Alberta man pleads guilty to murders of 3 co-workers
Sentenced to 40 years for 2012 armoured car robbery
A man who executed three of his co-workers and tried to kill a fourth during a 2012 armoured car robbery in Edmonton — an act he says he committed in a “blind rage” — was sentenced to at least 40 years in prison on Monday.
In a packed Edmonton courtroom, Travis Brandon Baumgartner, 22, accepted responsibility for the shootings at the University of Alberta’s HUB Mall.
Monday’s proceedings, which were supposed to start a weeklong trial but quickly became a plea deal, also revealed that Baumgartner confessed his crimes to an undercover RCMP officer just days after the shooting.
“I did it all. I killed those people and robbed their truck,” he told the officer in a B.C. jail cell in June 2012.
Baumgartner, who pleaded guilty to two counts of seconddegree murder, one count of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, had told police he aimed for the heads of his armoured car company co-workers: Michelle Shegelski, 26, Brian Ilesic, 35, and Eddie Rejano, 39. A fourth guard, Matthew Schuman, was injured but is recovering.
Baumgartner didn’t react when the victims’ family members spoke.
Victor Shegelski, Michelle’s widower, delivered the first of the 12 victim impact statements, saying his life had been gutted of happiness and that he often thinks of death.
“I just can’t bring myself to face the world alone,” he said.
The Afghan vet said he’s only alive because killing himself would insult the memory of his new bride. Asking for her hand in marriage was the most confident decision he’d made in his life, he said. Now, “everything hurts.”
Cleo Badon, Rejano’s widow, delivered her statement with her youngest son Xylar at her side. Earlier, family members led her two boys out of the courtroom when details of their father’s brutal murder were read.
An autopsy showed he died of three gunshot wounds to the head. Baumgartner pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Rejano’s death.
Badon said she hoped to raise their family and grow old along with her husband. “I never thought of becoming a widow at the age of 32,” she said, her voice breaking. “My heart bleeds for our two boys,” she said.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Baumgartner — who had worked for G4S Cash Solutions for two months — had argued with his mother about money earlier in the day. He’d also messaged a friend, boasting he intended to rob the armoured car that night. The friend thought it was just a joke.
Baumgartner was about $60,000 in debt and had 26 cents in his bank account.
The guards were starting a delivery to cash machines around midnight on June 15, 2012. Minutes later, students heard gunfire echo through the stairwell and halls of HUB Mall on the University of Alberta campus. After the robbery, he left cash for two friends, then dropped $64,000 on his mother’s kitchen table before fleeing.
After a two-day manhunt, Baumgartner was arrested while trying to cross the border into the U.S. when the licence plate on his pickup truck set off an alert. He was taken into custody without incident, carrying his own driver’s licence and no passport. Baumgartner had $333,580 in cash in a backpack when he was captured.
Of the stolen cash, $1,400 is unaccounted for.
Baumgartner told border authorities he had no memories of the previous day, and claimed someone had forced him at gunpoint to drive to Seattle. He also told U.S. authorities his name was David Webb, a character in The Bourne Identity.
He later told an Edmonton police detective that everyone at G4S teased him. “I think I was just mad at everybody,” he told police as he confessed, calling it a “blind rage.”