Mont Vernon Murder /// Part 2 /// 434 | Forensic Files

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[Music] % [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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talk some true crime [Music] [Applause] as hard as they were to hear at times we
have sat through the interviews of four of the five individuals being interviewed for the murder of Kimberly
Kates and now we have step sper who is left Chris Gribble gave us a good amount of
information and he showed us what kind of Heartless individual he actually is it's time for Steph sper did he tell the
same story as Gribble and a nutshell no instead sper threw his childhood friend right under the bus the affidavit sums
it up best quote sper told the police in substance that he did not commit the charged crimes that he did not know who
did it that whoever did it should get the death penalty he also stated that on October 4 he was at the Pheasant Lane
Mall in NASA with Christopher Gribble while he pawned jewelry presumably the jewelry taken
from the Kate's home sper then lawyered up and refused to talk to the authorities this is
confusing as we saw these boys took pains to make sure that they were not caught they wore gloves they got rid of
their clothes they cleaned the blood evidence up with bleach and other cleaning agents but then they told
everyone they knew about the murders here's what the affidavit says the boys blabbed about to people during
the day on Sunday sper told Jamie Holland remember he was at Kyle Fenton's house all about the murder quote because
he trusted him as we know they also told Fen all about it and his mom was the one
who actually called the police Gribble said that they threatened Elden spikes on Sunday remember that spikes was
hanging out with the four of them that Sunday and they all had gone together to the pawn shop to sell some items stolen
from the house when sper found out Spike's girlfriend knew about the murder he threatened him and so did Gribble
they showed a number of people the knives on Sunday but then became concerned that so many people knew so
they cleaned the knife and the machete and the sheets with bleach and alcohol and then buried the knives in the woods
they also buried a pearl necklace they stole from the Kate's home that they could not Pawn these items were
collected by investigators after Gribble LED them to the burial spot this is not
laid out in the affidavit but it seems likely that at least one of them told his girlfriend as we know that Glover's
girlfriend called and yelled at him about it also Jillian Baptist Spader's girlfriend was included in an outing to
the Pheasant Lane Mall where they pawned the jewelry she testified that she later
learned what they had done and cut ties with sper right and let's go back to the
idea that we know that Gribble is a horrible person but he's also telling the authorities hey sper is actually the
real deal so now let's get into the autopsy and the charges the medical examiner found that Kimberly Kates died
from 32 sharp injuries to her head neck torso left arm and left leg from two different weapons manner of death of
course homicide she was alive unfortunately for the entirety of the attack per the medical examiner's
testimony during all of the blows she was alive these included one that broke apart her upper arm bone and two that
broke open her skull and sunk into her brain the medical examiner also said that her throat was
cut and one eyeball was dislodged from the force of the blows jimie the 11-year-old girl suffered multiple
debilitating injuries she had a broken jaw she had a punctured lung she had to have part of her foot amputated as well
as Skin graphs for multiple lacerations that required plastic surgery one wound penetrated and fractured her skull her
elbow was broken she had multiple stab wounds from what looked like a small knife per the sentencing memo quote her
treating physicians at Children's Hospital and B Austin testified that they had never treated any patient adult
or child with that many stab or hack wounds end quote a doctor testified at one of the trials that jimie would have
died of a punctured lung if she had lost Consciousness before calling the police within 2 days the detailed arrest
affidavit we have been reading from was filed with the Milford District Court that laid out the case against the four
who participated in the attack on the Kate's family per WMUR quote a little after 6: a.m. on
Tuesday October 6th the State Attorney General's office issued a press release to the media that said four arrests have
been made in connection to the Mount Vernon killing and attack before noon on that same day sper Ribble Marx and
Glover were arraigned one by one at Milford district court so they're going to charge all five of them yeah so Chris
Gribble and Steven sper were charged with first-degree murder attempted murder and conspiracy to murder as well
as a bunch of lesser charges William Marx and Quinn Glover were charged with burglary conspiracy to burglary and
robbery they were warned that prosecutors would seek a additional indictments when they presented their
cases to a grand jury in early November more charges were forthcoming Autumn seavoy was charged with two counts of
hindering apprehension or prosecution and one count of conspiracy to commit hindering apprehension or prosecution
this was of course because of his throwing the evidence bag into the river and then lying to police about the false
Al question for you maybe you know this um do they have to charge these individuals therefore they can use that
as like some leverage against them to testify well yes of course but they also have to charge them just to hold
continue to hold them at some point if you don't charge them they they have rights as a citizen who's not being
detained and they have to be released so I think what you have here Captain is when you got a A whole batch of [ __ ]
that you have to um charge with an an assortment of charges I think not only does it take
some time to it takes time to Hash that out who's guilty of what and what will the public decide they're guilty of and
