Suspect Who Pled Guilty to Strangling a Woman He Met at a Bar Sentenced to Prison

(KNSI) — A man accused of killing a Sauk Rapids woman after driving her home from the bar and then fleeing to Louisiana was sentenced Tuesday to just over 27 years in prison.

November 19th, 46-year-old Christopher Lee Neal entered a Norgaard plea for second-degree murder. A Norgaard plea is a guilty plea with a catch. It admits that if the case were to go to trial, the defendant believes prosecutors can prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. It also concedes that the defendant is unable to recall key details of the crime. In this case, Neal claimed he was drunk because he had been at the bar before the killing.

According to the criminal complaint, on August 12th, 2024, Neal choked Victoria Gamble to death. Neal then took the keys to Gamble’s Chevrolet Equinox and fled. Her ex-husband and his current wife had discovered Gamble’s body after they did a welfare check at her apartment. Neal turned up in Louisiana with the stolen vehicle a week later.

In accordance with state law, Neal can get out after serving two-thirds of his sentence behind bars and serve the rest on supervised release.

___