10-27-2010, 11:08 AM
Comment: They can stand in line behind Addison I could build a "death chamber" if they need one.
Spader trial: Mom fought to save daughter
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
1 hour, 51 minutes ago
NASHUA – Editor's Note: This story has graphic content.
Local nurse Kimberly L. Cates fought hard to save her life and shield her 11-year-old daughter from the relentless machete and knife blows Steven Spader and an accomplice inflicted after breaking into a Mont Vernon home last fall, the state alleged Tuesday.
But she was no match for the ferocity of Spader's machete and Christopher A. Gribble's knife as they hacked and cut through flesh and bone, dying in bed within arm's reach of her only child, Jaimie, Assistant Attorney General Peter A. Hinckley said.
"Kim and Jaimie's screams didn't stop him. Their cries, their begging, their pleas didn't stop him because he was merciless and he and Gribble were focused on what they intended and planned all along -- to break in and kill whoever was inside for fun, for kicks, ultimately for a few pieces of jewelry," Hinckley said.
At least one of the 16 jurors at Spader's trial in Hillsborough County Superior Court wiped away tears as Hinckley described in gruesome detail the massive and multiple wounds the mother and daughter suffered.
Spader, 18, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly murdering Kimberly Cates, the attempted murder of her daughter, murder and burglary conspiracy and witness-tampering in the Oct.4, 2009, attack.
Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley displays a photograph of the Cates family while reaching for a machette allegedly used to kill Kimberly Cates during the first day of Steven Spader's trial Hillsborough Superior Court on Tuesday (BOB HAMMERSTROM/AP POOL)
Gribble, 21, also of Brookline faces the same charges. He is set to stand trial Feb. 22 and may rely on an insanity defense.
Dressed in a dark navy blazer and blue dress shirt, Spader sat motionless and stared ahead as the prosecutor portrayed him as a cold-blooded, calculating and remorseless killer.
"Who would hack apart a helpless, defenseless mother and daughter in their bed and then laugh and boast about it?" Hinckley asked.
Presuming both Cates and her daughter were dead, Spader, Gribble and their cohorts, Quinn Glover, 18, and William Marks, 19, both of Amherst, went through the house stealing jewelry and other items, then fled, he alleged.
All four intruders wore gloves and left no fingerprints, cleaned the murder weapons, and they changed out of their bloody clothes and shoes and tossed them in a river where DNA and blood evidence was washed away, Hinckley said.
"But in the end, they could not stop talking and bragging about what they did," Hinckley said.
Several friends and acquaintances to whom Spader and Gribble gave gloating and graphic accounts of the crime went to police and have agreed to testify, he said.
The state also will introduce a letter Spader wrote from jail in which he proudly described the crime in detailed terms and a poem Spader wrote.
Steven Spader's poem
Another toe is gone
How did we go wrong
We had a perfect plan
Machetes in our hand
We went up in the house
And turned the power off
Quiet as a mouse
We went up in the house
We went up in the room
'Mommy, is it you?'
Your mommy isn't here
I slit her throat from ear to ear
Now we're all in jail
Now we all have no bail
Friends turning over friends
And this is how the story ends.
"We had a perfect plan / Machetes in our hand," Hinckley said as he read out loud a portion of the poem.
Co-defendants Marks, Glover and Hollis resident Autumn Savoy, 21, who helped cover up the crime, also will testify against Spader as part of cooperation agreements with the state.
Glover and Savoy already pleaded guilty to their crimes.
Spader's court-appointed defense attorney Andrew Winters stressed there is no forensic or physical evidence that links Spader to the Cates' home or the weapons.
And he said three co-defendants who will be the state's key witnesses have told multiple and contradictory stories. He accused them of cutting deals to shave time off their prison sentences "in exchange for shifting the blame off of themselves and onto Steven Spader."
Marks, he said, boasted about "stabbing somebody" with a knife and held an ax near Trow Road and said "he wanted to plant it in somebody's head," Winters said.
Glover's "weapon of choice" was an ax; he posted a photo of himself with one on his MySpace page, Winters said. Police also found a samurai sword hidden under his mattress, Winters said.
The state said all four men were inside the home, but only Gribble and Spader participated in the attack.
Winters dismissed the state's claim that the Disciples of Destruction "brotherhood" Spader formed shortly before the murder to carry out illegal activities was a legitimate gang.
"No one who was supposedly in this gang took it seriously. And, in general, no one took Steve Spader seriously. Anyone who knew Steve Spader said he constantly bragged, exaggerated and said things that weren't true or were doubtful to make himself look tough," Winters told jurors.
The state depicted Spader as a brutal, media-hungry killer eager to hear news accounts of the home invasion and murder. When they learned Jaimie survived, Spader "teased Gribble for not being able to finish her off" and "bragged about how he had gotten his bitch," Hinckley said.
Spader and Gribble allegedly got on either side of the bed in the darkened room and began hacking and cutting at Cates and her daughter, Hinckley said.
Jaimie Cates, in an effort to escape, jumped off the bed and into Gribble's arms where he continued to stab her with his knife and threw her against a sliding glass door, he said.
"Spader went up to the crumpled little girl on the floor. He took his machete and he hacked at her one last time, splitting open her head," Hinckley said.
Jaimie suffered an estimated 15 wounds, including a partially amputated left foot and an amputated toe and a deep facial wound that severed a nerve and cracked through her jaw bone.
Kimberly Cates, he said, was "strong" and fought Spader and Gribble hard until Gribble slit her throat, he said.
Kimberly Cates suffered more than 30 wounds, Hinckley said.
She had been stabbed about a dozen times and had a number of hacking wounds, including one that broke apart her upper arm bone and two that "broke open her skull and sunk into her brain," he said.
"She made a mother's sacrifice for her daughter," Hinckley said as David Cates, who was Kimberly's husband and is Jaimie's father, sat in the front row of the court room with members of his family. Cates was away on business when the attack occurred and the mother and daughter were sleeping in the same room.
The jury heard a recording of the 911 call Jaimie made about 4 a.m.
The girl's barely audible voice tried to tell the dispatcher "they" robbed her house.
Milford Police Sgt. Kevin Furlong forced open the front door and went to the severely wounded child lying on the kitchen floor.
"She was attempting to scream and yell, but no sound came out. She said in a whisper while shaking that 'I think my mommy is dead'," Furlong testified.
"I told her nobody else was going to hurt her," Furlong said, then carried the bleeding girl outside.
Dr. Amir Taghinia, a plastic surgeon who was part of the surgical trauma team who treated Jaimie Cates at Children's Hospital in Boston, said at least four of her wounds were caused by a heavy, sharp weapon, such as a machete or sword, wielded with force comparable to someone grabbing it "like a baseball bat and putting it over their head."
Trial resumes today for the second day of testimony.
Spader trial: Mom fought to save daughter
By KATHRYN MARCHOCKI
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
1 hour, 51 minutes ago
NASHUA – Editor's Note: This story has graphic content.
Local nurse Kimberly L. Cates fought hard to save her life and shield her 11-year-old daughter from the relentless machete and knife blows Steven Spader and an accomplice inflicted after breaking into a Mont Vernon home last fall, the state alleged Tuesday.
But she was no match for the ferocity of Spader's machete and Christopher A. Gribble's knife as they hacked and cut through flesh and bone, dying in bed within arm's reach of her only child, Jaimie, Assistant Attorney General Peter A. Hinckley said.
"Kim and Jaimie's screams didn't stop him. Their cries, their begging, their pleas didn't stop him because he was merciless and he and Gribble were focused on what they intended and planned all along -- to break in and kill whoever was inside for fun, for kicks, ultimately for a few pieces of jewelry," Hinckley said.
At least one of the 16 jurors at Spader's trial in Hillsborough County Superior Court wiped away tears as Hinckley described in gruesome detail the massive and multiple wounds the mother and daughter suffered.
Spader, 18, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly murdering Kimberly Cates, the attempted murder of her daughter, murder and burglary conspiracy and witness-tampering in the Oct.4, 2009, attack.
Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley displays a photograph of the Cates family while reaching for a machette allegedly used to kill Kimberly Cates during the first day of Steven Spader's trial Hillsborough Superior Court on Tuesday (BOB HAMMERSTROM/AP POOL)
Gribble, 21, also of Brookline faces the same charges. He is set to stand trial Feb. 22 and may rely on an insanity defense.
Dressed in a dark navy blazer and blue dress shirt, Spader sat motionless and stared ahead as the prosecutor portrayed him as a cold-blooded, calculating and remorseless killer.
"Who would hack apart a helpless, defenseless mother and daughter in their bed and then laugh and boast about it?" Hinckley asked.
Presuming both Cates and her daughter were dead, Spader, Gribble and their cohorts, Quinn Glover, 18, and William Marks, 19, both of Amherst, went through the house stealing jewelry and other items, then fled, he alleged.
All four intruders wore gloves and left no fingerprints, cleaned the murder weapons, and they changed out of their bloody clothes and shoes and tossed them in a river where DNA and blood evidence was washed away, Hinckley said.