and agree to as well so it's hard to overstate the shock you know we've just spent an hour
or so on this case but I want everybody to really kind of sit and think about this for a minute
because it's really hard to State the amount of shock that ensued from the arrest of these boys they had their
problems of course but in general no one saw this coming we talked about the area
that this place had not had a murder in over a hundred years and then when you solve it this quickly or you are making
arrest this quickly and the public can see what's going on and now they're being told that the perpetrators are
children essentially it's it was I mean the the area was in shock from the murder itself and from the attack itself
but now you double down on that that the perpetrators they look like kids on the
evening news they don't look like some monster that strolled into town and and took away one of your own well again it
also depends on what picture they're getting you know if if you take any of these kids and and go back 3 years some
of these kids were doing all right then and obviously the age is a lot younger so they look way more Innocent but just
imagine what these parents are going through we know through some of the testimony that some of the parents knew
that the these kids were going down the wrong path but maybe down the wrong path
for some kids are like oh well now he's he smokes or we caught him smoking some weed or we caught him with a beer or we
you know we caught him making out with his girlfriend or whatever whatever it would be right to go down the wrong path
but most parents are not going to assume the wrong path is taking them down to heinous murder for no reason other than
they just wanted to murder somebody the ABC News put it pretty succinctly saying
that Friends of the teenagers were shocked that the boys who came from middle class families and participated
in activities like school musicals and the boy SC Scouts would conspire to commit such brutality the
community they not only blamed the the boys but some people in the community were blaming the parents of these kids
as well saying that the parents must have ignored the signs that they enabled them yeah and labeling the boys as evil
monsters Psychopaths who deserved the death penalty many people also believe that there were varying levels of
culpability among the pack of five after all according to what the boys were saying only two of them actually
participated in the physical attacks on our two victims sooy wasn't even at the trow Road House at all thankfully none
of them were granted bail they were going to sit in jail and wait for their trial they would have to stay there
until their trial date while all of this was going on our survivor sixth grader Jamie Kates attended her mother's
funeral in a wheelchair she was able to return to school the week of October 27th she and her father issued a
statement that thanked all of the First Responders doctors law enforcement and community members so what's the story
about the the high school yearbook this is an interesting one and this is not something that we would have in a lot of
our cases given the age of the perpetrators but right now we have these five young men as disgusting as they are
they're sitting in a jail cell waiting for their trials and we have the state that's going to be busy preparing
indictments and working to build their case against these individuals in the meantime the
200920 school year is drawing to a close and the Yearbook is going to be released
and this takes place in March of 2010 the high school yearbook contained pictures of all of its students as one
would expect but in this case it includes even the ones in jail for the Kate's murder remember two of these guys
were still in high school at the time of these crimes in fact they were picked up
at school when the police wanted to question these guys right so David Kates he's the father of our young surviving
victim he's the husband of our other victim he sent a letter to the school administrators requesting an apology for
the inclusion of photos of Quinn Glover and William Marx in that year's yearbook
his letter read I can't understand why you made such a disrespectful decision Jaimie is
going to the school in two very short years how can she have respect towards the administration when you were so
disrespectful toward her mother's memory Jamie and our families will survive this
slap in the face but I think the bigger picture is the message you sent to students by condoning the
immortalization of these soulless young men that consciously with intent invaded
our home and took my beautiful wife from Jamie and me chances are that this is was the last thing on the
administrator's mind they probably you you see what I'm saying like maybe one of these kids played on a soccer team
earlier in their career high school career and they won a state championship and their picture is somewhere up in the
hallway administrators might not that might not pop into their head that they need to go take that down just like the
administrators are not in charge of every decision that the yearbook is making there normally is a class for
that or um after school group for that so it wouldn't be the first thing on their mind now mind you again the person
who whatever teacher is in charge of putting together this the yearbook probably should have popped that into
their brain right I mean the the school administration is in control of of whatever class is in charge of the the
yearbook what's crazy is that this is this is a conscious decision it's not as though the yearbook was sent in for
printing in September and when the murders happened in October no one thought to take out the pictures of the
two boys rather the school consulted with the marks and Glover parents who said they wanted to leave the pictures
of their sons in the yearbook so the school decided to go along with that I I get what you're saying if
somebody plays on the soccer team and you got 16 other kids on the team and coaches and what have you you it's very
difficult to go back and retake that picture it's pretty easy to leave leave the little square picture out of
the actual yearbook and I think to to take it a step further that David Kates is is very right his daughter who was
attacked by these guys M she is going to be attending that school in two very short
years and it just seems like as he said I think it's a slap in the face and I think that it's I think it's
disrespectful it's cly it's definitely disrespectful for the fact that they actually talked to the parents and then
they like you said they actually had to make a decision it was on their minds yeah I thought it was just something
that they might have just overlooked and then it's like oh come on give them a break they got so many things to deal
with to run a school that they might overlooked it but the fact that they actually made a decision and talk to the
parents at some point you just tell the parent like look I know why you want to leave the the the kid in the book but
we're going to take him out out of respect for the surviving uh family members and for the victim well and
here's here's the issue that that I have with it I'm 100% on David Kat's side on
this and and I I think I find it actually appalling and and the reason why is it would have taken no more effort to
reach out to David Kates you realized that this was a decision you were going to be making and then it would have it
it carries some weight this is an important decision that you're making you understood so much that you reached
out to the parents of the students reach out to the member of your community and
say we've reached out to the parents they would like to keep the pictures in the yearbook at least get his opinion
they didn't do that right and and here's the thing here's the issue it's innocent
until proven guilty these two have not gone to trial yet they've not been actually convicted or sentenced for
these crimes so I get that maybe the ideas leave them in there because they're innocent the problem with that
is we have a situation where we have confessions of these individuals and these confessions check out it's not
it's not like their confessions and the the police got some teenagers to admit to do something that they didn't do
these confessions track yeah so as administrator you you go I got to call the parents ring ring ring parents hello
um well we have confirm that your kid's a piece of [ __ ] and we're taking them out of the yearbook
yeah I mean all kinds of things you you can have excuses why if you want to defend yourself to the parents and say
look they didn't finish school so we're not including them uh if they are found innocent and they attend next year we'll
put their picture back in the other thing you can do is I personally I wouldn't have even even consulted with
the um with the Glover or Mark's parents in this situation now we have the trials that we need to get to and this
will be five criminal cases that were scheduled to go before a special grand jury which would possibly hand down
murder indictments possibly hand down additional charges this was apparently enough to scare some of these idiot
straight because what we have here now is that three of the five defendants this would be Glover Marx and
seavoy they all agreed to testify against the other two sper and Gribble of course they want to avoid murder
charges so they're willing to cooperate sper and Gribble were both indicted on murder charges and under New Hampshire
law faced mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole if found guilty of
first-degree murder they were not eligible for the death penalty under New Hampshire
law capital murder for which the death penalty is an option was defined at the time as only six types of
Murder One killing an an on duty law enforcement officer or judge a murder For Hire murder committed in connection
with the kidnapping Mur murder committed during rape murder committed During certain drug offenses and murder
committed by a convict already serving a life sentence without Parole in the granite state's
380e history New Hampshire has executed only 24 people and none since the year 1939 before the trials in August of
2010 one of the scheduled Witnesses died died this was Jamie Holland he was the buddy who was with Kyle Fenton when sper
and Gribble showed up and bragged to them about what they had done right Holland himself was no angel he had a
record for burglary of an ice cream shop must have been some good ice cream and at the time of his death was facing
another burglary charge his mother told WM Boston that quote her son was tormented by what he
knew about the Kate's Murder She said he could not sleep after being told about the attacks and being shown the weapons
he was stressed and afraid to testify his mom found him dead in his room one morning in
August he this is her quote to WM she said quote he went to bed perfectly fine and when I woke up in the
morning I found him dead I didn't know know what to do his lips were purple fingernails everything she continued
just the other night he was so stressed out sitting in his room rocking himself back and forth because he's so stressed
he didn't know what to do she said her son was on sleeping pills and anti-depressants but seemed okay that
night when he went to bed it's unclear whether this was a suicide accidental overdose or what but Holland was he
passed on and was not available to testify against sper or Gribble it makes me wonder what sper and Gribble might
have done that we are not aware of because like I said you know boys will sit around and go oh let's go prank
these people or let's go do this or that it seemed like there's a very steep escalation and I'd probably argue that
maybe it wasn't so steep that maybe their their other actions and other heinous things that these
individuals did that we're just not well aware of and when you have a a friend of
these guys I don't think it's just as simple as well I now they know that they're
capable of murder so maybe they'll come after me one day or maybe get somebody else to come after me I think there
would have to be more actions that we're just not aware of that that these friends would know about
and to top that off you might have a situation here where somebody is already struggling with some other things some
