Tensions run high at murder sentencing

Emotions were high in a Prince William County Circuit courtroom Wednesday afternoon, as a judge sentenced a Manassas man for second-degree murder.

Mikuel Tirone Gaskins, Sr., 54, pleaded guilty in April to the July 31, 2008 murder of Chanetie Brooks.

Wednesday, Prince William Circuit Court Judge William D. Hamblen sentenced Gaskins to serve 15 years in prison.

After Hamblen announced his sentence, family members and friends of both Brooks and Gaskins, seated on opposite sides of the courtroom, reacted with sobs, shouts and cries of disbelief.

Sheriff’s deputies separated the two groups--some of whom threatened to fight--and escorted Brooks’ family to the parking lot.

Gaskins admitted to killing the 44-year-old Brooks, and attempting to kill himself, at his town house in the 9600 block of Aspen Place in the Georgetown South area of Manassas, though he said he does not remember the act.

Prosecutors said Gaskins stabbed Brooks, his ex-girlfriend, at least 45 times, nearly decapitating her, before turning the knife on himself.

According to a police affidavit, the couple had recently broken up and Brooks went to the house that day to pick up her things.

Relatives of both Brooks and Gaskins got worried when they could not reach either of them, prosecutors said.

Attorneys said that Gaskins’ ex-wife and daughter went to his house to check on him at around 12:20 p.m.

When he did not answer the door, they entered the house through a window.

They found Gaskins and Brooks, both with multiple stab wounds, in an upstairs bedroom.

Brooks was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gaskins stabbed himself in the neck, abdomen and wrists, police said.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Brooks’ daughter, Virginia Fisher, remembered her as a loving mother and grandmother.

“She wasn’t just my mother, she was my best friend,” Fisher said. “Her death had a tremendous impact on not only me but my entire family ... We only have
memories and pictures of my mother.”

Also at the hearing several of Gaskins’ friends and his daughter, Teresa, described him as a kind and gentle man, who was not known to be violent.

“He’s a good man who has never done anything violent in his life until this point,” Gaskins’ defense attorney, George Wooditch said. “I think the type of person he was up until that point deserves consideration.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Elizabeth Millette asked the judge to sentence Gaskins to the maximum sentence allowed by law, 40 years.

“No matter what type of person he was before that day, this was the absolute butchering of another human life,” Millette said. “I am glad he was a good father, I am glad he is turning his life around, but he took steps to lose all that when he did what he did to Ms. Brooks.”

Hamblen said he spent a lot of time considering an appropriate sentence for Gaskins for what he called an “unspeakable” act that is “beyond comprehension.”
“It wasn’t a wholly rational act... it was a terrifically violent act,” Hamblen said.

But, Hamblen said, he had to take the rest of Gaskins’ life into consideration as well.

“It’s not fair to judge man on the worst twenty minutes of his life,” Hamblen said.

Hamblen sentenced Gaskins to a 30 years in prison, with 15 years suspended and five years of probation.

Before he was sentenced, Gaskins said he was sorry for the crime.

“I go over it every day in my mind trying to understand it,” he said. “I don’t have words for the family to explain how I feel. I just don’t have the words in my vocabulary to express the deep remorse that I have.”

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014