Deadly Women: Fatal Instincts is examining the murders of Giovanni “Gio” Gambino, Geoffrey Gilliland, and Stephanie Sanchez by Gio’s wife, Crystal Gambino, in the quiet town of Alexis, North Carolina.
Family and friends would later say that Gio and Crystal had had a difficult marriage, but few suspected that Crystal would resort to violence. But after catching her husband having sex with Gilliland and his girlfriend Sanchez, she snapped and shot the three of them multiple times.
In February 2016, Gilliland, 39, and Sanchez, 33, answered an advert that Gio, 42, had put on Craigslist. Gio offered the unemployed couple cocaine in exchange for having a threesome with him.
When Crystal walked in on the three of them having sex in her bedroom, she grabbed a .44 Magnum and a box of shells and began blasting. She reloaded the weapon at least twice and fired approximately 15 times, killing her husband, Gilliland, and Sanchez.
Crystal then appears to have made a half-hearted attempt to cover up the crime by putting some of the bedding in a washing machine. She also carried Sanchez’s body out to the yard in a wheelbarrow, where she placed her on a burn pile and covered her with debris.
Crystal Gambino admitted to killing Gio Gambino, Stephanie Sanchez, and Geoffrey Gilliland
The killer then seems to have given up trying to conceal the murders, leaving the bodies of Gio and Gilliland lying naked on the bedroom floor she went to pick up her daughter from school. Crystal then drove to her brother-in-law’s house, where she confessed to the murders.
Crystal Gambino was soon charged with first-degree murder on three counts. She eventually struck a deal with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter. She was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
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Follow the links to read about more murderous women profiled on ID.
Michele Williams from Keller, Texas, enjoyed the finer things in life, but when husband Greg’s salary began failing to provide the lifestyle she had become accustomed to, she decided the solution was to murder him. She waited for Greg to fall asleep and then shot him in the head.
Catherina Voss and Angela Taylor conspired with others to kill someone who had become inconvenient to them. And Grace Lusk killed the wife of her lover after she was ordered to stay away.
Deadly Women: Fatal Instincts airs Saturday at 11:30/10:30c on Investigation Discovery.