Whitefish man who killed girlfriend dies in prison

A man convicted of murdering his girlfriend in Whitefish in 1989 has died in Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge.

According to the Montana Department of Corrections, John Gambrel Jr. died Sunday following an illness.

Gambrel, 59, was sentenced in 1990 to 110 years in prison for killing Lori Schwegel on Feb. 5, 1989, after shooting her five times with a .22 rifle at their Iowa Avenue apartment.

Family of the victim say Gambrel’s death brings some closure.

“It’s a relief,” said Schwegel’s sister, Lee Ann Giesy. “We won’t feel like we have to look over our shoulders any more and count the days until his next parole.”

Last year, Gambrel was denied parole until 2020. He reportedly admitted to the murder in a letter given to the parole board prior to that hearing.

Giesy said news of Gambrel’s death was miscommunicated to the family through the victim information and notification program.

“I got a call last night saying he had been discharged,” Giesy said. “We spent the whole night thinking he was getting out.”

The next morning, Giesy said they learned of his death.

“That’s the last night we will ever lose sleep over him — that’s over now,” she said.

According to past reports about the murder, investigators concluded that after a night of bar-hopping downtown, Gambrel returned home, got into a heated argument with Schwegel and shot her five times. He then allegedly returned to the Palace Bar to establish an alibi.

When he returned to his apartment after the bars closed, investigators said, Gambrel turned the rifle on himself twice. One bullet went through his chin and hit the ceiling, and another went through is chin and exited right between his eyebrows.

Schwegel’s sister testified at the murder trial that Gambrel had bragged about having learned in mercenary school how he could shoot himself so it looked like a mortal wound.

Gambrel’s attorney argued that Schwegel was killed by drug dealers who also shot Gambrel as he entered his apartment after closing down the Palace Bar.

Five days after the trial began, the jury spent 11 hours deliberating before returning the guilty verdict.