Andrew Gerber has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years after he admitted to viciously beating his girlfriend, 42-year-old Jennyfer Lachapelle, in the west end apartment where the couple lived on March 13, 2019.
“I have considered mitigating factors that Mr. Gerber’s addiction, his intoxication, and his untreated mental illness was causal factors in the commission of the offence,” Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell said in handing down her sentence in a Toronto courtroom on Friday.
According to an agreed statement of facts read into the record on Sept. 18, 2024, when Gerber pleaded guilty, the pair met in February 2019 and started living together almost immediately at a Toronto Community Housing Building on Pelham Park Gardens.
Both had addiction and mental health issues and Gerber, who is bipolar, was not taking his medication. Lachapelle suffered from Crohn’s disease, chronic back pain and muscular dystrophy.
On March 12, 2019, Gerber and Lachapelle obtained crack cocaine from another resident in the building. But, according to Gerber, he was upset about how Lachapelle had obtained the drugs. During that day and evening, they consumed the drugs.
The toxicology report prepared as a result of the autopsy confirmed Lachapelle had drugs in her system. That evening, she left the apartment to visit someone in the building and Gerber locked her out of the unit.
Video surveillance from the hallway captured Lachapelle returning to the apartment, knocking on the door and peeking through the mail slot. After 20 minutes of banging on the door, leaving then returning again, she was given entry.
Gerber reported that after Lachapelle returned, they watched wrestling.
“Mr. Gerber wanted and started to act out wrestling maneuvers on Ms. Lachapelle,” Forestell said.
“These maneuvers included jumping off the coffee table onto Ms. Lachapelle while she was prone on the floor. While his judgment and thoughts were impacted by the untreated mental health and crack cocaine use, he also acknowledges that he was still upset, wanted to hurt her, and was aware there was a likelihood of death. He was reckless as to whether death occurred.”
Gerber said that after practicing these maneuvers, he passed out.
When he woke up, he realized Lachapelle was unconscious and believed she was dead. He called 911 at 2:46 a.m. and reported he had just come home from a bar and found his girlfriend beaten on the floor and she wasn’t breathing.
When paramedics arrived, Lachapelle was pronounced dead. Gerber told police officers he believed there had been a break-in.
A post-mortem examination found the cause of death to be “blunt force injuries to the chest and abdomen.” The forensic pathologist noted extensive injuries to Lachapelle including extensive hemorrhaging and bruising, and numerous fractures to her ribs, along with a fracture to her mandible and thoracic spine.
At the preliminary hearing, the pathologist testified that the spine injury was usually seen in someone who “jumps down a high building, a bridge, or struck by a train…hit at high speed.” He described the spine injury as a “very unusual and unexplained injury,” but someone jumping off a table to Lachapelle while she lay on her stomach could not be ruled out.
Forestell said that Lachapelle’s brother described her, in his victim impact statement, as someone who was vulnerable to manipulation to others.
Gerber’s biological parents were both Indigenous.
He and his sister were adopted when he was two-and-a-half years old and his adoptive parents received reports of early physical abuse of Gerber by his biological parents. At around 19 years old, he was diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder. By 21, Gerber became a regular user of crack cocaine, MDMA and cannabis. At 33, he began to use crystal meth and continued to use crystal meth and crack cocaine until the murder.
Gerber had frequently been non-compliant with the prescribed medication for his bipolar disorder, particularly when using illicit substances, as was the case when he killed Lachapelle.
Gerber had two prior convictions for uttering threats, including a 2017 conviction for threatening a woman who he lived with.
Forestell noted that when he had a chance to address the court, Gerber expressed remorse for his conduct and accepted responsibility.
The judge noted that the courts have “consistently articulated that violence against an intimate partner is a significant and longstanding problem in our society” and called the killing to Lachapelle as “particularly brutal” noting that Gerber lied to avoid arrest and had a prior record for uttering threats.
Forestell noted that mitigating factors including Gladue factors, mental illness, addiction and the harsh conditions of his pre-sentence custody, which brought the parole ineligibility to the lowest end of the range.
The judge urged Gerber to serve as much of this sentence as possible in an institution with an Aboriginal Pathways unit and access to Aboriginal programming.