Ashly Gambino: Teen wants the best for felon.

More than a year ago, Robert T. Moon brought a gun to Ashly Gambino's Wake County home. The weapon went off, and a bullet fractured Gambino's spine, leaving her a quadriplegic. Instead of malice, Gambino, 17, hopes Moon will turn his life around after he gets out of prison. A federal judge sentenced him Tuesday to more than 17 years in prison for his role in the shooting.

Moon, 33, was charged with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.

"I know that I'm going to be OK," Gambino said. "His life is pretty much over. I kind of feel kind of bad for him."

The teen spends most of her day lying in bed attached to a ventilator that breathes for her. She can't feed herself, brush hair off her face or wipe her nose. But her mind continues to work.

"I have my bad days," Gambino said. "But most of the time I am happy. I don't know how I do it. I feel lucky just to be alive."

Gambino's extended family moved her to western New York, where they live, so they could better care for her. They found her a spot in a senior citizen rest home, the only place they could find that would care for a quadriplegic on a ventilator and would accept Medicaid.

Gambino's most recent three roommates, all senior citizens, have died, said her aunt, Donalee Livingston.

"Our hope for Ashly is that this wasn't the the end of her life," Livingston said. "It is just the beginning of a different life."

Gambino is studying for a general equivalency diploma and wants to attend community college and eventually move into her own apartment. She talks with her current boyfriend, a classmate from Garner Senior High School, using a voice-activated speaker phone her family bought her.

"My life has done a total 360," Gambino said. "I'm happier now than I was before. I know that I'm actually going to do something. Before, I had no place, I was just on the run."

Gambino's injury came after a night of drinking and drug use with Moon, her then-boyfriend. Investigators found water pipes, marijuana and a pistol inside the home where Gambino was shot, according to a search warrant. Her blood tested positive for cocaine, marijuana and alcohol, according to medical records.

Wake County deputies arrived at a Circle K convenience store July 28, 2004, and found Gambino bleeding and unconscious from the gunshot wound that had fractured her vertebra.

Investigators think Gambino was shot inside her home on Old Stage Road near Garner and then driven to the Circle K because Moon and others were worried an ambulance could not locate the house, said Chief Ronnie Stewart with the Wake County Sheriff's Office.

Wake County investigators think Gambino accidentally shot herself. But Gambino's family thinks Moon accidentally shot the girl, Livingston said.

Gambino can't remember what happened the night of the accident. Moon's arrest for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon was the only charge to come out of the case.

Gambino was 16 when she hooked up with Moon, a convicted felon who had moved into her mother's home in the spring of 2004. After her mother was arrested that spring, Gambino moved into the foster home where she was later shot, she said. She had dropped out of school and continued to date Moon.

"I feel like that time period was total chaos," Gambino said. " I just don't understand how I let that happen, how I let that get so far."

Staff writer Jennifer Brevorka can be reached at 836-4906 or jbrevork@newsobserver.com.
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Site Updated Oct 2005