Tammy Gardner was a 40-year-old Pike Creek, Delaware woman beaten to death alongside her new boyfriend, Gabriel Gabrielli, in her home in the early hours of July 9, 2006. Her ex-boyfriend, Clifford Wright, was convicted of both killings in November 2009 and is serving life in prison without parole. The Tammy Gardner murder case turned on a days-long stalking campaign that preceded the attack, the burning of the victims’ bodies inside Gardner’s minivan, and a jailhouse informant who told jurors Wright had confessed.
Who Tammy Gardner Was
Gardner lived in the Woodcreek development in Pike Creek and ran a home daycare called “Tammy’s TLC” while also working at a childcare center called Tutor Time.1Nichols Gilmore Funeral Home. Tamela Gardner Obituary She was the mother of two children, Meredith and Kyle.
Gabriel Gabrielli, 41, managed an auto body shop and had been dating Gardner after her separation from Wright. He was married with five children.2Legacy.com. Gabriel Gabrielli Obituary
The Stalking Before the Killings
Wright and Gardner’s relationship ended on or about July 1, 2006. Within days, Wright launched what the sentencing court later called part of an “eerie and alarming pattern” of harassment directed at women in his life.
On July 5, he followed Gardner and Gabrielli to the Good Shot Bar in Wilmington and sat in the parking lot for more than three hours. During that stretch he placed 43 calls to Gardner and left threatening voicemails, including one telling her, “You done played with the wrong person little lady. You got me mean.”3Delaware Superior Court. State v. Clifford W. Wright, Sentencing Opinion He called police with a false report that drugs were being sold at the bar and phoned Gardner’s ex-husband with false accusations that she was an unfit mother using drugs.
Wright was arrested at the bar that night and released on bond the next day. He immediately violated the bond conditions. He waited outside Gardner’s development, confronted her ex-husband, and drove past a restaurant where she was eating with her children, leaving her, the court said, “scared, shaken, and feeling like she was being stalked.” On July 7, he called her employer and repeated the false drug accusations.3Delaware Superior Court. State v. Clifford W. Wright, Sentencing Opinion
The Night of the Murders
In the early hours of July 9, 2006, Wright broke into Gardner’s home while she and Gabrielli were sleeping. Both were beaten to death with a blunt object. Gardner suffered at least eight head injuries and Gabrielli at least eleven, and the medical examiner ruled the cause of death for both as blunt force injury to the head, with wounds consistent with a smooth, circular blunt object. The murder weapon was never definitively identified.4Delaware Superior Court. State v. Wright, Postconviction Relief Opinion
After the killings, Wright loaded the bodies into Gardner’s minivan, drove to Tweed’s Park in Hockessin, and set the vehicle on fire. The burned van was discovered four days later, on July 13, with the remains of both victims inside.5WDEL. Judge Rejects Latest Appeal in Delaware Double Murder66abc. Clifford Wright Found Guilty in Double Murder
How Prosecutors Made the Case
Wright was indicted in January 2008. With no identified murder weapon and no eyewitness to the killings, the prosecution’s most powerful evidence came from Robert Mahan, a jailhouse informant who had shared a cell with Wright for five days at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institute in February 2008.
Mahan testified that Wright told him police were wrong to suspect a hammer and that the real weapon was an aluminum baseball bat. He said Wright described details of the crime scene, including that the killings happened in an upstairs bedroom, and that Wright discussed disposing of the bodies at Tweed’s Park in a burned van.7Justia. State v. Wright, Motion for New Trial Mahan also told jurors that when Wright returned to their cell distressed after meeting with his lawyer, Mahan tried to reassure him by saying he had not committed the murders, and Wright answered: “But I did.”4Delaware Superior Court. State v. Wright, Postconviction Relief Opinion
Wright’s attorneys attacked Mahan hard. They described him as a drug-addicted felon suffering from esophageal cancer who had been withdrawing from narcotic medications and unable to sleep during the days he spent with Wright. They also argued that some of the details Mahan attributed to Wright could have come from the indictment or from information circulating through Wright’s family.7Justia. State v. Wright, Motion for New Trial The defense acknowledged the “stormy relationship” between Wright and Gardner but argued that others had equal motive and opportunity.66abc. Clifford Wright Found Guilty in Double Murder
The Verdict and Why Wright Did Not Get Death
On November 19, 2009, after three days of deliberation, the jury convicted Wright on all 14 counts, including four counts of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, third-degree arson, theft of a motor vehicle, aggravated harassment, weapon possession charges, and noncompliance with bond conditions. The four murder counts reflected two theories charged for each victim: intentional murder and felony murder during a burglary.3Delaware Superior Court. State v. Clifford W. Wright, Sentencing Opinion
In the penalty phase, the jury unanimously found four statutory aggravating factors and, by a vote of 7 to 5, recommended the death penalty on each of the four murder counts. Under Delaware law at the time, that recommendation did not bind the judge. In her March 5, 2010 sentencing opinion, Superior Court Judge Mary M. Johnston called the 7–5 vote “not overwhelming” and found that the aggravating circumstances did not outweigh the mitigating factors.3Delaware Superior Court. State v. Clifford W. Wright, Sentencing Opinion
Given the chance to speak before sentencing, Wright told the victims’ families, “I’m sorry for messing your lives up, for terrorizing you, whatever the case may be, each one of them holds their own.” Judge Johnston sentenced him to life in prison without probation or parole on each of the four murder counts, with additional prison time on the remaining charges.
Where the Appeals Stand
The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed Wright’s conviction on October 24, 2011.4Delaware Superior Court. State v. Wright, Postconviction Relief Opinion
In postconviction proceedings, Wright argued his trial lawyers should have hired a forensic pathology expert to rule out a baseball bat as the murder weapon, which he said would have undermined Mahan’s credibility. The Superior Court denied that motion on February 12, 2015, holding that the identity of the weapon was beside the point next to the core of Mahan’s testimony, which was Wright’s admission of guilt, and that expert testimony would not have changed the outcome.4Delaware Superior Court. State v. Wright, Postconviction Relief Opinion
A later petition raised claims of ineffective assistance, prosecutorial misconduct, and violation of his right to a speedy trial. A Superior Court judge rejected it, ruling the claims were “both procedurally barred and without merit.”5WDEL. Judge Rejects Latest Appeal in Delaware Double Murder Wright remains incarcerated on his life sentences.8Delmarva Public Media. Court Turns Down Appeal in 2006 Murder Conviction