Two of five Mont Vernon murder team flip on the others

Two of the five young men charged in connection with last fall’s home invasion and murder of a Mont Vernon woman have agreed to testify against the other three, and one will avoid a murder charge by doing so, court records show.

The five suspects all were indicted or waived indictment Wednesday on charges stemming from the Oct. 4 murder of Kimberly Cates, 42, and near-fatal attack on her 11-year-old daughter, court records show.

Quinn Glover, 18, formerly of 34 Blueberry Hill Road, Amherst, and Autumn Savoy, 20, of 88 Runnels Bridge Road, Hollis, each waived their right to have their cases presented to a grand jury, and filed agreements to cooperate with prosecutors and testify against their former friends, Hillsborough County Superior Court records show.

Christopher Gribble, 20, of 23 Oak Hill Road, Brookline, and Steven Spader, 18, of 7 Wallace Brook Road, Brookline, each face two, alternative counts of first-degree murder for Cates’ death, one for the deed and one alleging the murder was committed during the course of a burglary. The penalty is the same upon conviction for either version: life in prison, without chance of parole.

Gribble and Spader also are charged with attempted murder for the attack on Cates’ daughter, and witness tampering, accused of threatening other youths to whom they had blabbed about their crimes.

William Marks, 18, of 464 Boston Post Road, Amherst, was indicted as an accomplice on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree assault, as well as conspiracy to murder and burglary.

All five defendants remain jailed while awaiting trial, though Glover has been held in Merrimack County, while the others are in the Hillsborough County jail.

Prosecutors have said the teens targeted the Cates’ home for a burglary because it was remote, and agreed beforehand that they would kill anyone they found inside. Spader and Marks bought knifes in the days just before the home invasion, and Spader and Gribble researched the possibility of making their own chloroform, to render any residents unconscious, prosecutors charge.

The lead prosecutor, Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin, said Thursday he couldn’t comment on the reasons for offering plea deals to two of the defendants.

Prosecutors charge that Gribble wielded a dagger and Spader a machete, and that each of them attacked Cates and her daughter, who had been asleep in Cates’ bed, after breaking into the house around 4 a.m. Gribble and Spader bragged to friends about the killings afterward, and Spader said he wanted to do it again sometime, police reported.

Speaking with police after his arrest, Gribble described himself and Spader as "sociopaths" and told police he had wanted to kill someone for a long time, but he was disappointed by how little emotion he felt afterward.

Prosecutors have said that Glover and Marks also went into the Cates’ home with Spader and Gribble, and that both were armed, but neither of them were accused of taking part in the actual attacks on Cates and her daughter.

In exchange for Glover’s promised cooperation, however, prosecutors agreed to charge him only with robbery, burglary and conspiracy to burglary. Glover agreed to plead guilty, and cooperate fully. Though Glover may argue for less, prosecutors will recommend the maximum sentence for all three charges, a total of 20-40 years in prison.

Savoy will admit to charges of hindering apprehension and conspiracy, in exchange for a recommended sentence of five to 12 years in prison, with an additional 3* to seven years to remain suspended after he gets out.

Savoy was arrested in November, accused of lying to police in providing false alibis for his friends and helping them to destroy evidence by throwing it in the Nashua River, where police found it a short way downstream. He admitted to having heard his friends talk about the murder beforehand but told police he thought they were kidding.

Plea hearings have yet to be scheduled for Glover or Savoy, court staff said Thursday.

Kimberly Cates’ was the first murder in living memory in Mont Vernon, and the brutality and random nature of the attack shocked the region.

Police were dispatched to the Cates’ home at 4 Trow Road at about 4:15 a.m. by a 911 call with an open line. The first officer to arrive, Milford Police Sgt. Kevin Furlong found Jaimie Cates, 11, inside, bleeding profusely from machete and knife wounds.

"They killed my mommy," she told him, police said.

Police found Kimberly Cates’ body in her bedroom, with numerous cuts and stab wounds all over. Cates’ husband was out of town on business at the time.

Despite their apparent effort to plan out the attack, conceal evidence and concoct alibis, the defendants bragged widely of their deeds afterward, telling several acquaintances and showing off their weapons, police said. Tips quickly reached police, and the four defendants were arrested about 50 hours after the murder. Savoy was questioned at the time and arrested the following month.

It typically takes a year or longer for homicide cases to reach trials in superior court once a defendant has been indicted. Plea bargains in murder cases are common, too, though somewhat less so than with lesser crimes.

While the testimony of Glover and Savoy would surely help the prosecution, police reports suggest they have plenty of other evidence, too.

Gribble, Marks and Savoy all denied knowing anything when first questioned, but each later spoke of the crime in detail, and Gribble and Savoy each led investigators to places where the suspects had hidden weapons and other evidence, police reported.

Spader and Glover denied any involvement in the murders, and then asserted their rights to consult lawyers upon being arrested, police said.

Robbery was the motive, the suspects said; they had stolen from other homes before, but they were running out of cash and wanted more.

Gribble told police he attacked Jaimie Cates first, while Spader "hacked" at her mother. The two essentially traded places after a time, and Spader allegedly struck Jaimie Cates with his machete, though she was laying still, playing dead, police said.

Gribble told investigators he meant to kill the girl and felt badly that he’d failed because she would have to live with the trauma, police said.