other issues maybe they're a bit unstable themselves and then you you add to that the fear of one testifying
against these people but also is there some guilt that this individual was was harboring that that they felt guilty
for who knows I mean maybe this person said to themselves when they were being told what what these two monsters had
done that they weren't going to turn them in or they weren't going to do anything about it right you know so it
could be a whole whole bunch of stuff and and regardless it's just these events these horrible things that people
for whatever reason do to one another and then they put so little thought into it that there are real victims this
isn't just something this isn't Grand Theft Auto that you play on your PlayStation 4 mhm these are real people
these are real consequences you've not only killed this woman and really almost destroyed the life of this
this child but then her every one of her family is a victim and then the perpetrators everyone in their families
are victims as well and it's it's just amazing that the that there's so little thought put
into any of these actions by some of these people now Steven sper his trial would start in
201 he plead not guilty needless to say the state Came Out Swinging causing some jury members to
shed tears with uh prose prosecutory statements like quote Kim and Jim screams did not stop him their cries
their begging their Poli did not stop him because he was was so merciless and he and Gribble were focused on what they
intended to do and planned on doing all along and the simple way to put that is to break in and kill whoever was inside
for fun for kicks ultimately for a few pieces of [Applause] jewelry this show is sponsored by better help do
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cheers to you Colonel and a special cheers to anybody that is still homeschooling their children that would
be a very tough task so this drink is for you and cheers to well don't have a drink but cheers to those who are still
dealing with their parents homeschooling them that can't be easy either yeah I drink pour a little out for everyone my
dad doesn't know math we're all into this all in this together so the sper trial is the key one here Captain
because remember he is the guy that you want to sink he's not only one of the most evil
of the five but he's also the guy that didn't really admit to anything we got everybody else singing like a bunch of
birds saying this is what happened but sper last time he spoke to investigators he says yeah I was with Gribble when he
was out there uh pawning some jewelry uh I wasn't there that night I didn't kill
anybody and I don't know who did yeah I told you how big of a douchebag this guy
is um at his trial at some point it was his birthday and he asked his lawyer do you think the jury will sing Happy
Birthday to me and he like laugh and all smug mhm and what I can say nice about his lawyer is that he definitively said
no like that's the dumbest question you ask you idiot well speaking of Spader's attorney the attorney mounted a defense
which included testimony from a forensic scientist that stated that no DNA or fingerprint evidence belonging to Steven
sper connected him to the scene of the crime of course an awful lot of circumstantial evidence did connect sper
to the crime such as his sweatshirt with his name on it found in the trash bag containing stolen items from the Kates
home and the defense attorneys also W warned the jury that sper co-conspirators or people that had
already confessed to some of these crimes they were going to testify against him but keep in mind jury that
Marx seavoy and Glover who will testify against my client all received deals from the state lessening their
sentences now what do we know about Steven sper people who knew him said that in years past he was a good kid a
nice guy but then in the summer before his sophomore year sper seemed to change he sto stopped paying attention to his
schoolwork started wearing all black and painting his fingernails black he drew a
swastika on his head and declared that he was a member of the Crips I I don't think that's their
symbol I do not mind the children or the peeps wearing the black I do not you know dye the hair black paint the
fingernails doesn't bother me where I get a little concerned and and I'm saying that sarcastically please hear
the sarcasm in my voice is the swastika on someone's head and then claiming to be a member of a
criminal Enterprise such as the Crips now see I don't mind it so much at least they're branding themselves so you can
see their dumbass coming at some point and it seems to be linked to a possible bad breakup he began cutting
himself and he was to be on medication for bipolar disorder but he would often stopped taking this medication and he
was also running away from his parents' home he had anger management issues and his anger would increase if he was off
of his meds or taking recreational drugs now I don't know if his adopted parents
knew this or not I think there was speculation that he did have some trauma in his um younger years before they
actually adopted him yeah and it is a bit of a question mark if they knew this in advance or not uh By the time of the
murder this once good kid uh was now a high school dropout who still lived with his parents well do do you know anything
about when he was real little yes and I was going to get into that okay um and they were forcing him to seek
counseling and they did tell him he needed to get his GED which he he did and he was was taking classes at a
community college this all at the time of the actual murder now according to the Boston Herald friends told the paper
that they beli sper was a Candidate For Suicide not for homicide his mood and behavior grew darker as he matured they
said sper was in and out of treatment programs he shaved his head abused marijuana and speed and cut and burned
his own skin yeah well there was actually a call from his therapist to his parents stating that he made several
threats against them you know saying that he wanted to kill his parents and the parents were like is this something
we should be worried about because I would be as a parent my kid saying he wants to kill me and they're saying no
no it's actually more of a coping mechanism and and he probably actually just wants to hurt himself right and you
want to say to the therapist well you were wrong about that one because if this would if they would have
been free any longer I I would actually think that sper would have went after somebody else either on his own or with
the help of these guys that's I think that's for certain yeah now his grandmother Maryanne sper said of
Spader's parents that they did everything for this boy they gave him everything they were devoted to this kid
his parents she says were the nicest people I don't know how something like this could happen now sper adoptive
parent parents who adopted him at just 5 days old had forced him to go to a treatment program when they observed a
dramatic change in his behavior this was when he was 16 years old this Livin retreat was just months before the
murder the it was an expensive program that they took on themselves in Hope of turning their son around at the
trial prosecutors called a lot of witnesses to establish that sper was in fact a
psychopath and that he planned to murder someone long in advance they presented evidence that in the months leading up
to the attack sper hung out often with Gribble Marx Glover and seavoy during this time he talked about
breaking into people's homes and killing them he also talked about eating people
and roasting their bodies putting heads on Stakes putting bodies in a wood chipper creating displays out of the
bodies for the media to later find torturing creating chloroform to knock out victims so they could be killed in
silence he spent time trying to make chloroform at his home and he had purchased a knife just days before the
crime and sper formed a group of losers called the Disciples of Destruction DOD for short wow what a cool name yeah he
mhm was the self-appointed president of his little Club he actually drafted a mission statement that called for
Bloodshed and he and Marx cased out the trow Road home as we've already talked about and selected that house to hit
they then told Gribble that the crime was to be Gribble's initiation into the dod sper told seavoy
to provide them with an alibi it's not clear why seavoy was not included in the actual committing of the
crime right so we have all these guys saying that look sper he's the evil one or the most evil one he is the leader
and we've all confessed not only to what sper did but what we have done and sper
is still not confessing so now they're going to testify against him and during the testimony this is going to offer
some more details about that actual night and things leading up to the crime and even after saying that you know sper
attended a high school football game on that Saturday there at the high school football game he tells Glover to be
ready that night because he was going to call him so that they could go break into a house he also gave Glover a list
of ingredients to purchase and instructions to make chloroform GL was to bring gloves with
him and a knife the group texted about their plans throughout the day about 10 p.m. Gribble texted sper cool ought to
be a good party to which sper responded we'll have fun around 1:30 a.m. sper texted Glover you've got to get out soon
because we're ready we need completion of the dod to go on Glover waffled about going and sper ordered him to join them
eventually Glover snuck out of his house and got into Gribble's car with the rest
of the dod and on the way to tro Road sper declared that the purpose of the night
was to get Chris into killing so again we keep pointing out that this could on the surface to some seem like oh it's
just teenagers talking this is a lot of talking yeah a lot of preparation for things that seem
to be about what they're all talking about and that's why I'm saying I guarantee you there was there's other
stuff whether it's cruelty to animals whether it's bullying whether it's other break-ins other little crimes that was
all I guaranteeing you happening before this murder and I'm going to try to go through this without getting too much
more into the details of the actual attack itself be one it's hard to get through and two we've discussed it
pretty well so far unfortunately now Quin Glover did testify that he saw sper physically kill Kimberly Billy Marx
testified that in the light of the full moon that night he could see sper chopping at the people in the bed with
the machete after they turned the light back on he saw Steven sper kick jimie in
the chest and hit her in the head with the machete after G stabbed jimie and threw her sper made him come over and
stab Kimberly a few more times then he went over to jamy and kicked her and struck her with the machete and said
something this is beyond bizarre he stated I'm bored despite this seemingly lacad
isical attitude toward the murders sper later told his buddies that the whole thing was a rush he was euphoric and
felt like he had just gotten off off of a roller coaster he joked about how Kimberly woke up to being hacked with a
machete when he found out that jimie had survived sper turned to Gribble and said
you're an idiot you can't even kill a fifth grader Spader's friend Kyle Fenton testified that that sper bragged about
the killings afterwards as well now the defense did their best to raise questions about who actually did The
Killing and tried to undermine the testimony of the three Witnesses Glover seavoy and Marx they pressed Marx about
boast he had made about stabbing somebody with a knife defense attorneys presented evidence that Glover's weapon
of choice was an axe saying that he posted a photo of himself with one on his Myspace page so they're really just
trying to present the idea that these other three could have done the murder without sper but the defense called No
Witnesses what whatsoever in the course of the trial and sper did not testify in
his own defense and Spader's Behavior prior to and at the trial did not do him any favors he threatened three of the
witnesses testifying against him while they were on the stand this is right in front of the jury testimony from sp's
