Home Invasions, pt. 2: The Pure Thrill Killers

Which brings us to Mont Vernon, New Hampshire, October, 2009, and a brazen pointless crime involving four teenagers. They called their little morbid collective, The Disciples Of Destruction. Such was their bungled crime, they were caught mere days later. A 38 year old woman, Kimberly Cates, was brutally murdered and her 11 year old daughter, Jaimie, was left for dead. The father was away on a business trip during the crime. She survived multiple knife and ax wounds:  

“Jaimie Cates didn’t die,” Hinckley told a rapt jury. “When her Mom’s killers left, that little girl got up. She stopped playing dead. With one arm broken, her jaw shattered and parts of her foot completely cut off, she got up.”Jaimie made her way to the kitchen and phoned police."¹ 

You really need to watch the series of trial videos on YouTube to fully immerse yourself in this case. WMUR-TV covered the trials of the four perpetrators back in 2011. It's both frustrating and probably wise that they've turned the comments off all these videos. Frustrating because you really want to scream expletives at these fucking teenagers. They are a tough watch.

The two defendants charged with the murders, Stephen Spader and Christopher Gribble, are both blunt, unapologetic and self-congratulatory in their testimony. The quasi-leader, Stephen Spader, almost seems like he's acting though. Hard to say for sure. But Christopher Gribble goes for the full insanity defense, and does a remarkable job on the stand of proving his guilt. His pinpoint 'teenage' logic and comical sarcasm works entirely against his own favor. Teenagers are the epitome of sequestered  narcissistic intelligence.

I'm guessing his lawyer either didn't care, or was forced to allow Gribble to testify in his own defense. Tactically it was serious mistake, but probably didn't matter in the grand scheme. He spent most his time on the stand almost absurdly lucid, bluntly describing the plan and execution of the murder, and also his wretched home life. He talks about a strict and abusive religious upbringing and how much he hates his mother. The other two accomplices were not directly involved in the murders, but active participants in the break-in, and testified as witnesses against their two friends for the prosecution. Both Spader and Gribble received both Life Plus sentences and the other two somewhere between 30 and 40 year sentences. There was a fifth accomplice, not present during the home invasion, that was also convicted to a lesser sentence for helping the others cover up their crime.