Cheryl Gasper

Background

Cheryl Gasper was accused in the murder of her husband, Andie Gasper. She conspired with her lover, Randall Knight, to have her husband killed. Andie Gasper and Randall Knight were stationed together at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, in the 1980s, when Cheryl Gasper and Knight became involved.

In the 1990s, Randall Knight was charged in connection with Andie Gasper’s death and was acquitted of murder at a 1995 trial. The case remained unsolved until cold-case investigators reopened the investigation in connection with arrests of Cheryl Gasper and Randall Knight in 2010. Investigators said Knight drove from Ohio to Yorkshire and lured Andie Gasper to a parking lot behind an Ames department store.

The offence

Andie Gasper was attacked while in his truck behind the Ames department store. Authorities said Randall Knight stabbed him once in the chest inside Cheryl Gasper’s pickup truck.

Investigators said Cheryl Gasper and Randall Knight planned to use proceeds from Andie Gasper’s $100,000 life insurance policy to build a dream house together. The insurance company never paid on the policy after determining Andie Gasper’s signature had been forged.

Cheryl Gasper pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. During her plea proceeding, she told Judge Larry M. Himelein that she had several conversations with Knight with the understanding that he would kill her husband, including telling him where her husband would be sitting in his truck. She waived her rights to an appeal. She was assured the FBI would not prosecute her.

Investigation

Cold-case investigators reopened the unsolved killing in 2010. The reopening involved investigators from the FBI and the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office. A case was brought to a grand jury after a thorough investigation contributed to by the Cattaraugus County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit, FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the Cattaraugus County District Attorney’s Office.

At a press conference, Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Rieman described Randall Knight as an accomplice and said that a federal investigation was ongoing. The district attorney indicated the death involved life insurance and the promise of payment.

A key element in the investigation was that investigators were able to discredit some of the things Cheryl Gasper told the Sheriff’s Department, without specifying the details.

Sheriff Timothy Whitcomb credited the Cold Case Unit with a meticulous approach to the investigation. Undersheriff William Nichols, a former member of the Cold Case Unit, suggested involving the FBI. Nichols first became involved in the case in 1995, assisting in the initial investigation along with former Sheriff Jerry Burrell and investigators Dennis John and Ernest Travis. When Nichols retired in 2004, the file went back on the shelf. In late 2005, Nichols became a member of the Cold Case Unit along with Michael Malek, a former district attorney’s investigator who worked the initial case, and former State Police investigator Thomas Stoffer. Nichols said he got a call from the family and the trio reviewed the entire case for anything overlooked. Nichols said the investigators met in February 2009 with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office to outline the case.

Nichols said, “It was good, old-time policework” that led to Cheryl Gasper’s arrest. Nichols also said, “It’s only partially done. I’ll feel better when it’s done 100 percent."

Arrest

Cheryl Gasper was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with Andie Gasper’s stabbing death in Yorkshire nearly 16 years earlier. She was charged by a Cattaraugus County grand jury based on new evidence developed by the Cold Case Unit of the Sheriff’s Office and the FBI.

At her arraignment in front of County Court Judge Larry M. Himelein, Cheryl Gasper pleaded not guilty and was remanded to the Cattaraugus County Jail where she was being held without bail.

At a press conference announcing the arrest, district attorney Lori Rieman said Cheryl Gasper was now in the county jail for the murder of her husband, Andie Gasper, in 1994.

Horace Gasper, Cheryl Gasper’s father-in-law, later described the arrest as evidence of “the power of prayer. It doesn’t ever stop. We trusted the Cold Case Unit. They did a fantastic job and we are proud of them.”

Horace Gasper also said, “It never went away,” and that the family continued to seek justice.

Trial

Plea and sentencing

On October 5, 2010, Cheryl Gasper pleaded guilty in Cattaraugus County Court to charges that she conspired with her ex-lover, Randall Knight, to kill her husband on July 4, 1994.

During nearly 10 minutes of questioning by Judge Larry M. Himelein, Cheryl Gasper answered questions from the judge, who gleaned enough information to satisfy the guilty plea to second-degree murder. Her attorney, Public Defender Mark S. Williams, said, “She had a difficult time giving an [account] under oath.” Williams added: “She said enough so that the judge accepted her plea and the district attorney was satisfied.”

Cheryl Gasper thanked her three children for supporting her at sentencing, according to Horace Gasper. Horace Gasper said she did not apologize to her in-laws or the other dozen relatives in the courtroom.

On November 13, 2010, Cheryl Gasper was sentenced in Cattaraugus County Court to 18 years to life in prison.

Outside the courtroom, Mark S. Williams read a prepared statement from Cheryl Gasper: “I regret that my involvement with Randall Knight has caused pain to my children and family. If it were not for their love and support I could have not made it through this ordeal.”

Appeals

Cheryl Gasper waived her rights to an appeal during the guilty plea proceeding.

Outcome

Randall Knight had been acquitted at a 1995 trial of the murder charge related to Andie Gasper’s death. After the 2010 reopening, Knight pleaded guilty in July to a federal charge of crossing state lines for a murder-for-hire and was sentenced earlier this month to a 24-year prison term. Knight’s admission was part of a plea deal accepted by U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny and worked out by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Bruce.

In his confession to investigators, Randall Knight said, “I killed Andie Gasper by stabbing [him] once in the chest. Cheryl told me she wanted me to kill Andie and she didn't care when or how.”

U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul said that additional charges in the case would be brought as the evidence supports. Hochul also said potential federal charges being looked at involve murder for hire and interstate commerce statutes.

Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Rieman said that since the statute of limitations had expired for all state charges except murder, and Knight had been acquitted by a jury on the second-degree murder charge, Rieman was limited in what Gasper could be charged with. Rieman said that while Cheryl Gasper did not stab her husband through the heart, “She made it happen. She set the stage for someone (else) to do it.”

Rieman said Cheryl Gasper’s lies to the police and during the trial resulted in Knight’s acquittal.

Other details

Cheryl Gasper was 47 and lived at 3835 Forks Road, Chaffee, N.Y. Andie Gasper was 32 at the time of his death.

In the 1980s, Cheryl Gasper and Randall Knight became involved while both men served at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas. Cheryl Gasper and Randall Knight had an affair that lasted until 1993, just eight months before Andie Gasper’s death.

During the 2010 plea process, Judge Larry M. Himelein said he could not hear the defendant, who was standing directly in front of the judge.

Judge Larry M. Himelein and Cheryl Gasper’s attorney Mark S. Williams conducted the plea proceeding; Williams was Public Defender.

Horace Gasper later said, “We watched due process finally happen in the courts,” and “It’s been a long time to get to this point.” He also described waiting 16 years for justice as a struggle. Horace Gasper said he thanked Andie’s friends around the country for their continuing prayers that his killer would someday be brought to justice.

The press conference included U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Steven Lanser, assistant special agent in charge of the Buffalo FBI Office, and other FBI agents.