Camia Gamet is a Michigan woman serving mandatory life in prison without parole for the first-degree murder of her boyfriend, Marcel Hill, a 38-year-old disabled man she stabbed and beat to death in their Jackson apartment on May 18, 2013. A Jackson County jury convicted her on March 5, 2014, after a trial that documented months of escalating abuse Hill had endured before the killing. The Camia Gamet murder case drew national attention less for the verdict, which the evidence made almost inevitable, than for the sentencing judge’s blistering courtroom remarks and the pattern of domestic violence that had been visible to almost everyone in Hill’s life before he died.
The Abuse Before the Killing
Gamet and Hill shared an apartment on Lansing Avenue in Jackson, Michigan. Hill was cognitively impaired and received Social Security benefits; his former case manager at the Home of New Vision, Sheila Lorenz, testified that having a girlfriend made him feel “normal” and that he refused to leave Gamet despite her repeated warnings.1MLive. Case Manager Testifies She Warned Hill About Gamet His cousin Barbara Johnson described the relationship at an evidentiary hearing as “violent. Real violent all the time.”2MLive. Attorneys Can Present Evidence of Prior Violence
In March 2013, Hill was treated at a hospital for a collapsed lung and chest sutures. He first told doctors he had fallen down stairs, then admitted the injury was a stab wound. Family members later told investigators Gamet had stabbed him in the abdomen and sewn the wound shut with thread.3Justia. People v. Gamet, Court of Appeals Opinion
On March 8, 2013, Hill showed up at Johnson’s home with two head wounds, “out of breath” and “barely dragging,” saying Gamet had hit him with a hammer. Police who responded to the apartment found Gamet passed out and incoherent, a bloodied hammer nearby. Hill gave a written statement that he was “very afraid” of Gamet and wanted to press charges.3Justia. People v. Gamet, Court of Appeals Opinion The Jackson County prosecutor’s office charged Gamet with domestic violence and felonious assault, but Hill later wrote a letter saying he could not be sure it had been her, and the charges were dismissed on May 9, 2013. Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark Blumer said Hill had been afraid to testify.4MLive. Camia Gamet Arraigned on Charge of Open Murder
Lorenz had told Hill directly that if he did not leave, Gamet would kill him. His reply, she testified, was that he believed “everything she did was out of love.”1MLive. Case Manager Testifies She Warned Hill About Gamet Nine days after the assault charges were dropped, he was dead.
The Killing on Lansing Avenue
Multiple 911 calls came in from a single cell phone in the early hours of May 18, 2013. The caller, later identified as Gamet, said “a man was bleeding” but would not give her name.3Justia. People v. Gamet, Court of Appeals Opinion Police reached 714 Lansing Avenue, Apartment 2, around 3:00 a.m. and found the living room ransacked, chairs knocked over, lamps broken. Hill was dead on a deflated air mattress.
Michigan State Police crime lab technicians identified Hill’s blood on a bent and broken end table missing its glass top, a piece of a floor lamp post, a frying pan, and a long knife.5MLive. Woman Accused of Murder Tells Jury Her Account The medical examiner counted at least 11 sharp-force injuries to Hill’s head, chest, back, and arms, plus severe blunt-force trauma including gaping lacerations above his right eye and on the back of his head. One stab wound perforated his heart and a lung; another perforated a lung through his back. More than one injury was independently fatal. Defensive wounds on his hands and arms showed he had tried to protect himself.3Justia. People v. Gamet, Court of Appeals Opinion Chief Assistant Prosecutor Kati Rezmierski later said the evidence showed Gamet had used as many as nine different weapons.6MLive. Judge Responds Angrily After Convicted Killer Rolls Eyes at Sentencing
Officers located Gamet after dispatchers pinged the phone she had used to call 911. She had Hill’s blood on her shirt and pants, small cuts on her left hand and feet, and a cell phone battery hidden in her bra. In a recorded interview with Detective Gary Schuette, she was initially dishonest about her involvement. When confronted with the physical evidence she grew agitated and threw furniture in the interview room, and was placed in handcuffs.5MLive. Woman Accused of Murder Tells Jury Her Account She was arraigned on open murder on May 20, 2013.4MLive. Camia Gamet Arraigned on Charge of Open Murder
A Prior Record of Violence
Gamet had a history of violence against intimate partners that predated Hill. Court records introduced at trial showed that in April 2007, in Ohio, she pleaded to disorderly conduct after making threatening phone calls to kill a former boyfriend. The following month she was arrested for attempting to assault the same man with a fire extinguisher, and prosecutors in that case alleged she had also thrown her six-week-old baby, still in a car seat, at him.3Justia. People v. Gamet, Court of Appeals Opinion Blumer said at the time of her murder arraignment that Gamet had been accused of domestic violence in at least two other states.4MLive. Camia Gamet Arraigned on Charge of Open Murder
The Trial and Verdict
The trial opened on February 24, 2014, before Jackson County Circuit Judge John McBain, with Rezmierski leading the prosecution.7MLive. Aunt of Murder Victim Testifies About Prior Abuse Lorenz testified about Hill’s cognitive impairment and his refusal to leave. Johnson described him as “behind,” “a little slower,” and “like a child.”3Justia. People v. Gamet, Court of Appeals Opinion His aunt, Diana Banks-Joiner, called Gamet “abusive” and “evil.” Jurors heard the medical testimony, saw the crime-scene photographs, listened to the 911 calls, and watched the recorded police interview.
Gamet took the stand. She said she and Hill had been drinking and using drugs, that she woke up to find an unknown person attacking her, that she swung a floor lamp, and that when she fell to her knees her hand “touched the knife.” She said she could not recall how the struggle unfolded and denied she had intentionally harmed Hill.5MLive. Woman Accused of Murder Tells Jury Her Account Her attorney, Anthony Raduazo, asked Judge McBain to give the jury a voluntary manslaughter instruction, arguing there was no premeditation. McBain refused.3Justia. People v. Gamet, Court of Appeals Opinion
On March 5, 2014, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on first-degree murder. Rezmierski said afterward that “the number of weapons found and the manner of the victim’s injuries played a large role” in the conviction, and that “even though she was intoxicated, the jury had enough evidence to believe that she could’ve stopped herself.”8MLive. Jury Finds Camia Gamet Guilty of First-Degree Murder
Sentencing and the Judge’s Rebuke
The sentencing hearing on April 16, 2014, produced the moment that carried the case beyond Michigan. As Hill’s family members addressed the court, Judge McBain saw Gamet rolling her eyes and snickering at the defense table. Addressing her directly, he said: “You gutted him like a fish in that apartment. You were relentless. You stabbed. You stabbed. You stabbed. You stabbed. You stabbed until he was dead.” He added: “I agree with the family. I hope you die in prison as well. If this was a death penalty state, you’d be getting the chair.”9Scripps News. Michigan Judge to Convicted Killer: I Hope You Die in Prison
The sentence itself was not discretionary. First-degree murder in Michigan carries a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole, and McBain imposed it. Asked afterward about his remarks, he was unapologetic: “Sometimes, I think a judge needs a little fire in the right kind of cases.”10MLive. Camia Gamet Sentenced to Life in Prison CBS News and other national outlets broadcast clips of the exchange.
The Appeal
Gamet appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals on four grounds: that McBain’s remarks and his questioning of witnesses showed bias; that her video-recorded police statement should have been suppressed because her blood-alcohol level was 0.18 and she had been deprived of food, sleep, and medical attention; that the 2007 Ohio charges were improperly admitted as prior-acts evidence; and that the trial court wrongly excluded evidence that Hill had been a registered sex offender.11MLive. Appeals Court Affirms Camia Gamet Murder Conviction
A unanimous per curiam panel rejected each claim in February 2016. The court called McBain’s sentencing remarks “intemperate” but held they could not have affected a verdict already reached. It found that although Gamet “may have appeared tired and somewhat groggy” during questioning, “she asked intelligent questions and gave no indication that she was unable to waive her rights.” Her Ohio history, the panel held, was “clearly relevant to the prosecution’s theory that she acted intentionally.” And Hill’s sex-offender status was irrelevant because Gamet had testified at trial that she attacked an “unknown assailant,” not Hill.11MLive. Appeals Court Affirms Camia Gamet Murder Conviction The conviction and life sentence were affirmed.
Gamet later filed a federal habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. A related 2023 filing identifies her as a Michigan prisoner still serving her life sentence.12GovInfo. Gamet v. State of Michigan, Federal Court Filing She remains incarcerated with no possibility of parole.