True Crime Database

Camia Gamet

A first degree murder case which sparked various debates regarding domestic violence and gender cannot be better exemplified than in the case of Camia Gamet.

On May 18th 2013, Camia Gamet claimed to be asleep on an airbed in the living room of an apartment in which she shared with her boyfriend when someone had hit her over the head repeatedly. She then defended herself from the attacker which she was unable to identify. She hit him over the head with a lamp and had stabbed him three times in the chest with a knife that was within her reach. When everything went quiet and she turned on the lamp, she realised she had killed her boyfriend Marcel Hill and called 911. She had been arrested that same day.

Her story, however, has multiple holes in it: why would she sleeping on an air mattress in an apartment where she was already living; how was she unable to identify the voice of her boyfriend, someone she was living with, during the attack; why wasn't her instinct to run from the apartment rather than immediately attack her assailant? A bent and bloody frying pan was also found in the room where the alleged attack took place: why wasn't this mentioned and what would have been the purpose of having a frying pan in the living room in the first place, especially one that was dented and would have been of no use to anyone.

Marcel Hill's autopsy also shows a different story. He had multiple wounds to the head, many of which were fatal, despite Camia's claim that he continued to attack her when she hit him with a lamp. He also had 11 stab wounds to his body, 10 too many for it to be considered self defence and 8 too many to tie in with Camia's story.

Previous legal history also displays a motive as to why Camia would have been the one to attack her boyfriend and not the other way round: in 2012, Marcel had filed domestic abuse claims against her, saying that she had hit him over the head with a hammer, stabbed him, and tried to stitch him with black thread. Camia denieed this and said that it was him who was abusive towards her.

The jury, judge and Marcel's family did not believe her version of events and she was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

During the trial, Camia seemed to show no signs of remorse about the alleged murder, rolling her eyes and laughing while Marcel's family read out an emotional letter to her. This caused fury and outrage in the courtroom, in which Judge John McBain yelled at Camia, "You gutted him in that apartment like a fish, you were relentless, you stabbed, you stabbed, you stabbed until he was dead! I hope you die in prison and if this was a death penalty state, you'd be getting the chair."