he’s innocent
The key to solving Mark Gilby’s murder sat at the bottom of a St. Catharines sewer for more than a year.
That’s where Carl Quinton dumped the key to Gilby’s apartment and the fob for his mobility scooter after bludgeoning Gilby to death and locking the door to his downtown St. Catharines apartment on Gale Crescent on Jan. 19, 2014.
Quinton told an undercover Niagara Regional Police officer who had gained his confidence that he dumped the key down a sewer grate after stealing a small quantity or marijuana and leaving Gilby for dead.
Quinton used the key to lock the apartment door from the outside and conceal his crime, assistant Crown attorney Tom Jacobs said.
After the revelation, police quickly moved to seal off King Street and brought in a city crew and sucked the muck out of the sewer.
The police took the contents to the city yard, dumped it, and found the evidence they believed unequivocally tied Quinton to the crime.
A quick test of the fob on Gilby’s mobility scooter confirmed it, and police made their arrest.
Quinton, 61, was sentenced by Superior Court Justice Robert Reid to life in prison Monday for the second-degree murder of Gilby, with no eligibility for parole for 14 years.
A jury convicted him of seconddegree murder in March. The life sentence is mandatory.
When given a chance to speak, Quinton told the court he is innocent.
“I do not have any remorse because I didn’t do anything,” Quinton said. “I did not know Mark in any bad way, and I maintain my innocence.”
The Crown’s based its case on recordings made by the undercover officers, who were wearing wires and gained Quinton’s confidence.
The police zeroed in on Quinton after reviewing video from the apartment lobby and phone records.
The undercover officers convinced Quinton he was helping them in an illegal scheme to unload merchandise smuggled across the border. In return for his help, Quinton was given alcohol as well as cash to buy alcohol.
On the recordings, which were played during the trial, Quinton admitted killing Gilby, taking the marijuana, and throwing the hammer into snow in a downtown park.
He then dropped the keys down the sewer. The hammer was never found. The keys were used to corroborate Quinton’s story.
“Justice is done and it’s over, but it will never be over for me,” Gilby’s sister Mary Gilby said outside the courtroom before being overcome with emotion. “I’m sorry. I can’t talk.”
Family friend Jo-Ann Schneider sat with Gilby throughout the threeweek trial and was there for the sentencing Monday.
“We have to commend the police,” she said. “A lot of people knock the Niagara Regional Police, but they saw that justice was done here.
“It would have been easy to sweep this under the carpet. Mark was someone who was marginalized in society.
“The family will be eternally grateful to the investigators and their effort to find the truth. You can’t really get justice, but we finally have some closure after all this time.”
After the hearing, Schneider said it was hard to sit and listen to Quinton maintain he is innocent.
“We saw all the evidence,” she said. “We heard his confession. Of course, he is going to say he didn’t do it. That’s all he has left.
“We wanted to hear him confess and be sorry. We wanted him to ask for forgiveness, but people who commit these crimes don’t usually do that. It’s not in their nature.
“Everyone is hurting. We wanted to hear something different from him.”
Quinton, clad in an orange prison jumpsuit and handcuffed, was rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair by courthouse guards. He suffered a stroke in 2014.
Assistant Crown attorney Tom Jacobs recommended Reid keep Quinton from being eligible for parole for 15 years — noting Quinton had a prior criminal record that included violence. Quinton’s lawyer Geoff Hadfield recommended eligibility for parole in the 12-year range. He said Quinton’s record was old and not particularly relevant.
In his pre-sentencing remarks, Jacobs asked the judge to consider the “brutal nature of the crime.”
Gilby was 58 and living on a disability pension after suffering a series of strokes when he was attacked. Jacobs said Gilby was a low-level street dealer.
He had mobility issues and used the three-wheel scooter to get around.
Schneider conceded Gilby was a little rough around the edges but said he was a good man. Family meant more than anything to him.
“When he had his own family, he loved his children so much,” she said. “He was so proud of them and the adults they have become.
“He was always very protective, especially if someone was bullied or needed protection. He never had much, but he shared what he had.
“It was a senseless murder as if any murder ever makes sense. The people who love him miss him dearly.”
At the trial, a pathologist testified that the fatal injuries were consistent with a hammer attack.
Jacobs said the fact Quinton locked the apartment and left Gilby to die was an aggravating factor for the judge to consider in sentencing.
Jacobs also asked the judge to consider the fact Gilby was vulnerable and that the attack was unprovoked.
Hadfield asked the judge to delay sentencing for a couple of hours Monday to see if he could get a social worker to testify on Quinton’s behalf.
Quinton took exception to some statements in his pre-sentencing report.
The worker acted as a trustee for Quinton in financial matters, but was unavailable to testify because of a family emergency.
Reid elected to move the sentencing hearing forward.