jailmate a gang member idiot named Chad Landry was probably the most damaging Landry told jurors he and sper would
pass notes or or kites back and forth inside books that they slid down the corridor between their cells Landry was
no dummy and he saw an opportunity he pretended to flush the notes down the toilet knowing sper could
hear it but he actually kept these notes and contacted authorities to use the letters as leverage to get himself a
reduced sentence these letters were gold for the prosecutors since sper had not confessed to the crimes Landry read some
of these notes on the stand sper wrote to Landry that he whacked the mother 36 times and that he could see brains and
lots of blood and that her eyeball was hanging out of its socket it was such an adrenaline rush he
wrote I almost hit Gribble with the machete in one of the letters sper called himself the most sick and twisted
person you will ever meet he said that he found torture highly enjoyable death doesn't frighten me blood excites me he
wrote I've got more [ __ ] wrong in my brain than you can think of but such is life another letter explained how he
wanted to start a crew or Brotherhood and he set up the home invasion as a test to see if his friends had the guts
to do it I mean what up piece of work well this testimony right here is really the slam dunk for the prosecution
because we have all these other people who are saying yes this is the things that sper was saying before and the
actions he was doing before the murders this is what he did at the crime scene when he killed Kimberly and these are
the things that he was saying afterwards this guy's testimony is different in the
sense that they are presenting notes in Spader's own handwriting confirming all of the things that these people are
saying right so now not only are his friends turning against him and confessing now we have basically a
written confession confirming those confessions so the jurors only deliberated for 90 minutes and well
that's because they also went out to lunch uh before they decided sper was convicted on all counts on his 19
birthday remember this is where he made the joke about the jury singing him happy birthday the state's sentencing
memo says his attack was calculated vicious and unprovoked sper was determined to find a house render the
occupants unconscious get Bank numbers large sums of money torture the residents in the house and eventually
kill every member of the family as described in the sentencing memo under New Hampshire law he was sentenced to
mandatory life without parole on the first-degree murder charge and the court imposed a consecutive maximum sentencing
on the remaining charges which was 76 years but that description of his sentence does not convey The Fury with
which the judge sentenced speder Hillsboro County Superior Court Judge Jillian abenson said I could go on for
days and days and days about the depth of your depravity but it is sufficient to say that you belong in a cage and I
will sentence you to the maximum and you will stay in that cage for the rest of your pointless life and I I wish in a
fair world what they would say is look we're going to put you in this cell for the rest of your life but we're also
going to give jimie the victim that survived we're going to give her a machete and we're going to give her keys
and whenever ever she wants to she could go in there and attack you so have fun sleeping that sounds fair to me but more
than likely she's not the animal that this guy is you know and wouldn't want to cause that level of harm or hurt to
to anyone now Chris Gribble we still got to deal with this guy he he didn't get a
traditional trial and that is because he pled not guilty by reason of insanity to
all of the charges against him under New Hampshire law this means he forfeited his criminal trial instead his lawyers
had to prove to the jury that his actions were the result of a mental disease or defect the question was not
whether he participated he already confessed but whether he did so in his own right mind the judge was the same
one as in the sper case the way this worked is a little complicated but basically if the jury found unanimously
that Gribble's actions were the result of mental disease or defect he would be committed to a psychiatric unit in the
state prison rather than just go to regular prison and he would be entitled to another hearing every 5 years to
determine whether he still presented a danger to society if Gribble's attorneys failed to show that his actions were the
result of mental disease or defect he would be found guilty of murder if this was a unanimous verdict he would be
sentenced to life in prison without parole if neither decision was unanimous it would be a hung jury and Gribble
would be retried at a later date Gribble's attorneys argued that he suffered from antisocial personality
disorder and all sorts of witnesses testified either for this point or against it it is interesting to see the
picture painted of this guy by people who knew him he was described as a dork awkward someone who would ramble on
about uninteresting topics he was always misreading social cues and the girls called him creepy Chris some testified
that he was very smart and nice although he didn't really seem to understand others one mom recalled how he said he
loved her cookies and seemed devoted to his Mormon faith but he also dressed in camo gear all of the time
this might seem weird I guess but he was a US Army Cadet Core group he was in that group so maybe it's not that weird
yeah but sometimes you know with the RC guys people would pick on them because they had to wear uniforms to school
right but I think what they're pointing out here is that he wore this stuff all the time and that in fact is weird but
I'm pointing out he did have a reason or a purpose for wearing it at least some of the time he played Dungeons and
Dragons again that's just a hobby that's weird yeah some people some people say weird that's about as weird as Grand
Theft Auto to me and a lot of people play that and I think Grand Theft Auto is probably even more violent he got
good grades but started to change around 2008 Autumn seavoy you know no saint himself testified that Gribble was Robin