"But in the end, they could not stop talking and bragging about what they did," Hinckley said.
Several friends and acquaintances to whom Spader and Gribble gave gloating and graphic accounts of the crime went to police and have agreed to testify, he said.
The state also will introduce a letter Spader wrote from jail in which he proudly described the crime in detailed terms and a poem Spader wrote.
Steven Spader's poem
Another toe is gone
How did we go wrong
We had a perfect plan
Machetes in our hand
We went up in the house
And turned the power off
Quiet as a mouse
We went up in the house
We went up in the room
'Mommy, is it you?'
Your mommy isn't here
I slit her throat from ear to ear
Now we're all in jail
Now we all have no bail
Friends turning over friends
And this is how the story ends.
"We had a perfect plan / Machetes in our hand," Hinckley said as he read out loud a portion of the poem.
Co-defendants Marks, Glover and Hollis resident Autumn Savoy, 21, who helped cover up the crime, also will testify against Spader as part of cooperation agreements with the state.
Glover and Savoy already pleaded guilty to their crimes.
Spader's court-appointed defense attorney Andrew Winters stressed there is no forensic or physical evidence that links Spader to the Cates' home or the weapons.
And he said three co-defendants who will be the state's key witnesses have told multiple and contradictory stories. He accused them of cutting deals to shave time off their prison sentences "in exchange for shifting the blame off of themselves and onto Steven Spader."
Marks, he said, boasted about "stabbing somebody" with a knife and held an ax near Trow Road and said "he wanted to plant it in somebody's head," Winters said.
Glover's "weapon of choice" was an ax; he posted a photo of himself with one on his MySpace page, Winters said. Police also found a samurai sword hidden under his mattress, Winters said.
The state said all four men were inside the home, but only Gribble and Spader participated in the attack.
Winters dismissed the state's claim that the Disciples of Destruction "brotherhood" Spader formed shortly before the murder to carry out illegal activities was a legitimate gang.
"No one who was supposedly in this gang took it seriously. And, in general, no one took Steve Spader seriously. Anyone who knew Steve Spader said he constantly bragged, exaggerated and said things that weren't true or were doubtful to make himself look tough," Winters told jurors.
The state depicted Spader as a brutal, media-hungry killer eager to hear news accounts of the home invasion and murder. When they learned Jaimie survived, Spader "teased Gribble for not being able to finish her off" and "bragged about how he had gotten his bitch," Hinckley said.
Spader and Gribble allegedly got on either side of the bed in the darkened room and began hacking and cutting at Cates and her daughter, Hinckley said.
Jaimie Cates, in an effort to escape, jumped off the bed and into Gribble's arms where he continued to stab her with his knife and threw her against a sliding glass door, he said.
"Spader went up to the crumpled little girl on the floor. He took his machete and he hacked at her one last time, splitting open her head," Hinckley said.
Jaimie suffered an estimated 15 wounds, including a partially amputated left foot and an amputated toe and a deep facial wound that severed a nerve and cracked through her jaw bone.
Kimberly Cates, he said, was "strong" and fought Spader and Gribble hard until Gribble slit her throat, he said.
Kimberly Cates suffered more than 30 wounds, Hinckley said.
She had been stabbed about a dozen times and had a number of hacking wounds, including one that broke apart her upper arm bone and two that "broke open her skull and sunk into her brain," he said.
"She made a mother's sacrifice for her daughter," Hinckley said as David Cates, who was Kimberly's husband and is Jaimie's father, sat in the front row of the court room with members of his family. Cates was away on business when the attack occurred and the mother and daughter were sleeping in the same room.
The jury heard a recording of the 911 call Jaimie made about 4 a.m.
The girl's barely audible voice tried to tell the dispatcher "they" robbed her house.
Milford Police Sgt. Kevin Furlong forced open the front door and went to the severely wounded child lying on the kitchen floor.
"She was attempting to scream and yell, but no sound came out. She said in a whisper while shaking that 'I think my mommy is dead'," Furlong testified.
"I told her nobody else was going to hurt her," Furlong said, then carried the bleeding girl outside.
Dr. Amir Taghinia, a plastic surgeon who was part of the surgical trauma team who treated Jaimie Cates at Children's Hospital in Boston, said at least four of her wounds were caused by a heavy, sharp weapon, such as a machete or sword, wielded with force comparable to someone grabbing it "like a baseball bat and putting it over their head."
Trial resumes today for the second day of testimony.
He ain't heavy, he's my brother.