Jerry Bryan Gibble could spend the rest of his life in prison if a jury decides he killed his mother.
Gibble’s attorneys aim to prove that a convicted arsonist, a former friend of Gibble’s, started the fire that killed 68-year-old Brenda Jenkins Dixon on Oct. 11, 2013.
Superior Court Judge Todd Pomeroy heard motions in the case Monday.
Defense attorneys Rocky Lutz, Stuart Higdon and Holden Clark want Pomeroy to allow them to present evidence that points to another man as the killer. Prosecutors objected, saying that Gibble is the person on trial.
The judge will ultimately decide how much of the evidence goes before a jury.
Fatal fire
A call came into 911 about 3:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 11. Gibble’s live-in girlfriend told the emergency operator that they needed an ambulance. “She’s unconscious. She’s not breathing. Her face has blood and stuff on it,” the woman said of Dixon.
The woman said that there was smoke, and it was hard to see. But she told the 911 operator that she didn’t know if there was a fire. Gibble and his girlfriend had taken Dixon out of the house on West McFarland Avenue. The female caller passed the phone over to Gibble for CPR instructions
Gibble counted off more than 100 chest compressions to the operator, panting and sometimes yelling out to his girlfriend to keep an eye out for the paramedics. He also spoke to his mother. “Come on, mama,” he said.
Son charged
Gibble lived at the McFarland Avenue home with his mother.
He’d agreed to care for her just three weeks before the fire.
Investigators said at least two fires were set inside the home the morning Dixon died, one in Gibble’s bed.
Detectives said at the time that they didn’t know what could have pushed Gibble over the edge. He’d had some brushes with the law that landed him in prison before, but his crimes had not escalated to this degree.
Gibble, 48, has been in jail since his arrest more than a year ago. He’s charged with first-degree murder and arson.
Second suspect
Lutz showed the judge charts and a large map Monday to track Gibble’s movement before his mother’s death. He also talked of Gibble’s friendship with Shannon Dale Goss, a 38-year-old convicted arsonist and habitual felon.
According to Lutz, Goss has a track record of setting fire to things for revenge.
Lutz suggested Goss did exactly that when he set Gibble’s house on fire.
Goss was mad at Gibble for accusing him of stealing an acquaintance’s purse, Lutz said. The final straw came hours before the fire when Gibble refused to conduct a drug deal with Goss, according to Lutz.
Late-night alibi
Gibble was in Charlotte around 2 a.m. the morning of the killing. He was picking up his girlfriend from her job at Leather and Lace on Tryon Street.
Cell phone activity corroborates the trip to Charlotte, and the couple stopped at Wal-Mart in Gastonia about 40 minutes later.
That documented activity still left enough time for Gibble to commit the crime, according to investigators.
Jurors should begin to hear evidence in the case this week.
Jury selection will begin Wednesday once attorneys finish presenting pre-trial motions.
The trial is expected to take three to four weeks at the Gaston County Courthouse.
You can reach Diane Turbyfill at 704-869-1817 and Twitter.com/GazetteDiane.
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