CRIME HUNTER: Did ‘crazy’ wife turn cocaine-fueled orgy into bloodbath?

Gio Gambino was concerned about his wife.

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Family members described Crystal Leah Gambino as “moderately crazy” and her hubby was worried about her rapidly deteriorating mental state.

“Everybody liked Gio,” her cousin Bob Hager told the Charlotte Observer. “He was a good father, and he had great concern for his wife. He asked me to pray for her on one occasion.”

Hager added of his fellow parishioner at the Mount Zion Church: “Gio was a strong Christian.”

Gio – a native New Yorker and owner of a wine business – frequently boasted he was the grandson of notorious Big Apple crime kingpin Carlo Gambino. Whether he actually was related remains another matter.

But the couple’s long marriage was an endless series of dramas, splits, reconciliations and calls to the cops. In today’s parlance, it would be described as “turbulent.”

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Still, the union staggered on.

Gio dreamed up new schemes to make money, and she played at being a singer-songwriter who performed folk tunes in the Crystal Gambino Band. Neither seemed to have much success.

But their pedestrian existences ended in blood and tears on Feb. 29, 2016.

Gio Gambino left his home that day, took his daughter to school, then drove to Charlotte, where he picked up Stephanie Sanchez and her boyfriend, Geoffrey G. Gilliland.

Prosecutors say Gambino offered the couple cocaine to have sex with him.

Whether Crystal was supposed to be part of the hormone-charged hijinks was unclear, but something deep inside caused her to snap.

Gio, Sanchez and Gilliland were naked, and when Crystal walked in, the lusty trio were in the throes of a cocaine-fuelled threesome. She threw a cold shower on the carnal capers in the form of hot lead.

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She grabbed a .44 Magnum and a box of shells and opened fire, Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell said in court. During the shooting spree, she reloaded the weapon at least twice, firing at least 15 times total.

She left the two nude men on the bedroom floor, the autopsy said. But her deepest hatred seemed reserved for Sanchez.

Once her vile work was completed, Crystal Gambino attempted to cover up her crime, putting bedding in the washing machine and dragging Sanchez and the mattress outside. She placed Sanchez’s body on a burn pile, then covered it with debris.

Gambino ultimately gave up cleaning the scene and left to pick up her daughter from school. She then drove to a relative’s house where she confessed.

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Cops say it was a concerned family member who called 911, saying he worried about the welfare of the people on the property. He had reason to be worried.

Officers found a bloodbath in the bedroom: Gio, Sanchez, 33, and Gilliland, 39, were both dead.

The 911 caller was Crystal’s brother-in-law and he called her “moderately crazy.”

“My sister-in-law has told her family that she killed her husband. She caught him sleeping with another woman,” the relative said. “She told them she cleaned up the bullet casings and took care of the bodies.”

Crystal was intending to burn Sanchez’s body, he said.

The caller added with a note of caution: “This wouldn’t be the first time she had made up stuff.”

Detectives began trying to unravel what had led Crystal to kill and how her dead hubby had met the morgue-bound swingers.

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Gio had been living a secret life. He met Sanchez and Gilliland on a swingers’ dating site, and they arranged the tryst when Crystal was out of town.

His new playmates lived rough, dwelling in the Greenleafe Motor Inn, a $55-a-night dive that was a long way from the Waldorf-Astoria.

And now the ill-fated threesome had a serious headache – they were dead.

Residents of the small hamlet where the Gambinos lived were stunned by the tragic events.

“I’ve known her since she was born,” David Robinson told the Gaston Gazette. “Normal people. He ran a wholesale wine business. Just down to earth. I can’t explain it.”

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Crystal Gambino was arrested in the next town over and charged with three counts of first-degree murder. She did a quick turn and pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter.

She was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Sanchez’s father, Eddie Heim told reporters: “Her life was worth more than that.”

When given the chance to speak, Gambino told the judge there was nothing she could say to fix the situation. The incident was a tragedy, but apologizing wouldn’t change things.

She didn’t believe the families of her victims would accept it.

Gambino has said nothing of the horrible night.

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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