to stevenh sper Batman Gribble's Father Richard testified that his son was intelligent well spoken but that he was
socially awkward and also had a warped world view in which he was always in the right A friend of gribbles told the
Boston Herald that he himself at that he saw himself as a destroying Angel and he
said he hated his father apparently part of his Insanity defense relied on Gribble testifying that he was abused by
his mother Gribble took the stand and admitted that he had fantasized about torturing and killing her from the age
14 on because she was abusive now was it was it Gribble that also said that he was possibly sexually abused when he was
younger uh I didn't get into that I I didn't come across that I thought I saw something about that but
he said this is per an Associated Press article he said quote he fantasized about taking his mother into the woods
and cutting off little pieces of her bit by bit listening to her scream he also said he thought about pouring boiling
water over her sensitive parts and bending her limbs out of joint and sprinkling her with sugar so the crows
would come and pluck at her saying hey if I'm going to kill her why not make her pay but his father testified that
his parents were loving not abusive and in fact his son gave him a black eye in the course of an
altercation his mother said all she had done was once when he was five Whack Him
on the back with a wooden spoon there was no abuse other Witnesses testified that Gribble's parents were very patient
with him very involved homeschooling him and supporting him by participating in the Boy Scouts and participating in
Dungeons and dragons with him Richard was an EMT his father and Cub Scout and later troop leader volunteering so his
son could obtain Eagle Scout rank as described in an article in the nashille telegraph Richard Gribble said he and
his wife tried to teach their son right from wrong and to instill a set of values in him Assistant Attorney General
Peter Henley asked him if he thought they had succeeded and said given the fact that he's admitted to committing
two very heinous crimes I'd say no his father testified that the machete and the knife used on Kimberly and jimie
were taken from his home before the attack and he did not know this until after his son was
arrested Gribble's Facebook page was found to reflect that he considered himself a devout Mormon who love God and
a gun and knife Enthusiast he wrote on his page although everyone has a light and dark Dark Side mine are very extreme
if I like you or at least don't dislike you I'm the sweetest nicest person ever but Heaven Help me if I truly lose it
it's not pretty in a different post he referenced a hit list that contained seven people whom he said he hated the
most chilling part on his Facebook page at 11 a.m. on Sunday October 4th just hours after the attack on jimie and
Kimberly Kates he wrote I had an awesome time with Steve and Autumn Dexter is such a funny show well I think they're
downfall is they're trying to claim that he's insane right mhm but it's not just
insane at the time of the murder it's just insane in general but they put him on the stand
and I think this is actually a problem for them because he he is very well spoken yeah he took the stand at trial
and testified about the attacks he admitted that he and sper intended to kill anyone they found in the home that
they chose to burglar rise he even demonstrated how he had held the knife as he used it on the victims and he
testified that he wanted to shoot people and he was not certain that he would not
kill again if he was given the opportunity and described himself as dangerous on the
stand I think the thing here is from a defense side or at least from this guy's you
know this gribbles what what he's hoping for he doesn't really have a whole lot to lose right worst case scenario he
ends up getting life in prison without the possibility of parole which is what he's going to get if he's found guilty
regardless so why not try to you know poop your pants and rub it all over your face in front of the jury maybe he maybe
he could have put it on a little bit better I think is what you're pointing out here now the prosecution had experts
including a psychiatrist who interviewed Gribble for several hours and these experts testified that Gribble was in
fact sane he knew the difference between right and wrong and prosecutors pointed
out that Gribble had been sane enough to plot the crime try to cover it up and try to hide evidence and lie about his
involvement the jury rejected Chris Gribble's Insanity claim and declared him guilty of two counts of first-degree
murder attempted murder conspiracy to commit murder conspiracy to commit burglary and witness tampering they
deliberated for only 2 hours it seems like their lunch was a little bit longer than the previous
jury our brave resilient Survivor Jamie by this time is still just 12 years old she was in fact in the courtroom for
this trial she was not asked to testify her father David gave a victim impact statement as he had done in Spader's
trial as well and thanked the judge for being impartial throughout the trial the
judge thanked Jaimie for her presence in the courtroom saying it was nice to finally get the chance to meet her the
judge assured her that the men involved in this horrible crime could never hurt her again then she almost happily
imposed the mandatory sentence of life without parole telling Gribble Infinity is not enough jail time for you she
added a sentence of 50 Years to Life plus a maximum of an additional 52 years on other charges but how impressive is
that that she was able to one she lives through the attack she recovers but to have the strength to show up and face
the attackers in court at 12 years old that's that's pretty baller Billy Marx agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to
commit murder and burglary and to being an accomplice to first deegree assault in exchange for a reduced sentence Marx
was sentenced to 30 to 60 years his sentence was in fact a stiff one because he admitted to helping plan the crime
