Jacob Gines woke up the morning of May 31 to the sound of his girlfriend crying.
Kaitlin MacGown found out her friend Sabrina Marie Galusha had died the night before. Galusha was stabbed in the chest in the parking lot of a Penacook apartment complex and was pronounced dead soon after at Concord Hospital.
Gines, like everyone else, had trouble believing it at first.
“It really didn’t seem real,” he said. “You think back to all those conversations with her and how fun she was, how kind she was, that her life can be taken from her at 23 years old.”
The next day, Gines and dozens of Galusha’s friends and family members filled a courtroom in hopes of facing the man accused of killing Galusha, but Daswan Jette, then 20, waived his arraignment from behind closed doors.
Jette is accused of fatally stabbing Galusha over a half-ounce of marijuana outside the Penacook Place Apartments at 36 Pinehurst St. in Concord on May 30. Jette is being held without bail pending trial on charges of first-degree murder and an alternative count of second-degree murder.
“We were all pissed off,” Gines said of the waived arraignment, but the day was not a total loss. He wanted to celebrate Galusha’s life and floated the idea of a memorial concert while talking to those gathered at the courthouse that day. The idea was welcomed, and the concert is finally happening Saturday.
Gines, 22, knew Galusha from school. They both attended Concord High but got to know each other through friends outside the classroom.
“I hung out with her a bunch of times,” he said. “I looked up to her. I’d show up to a party and I would hear her voice and think, ‘Nice, I get to talk about cool stuff tonight.’ ”
He recalled their conversations about their love of music, how little gas they used by driving Prius hybrids, and her love of pigs and their intelligence compared to other animals. She was a good listener who respected his opinions even when she disagreed.
“She was just a really, really, really, really, kind person,” he said.
After plans for the concert fell apart at the eleventh hour in June, Gines started an online fundraising campaign and was able to bring in enough to book Eagle Square in Concord for the show.
Several music acts will perform – some young artists who knew Galusha and some who didn’t. Between the sets, the microphone will remain open to welcome anyone who would like to read a poem or share a story.
Gines said he realizes a number of those stories have already been told by family and friends at a vigil held for Galusha early this summer, but he knows everyone “wouldn’t mind hearing the stories again.”
The concert will take place on Saturday at Eagle Square in Concord from 5-10 p.m. Gines is continuing to take donations at his “Sabrina Galusha’s Life Celebration” GoFundMe page to buy refreshments and provide other activities during the event.