Trucker convicted of running over wife

Couple reportedly arguing at motel about infidelity.

Walter Gabriel’s wife of 26 years said she locked eyes with him before he ran over her with his tractor-trailer.

Gabriel, 56, faces up to 170 years in prison after he was convicted of aggravated assault on Thursday. His sentencing hearing has not yet been set, according to the Cobb district attorney’s office.

The defense argued that what happened on Sept. 25, 2015, was an accident.

“But what do you do after you cause an accident? You say you’re sorry. You say you didn’t mean for this to happen. Mr. Gabriel has never apologized for hitting his wife with his vehicle. He never visited her in the hospital. His actions were malicious. He knew what he’d done,” prosecutor Jared Parrish told jurors.

Gabriel and his wife were arguing about his “infidelity” at an extended-stay motel on Powers Ferry Road about 2 a.m.

Gabriel was a long-haul trucker, and sometimes his wife, who prosecutors said has multiple sclerosis, would accompany him on the road.

According to a warrant, Gabriel had a mistress and was mad that his wife had put “the mistress’ seductive photos on Facebook.”

He got into his truck to leave and his wife followed after him to get her medication from the cab, but he locked it, the warrant said. So she walked around to the front of the truck and “begged” him to open the door.