Editor's note: The following story contains graphic material.

The judge wanted to know if murderer Jeremy Gubbels agreed that the monstrous killings of his parents were planned and deliberate.

Gubbels, 28, in handcuffs in the prisoner’s box in a London court, didn’t answer immediately.

For almost a whole minute, the courtroom filled with family members who’d just heard the gruesome details of the murders, was pin-drop silent.

His lawyer, Ron Ellis, leaned over the Plexiglass barrier to Gubbels for a brief word.

Justice Thomas Heeney asked again.

Gubbels slightly shrugged.

“Yeah,” he muttered.

Clearly, based on the agreed statement of facts read as Gubbels pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, he’d thought long and hard about how he was going to kill his Lambton County parents. He acted out a long-simmering rage against two people who tried their best to help him.

Susan and Mario Gubbels were solid, community-minded people from the Watford area who loved their two children, Amanda and Jeremy, during good times and bad.

It had to have been difficult to find that strength with Jeremy, a troubled man with a history of mental illness and criminal offences.

But Tuesday, the passive, doughy killer wiped tears from his eyes with a tissue, while his sister, orphaned by her brother’s cruel and depraved crimes, looked on.

Susan Gubbels, 55, a branch manager at a Bank of Montreal, was the first one to die on July 13, 2014 at the family home outside Watford. Her body was sexually assaulted. She was mutilated with long-handled shears, a skill saw, a chainsaw and a sledge hammer.

Mario Gubbels, 54, who worked in the pork industry, died when he came home from work to the bloodbath. He was stabbed to death, his body mutilated and thrown into the covered bed of his pickup truck.

His remains were found in a London parking lot as his son sat in a nearby restaurant dining on bruschetta, calamari, a 10-oz steak dinner and five Blue Zen martinis.

To understand the depravity of those acts, assistant Crown attorney Elizabeth Maguire began her recital of the facts for Heeney by recounting events in 2011 when, while Gubbels was living at home, he destroyed the place, causing $100,000 damage, while his parents were on vacation.

His parents kicked him out and his probation officer, who knew Gubbels was angry with them, was concerned for their safety.

Gubbels had caused problems in his parents’ marriage but, Maguire said, they’d resolved those issues and were about to go on vacation in 2014 to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.

Gubbels was living in London and on July 11, 2014, he called his mother to pick him up and bring him home.

He also called his sister Amanda and asked about her plans.

The next day, Gubbels sent his sister a text message from his mom’s phone for her new address in London. They made plans for he and his mother to come to London the next day for breakfast and to see the apartment.

Susan Gubbels played computer casino games with her sister in Quebec the next morning and called her daughter to change the breakfast plans to dinner plans, so her husband could join them. It would be the last time Amanda would hear from her.

Later that morning, Gubbels killed his mother on the stairs as she came up from the basement computer room.

Between 11 a.m. and 11:40 a.m., Gubbels was on the family computer accessing YouTube videos of Eminem’s Kill You, Metallica’s Am I Evil? and AC/DC’s For Those About to Rock.

After killing his mother, Gubbels went into Watford to buy cigarettes, Saran Wrap, and Kinder Surprise eggs. Maguire said it’s common for criminals to buy the chocolate treat and use the plastic containers in the eggs to hide drugs and conceal them in their body cavities.

Gubbels then went to Home Hardware and bought a 12-inch electric chainsaw and oil. The manual was found on the kitchen counter of the family home, the page detailing how to assemble it open. The chainsaw was found broken near his mother’s body.

In town, Gubbels got a $500 cash advance on his mother’s credit card and headed over to Foodland to buy extra-large garbage bags and some lunch meat.

His sister started calling the house and her mom’s cellphone just before 1:30 p.m..

There was no answer. She would anxiously call 30 more times before 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, Gubbels was back on the computer, stepping over his mother’s body to get to it, and searching London restaurants Tru, and Moxie’s.

Gubbels’s father came home from work at 5 p.m. and was attacked by Gubbels right away. He was stabbed several times and his body dragged through the house, out the patio doors and into the pickup truck bed with a protective cover. His body was mutilated before Gubbels drove the truck and the body to London.

But first, Maguire said, Gubbels used some “basic first aid supplies at the house” for a cut on his hand. He stopped for $87 in gas in Strathroy and was seen in video surveillance checking the back of the truck before taking off for London.

By then, Maguire said, Amanda Gubbels knew something was wrong. She and her boyfriend headed to Watford and she kept trying to call them.

Just before 9 p.m. while driving to her parents’ home, she got a text message from Gubbels.

“THIS IS JEREMY!!! How’s it going . . . Just wanted to let you know I love you more than my words could ever possibly describe. Have a good one SISTER!!!”

Amanda called the OPP. They were on their way to meet her at the house.

By then, Gubbels was in London. He stopped at a Walmart and bought some Tylenol, partly bu using his mother’s reward points. He headed downtown and parked behind Moxie’s.

Amanda Gubbels got to her parents’ home before the police. The family dog was running loose outside. The door was locked, but she heard loud music inside. She unlocked the door and saw a large amount of smeared blood on the floor. She told police when they got there. They found her mother’s body.

Gubbels ordered dinner at Moxie’s and called his sister, who was frantically waiting for a police report outside the house. He claimed he was in the basement computer room and their parents were outside arguing. Amanda asked again where their parents were. Gubbels said he “forgave her for what happened in Quebec.” Amanda didn’t know what he was talking about and ended the call.

Police traced the cell phone to Moxie’s while Gubbels kept texting his sister.

“Please forgive me? Please come visit me? You can be part of my life if you choose to be? Good bye SISTER!!!” he wrote.

London police found Mario Gubbels’ body in the back of the pickup truck shortly before 10:30 p.m. Also found was a knife, a set of pruners and a bread bag with some of his body parts and two pieces of bread. Some marijuana and the Kinder eggs were in the cab.

Gubbels sent his sister one more message.

“Goodbye Farewell. See you in Heavon (sic)) Hopefully if you CHOOSE to join me their (sic) ??? . . . I really do wuve (sic) you!!! Forgive me??? . . . Have a good one SISTER.”

“See you on the other side???”

Arrested in the restaurant just before 11 p.m., Gubbels said he’d taken 150 Tylenols. He told a paramedic he felt “great” and “completely calm.”

He told an officer in the ambulance that “I wish she was alive so I could tell her how much I love her.”

Later, while describing the killings, he told police, “Neither of them deserved it. All they did was love me.”

He said he killed his father in the back of the truck in Middlesex County after leaving the house. “I wanted my dad to suffer,” Gubbels said.

“I’m a psychopath. He wasn’t dead yet. Some are created, some are born. True blue.”

He asked the London officer who arrested him if he was “OPP or city,” then quoted the London police motto.

“Deeds not words, eh. I’m the same way.”

A psychiatrist spoke to Gubbels to assess his suicide risk.

Gubbels told her he wasn’t trying to kill himself and took the Tylenol to avoid the pain because he expected to be injured by police when arrested.

He was asked if wanted to harm anyone else. The calm, relaxed Gubbels smiled.

“You know, it feels really good to kill. I can’t deny it,” he told the psychiatrist.

Gubbels will be sentenced Aug. 4, when it’s expected his sister and members of his parents’ large families will read victim impact statements.

Gubbels stole glances at all of them during Tuesday’s hearing. At the end, through his lawyer, he had a request.

“Mr. Gubbels asks if any family member wants to visit him, they are welcome to do so,” Ellis said.

Maguire said that was impossible because of a court order.

Gubbels obediently had his leg shackles re-fastened and he was taken away.

jsims@postmedia.com

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