Magna, UT: Man ordered to stand trial in knife slaying of ex-girlfriend

By Stephen Hunt
The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:09/15/2009 04:50:10 PM MDT

Fifteen-year-old Carly Robbins refused to look at the man accused of fatally stabbing her mother last year at their Magna home.
The teen took the witness stand Tuesday in 3rd District Court and immediately turned her back on Charles "Chuck" Richard Gunkel, who is charged with first-degree felony aggravated murder -- a potential death-penalty offense -- for stabbing 51-year-old Morena Molly Robbins five times in the abdomen on Aug. 8, 2008.
Carly Robbins then recounted how Gunkel stood on the front porch and begged her mother not to marry another man; how Gunkel broke through the locked screen door, pinned her mother to the bedroom floor, choked her and brandished a knife; how she escaped to call police and paramedics -- who arrived too late to save her mother's life.
Following the testimony from the girl and others at the preliminary hearing, Judge Deno Himonas ordered Gunkel to stand trial for murder, as well as felony counts of aggravated burglary and aggravated assault.
Gunkel, 54 and Molly Robbins had been in an on-again, off-again relationship for about five years, according to testimony. Then, about three weeks prior to the slaying, Gunkel learned Robbins was seeing someone else.
"Don't do this. Don't get married," Gunkel said to Molly Robbins before breaking open the door, according to Carly Robbins.
Moments later, the girl saw Gunkel on top of her mother, choking her with one hand and a pocket knife in the other. She said her mother was saying, "Chuck, please don't do this."
The girl testified that Gunkel ordered her into the bedroom and onto the bed. He then pointed the knife at her and said, "Shut up or I'll cut you, too."
Moments later, the girl fled the room, ran next door and called 911.
By the time paramedics arrived, Robbins -- an elementary school teacher and the mother of five children -- was dead.
An autopsy showed she bled to death from wounds that penetrated her heart, aorta, liver and two major blood veins.
After the stabbing, Gunkel returned to his own home, located about a half-mile away, where he called his ex-wife and told her about the slaying, according to testimony.
Later, in exchange for a cigarette, Gunkel told Salt Lake County Sheriff's Det. Chad Reyes he went to talk to Robbins after learning she had "moved on and found another boyfriend."
But after noting that Robbins had not wanted to talk to him, Gunkel stopped talking and asked for a lawyer, Reyes testified. The knife was found in the bushes in front of Robbins' home.
Gunkel is to appear in court again Sept. 28 for a scheduling hearing before Judge William Barrett. Prosecutors will then have 60 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty.