Fairbanks man sentenced to 75 years for 2017 hatchet murder

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU) - A Fairbanks man was sentenced to 75 years in prison for killing another man with a hatchet in a club in 2017.

Brett Gilbert, 55, was sentenced Monday by Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle with no time suspended.

Gilbert was convicted by a jury in February of first-degree murder in the brutal attack that took place on July 30, 2017.

According to the Alaska Department of Law, Gilbert attacked Mark Mitchell with a hatchet inside Club Manchu in Fairbanks, an establishment that is now closed. Gilbert struck Mitchell “repeatedly” with the tool that he had concealed on his person. The attack was caught on video with a security camera inside the club.

An earlier report of the incident described Gilbert using chopping motions as he continued to strike Mitchell after the victim collapsed to the floor. It was only after a worker at the club grabbed Gilbert from behind to stop the attack that Gilbert fled the scene.

Police later found Gilbert at his home, where they arrested him.

Lyle said in the sentencing release that the murder of Mitchell was “planned and brutally carried out,” and found Gilbert’s prospects for rehabilitation to be “guarded.”

“When looking at the reaffirmation of societal norms, Judge Lyle stated the norm expected by society was the right of every citizen to live a full and natural life, which Gilbert took from Mitchell without reason,” the release stated.

Copyright 2023 KTUU. All rights reserved.