there are some interesting things within this portion of the story though Captain
because remember sper defense lawyers they actually tried to pin the crime the murder on Marx they emphasized that Marx
had been alone in the house with the victims for some time on that night this was when he climbed into the basement
before the others got into the house they implied that he had perhaps done the killing on his own before the rest
of them got into the house the other interesting thing about Marx 2 is this is the only bit where I could find that
any of the five at one point said ho ho ho wait a second maybe this is not such a good idea you know everybody else
seemed to be going along with this all the way so what we found here was text messages Mark actually texted speder
that they should wait to rob a house until the family that occupied the home was not at home that I guess he's trying
to deter them from attacking and killing everyone in the house like sper said that they wanted to do now
unfortunately and to discredit Marx that's not what happened and he went along with this whole nightmare of a
plan Quinn Glover was charged with only robbery burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary on condition that he
would plead guilty to all of those charges and testify against all of the others he was sentenced to 20 to 40
years his shorter sentence was due to prosecutors recognition of the fact that he was the first one in the group to
cooperate with police and start telling them what actually happened and who did what now what happened to
the one that wasn't there Autumn seavoy plad guilty only to charges of hindering
apprehension and conspiracy in exchange he got a sentence of 5 to 12 years in prison he was in
fact paroled in 2015 that brings us Captain to the sentencing review this took place in
June of 2012 and this was a US Supreme Court decision uh handed down with a ruling in
the mil V Alabama case which required the sentence given to Steven sper to be reviewed this is because he's a minor
and he received a sentence of life without parole we're not going to get too much into the minutia of the
legality of all this bit what does happen is he by his own rights gets this review he decides that he does not want
to be reviewed he does not want his sentence reduced or changed in any manner he refused to cooperate he would
not allow himself to be transported to court for any of the hearings regardless if he wants to participate in this
review or not it's going to have to happen per the law so he's not there to argue his side however someone will
argue his side for him basically the prosecution is going to make all of the arguments that they made pre previously
this guy's a psychopath he's admitted to killing people he's a violent offender he deserves the sentence that he got we
should not change anything but what is interesting in this whole bit of legal proceedings is that this is when it came
out about the evaluations of speder in regards to his having been adopted sper was adopted at only 5 days old from a
mother who had substance abuse problems baby Steven tested positive for marijuana and cocaine when he was born
and then in 2018 he starts having all of these problems that we talked about leading up
to the murder right it's worth asking the question was sper predetermined to be a violent offender or violent killer
because of his exposure to drugs in utero the court during these proceedings did not seem to consider this to be a
factor in their sentencing process the court also took into consideration sper statement of regret delivered by his
attorneys in court this is basically his statement of refusing to go along with this procedure but also stating that he
was in fact sorry for the crimes that he committed and the harm that he had done
the sentencing judge was not swayed the Court says that they find these sentiments self-serving disingenuous and
inconsistent with the defendants true regret the judge ruled that sper will forever be a danger to society the court
exercises Its Right of discretion toward sentencing the defendant to life without
parole they upheld the sentence that was originally handed down for this guy there was also a nasty poem that was
presented at his trial his original trial that he wrote and it shows very it shows no Talent at all as far as being a
riter but it really just goes along with him proclaiming to his his jailmate that
he's this horrible despicable monster who enjoyed killing someone and would kill again in June of
2011 the New Hampshire Governor signed a bill expanding the state's death penalty
to cover murders committed during burglaries and home invasions this law was passed as a direct result of the
katees murder the bill was named after Kimberly Kates house Speaker William O'Brien said our homes are our sanctuary
and this was a necessary enhancement of protection for those in their homes who have the right to be safe and secure
Jaimie is now in college her dad has been her supporter every step of the way and the two remain very close they still
live in the house on tro Road each year on the anniversary of the attack David Kates host a golf tournament to raise
money for a scholarship in his wife's name many of the police officers and prosecutors who worked on the case
participate the four young men who invaded the Kate's home and carried out their despicable Thrill Kill will spend
a significant part if not all of their lives in prison the town of Mount Vernon New Hampshire is forever changed by
their actions it's a small comfort that these young men are put away but it's deeply disturbing that these promising
young people who were given every privilege in life and were members of mainstream communities found each other
fed on each other and together carried out their darkest urges [Music] [Applause]
[Music] thank you guys so much for tuning in to True Crime garage and spending your time
with us Colonel do we have any recommended reading this week yes we do Captain this week we are very happy to
be recommending the cases that haunt us by John Douglas and Mark AllShare America's foremost expert on criminal
profiling provides his uniquely gripping analysis of seven of the most notorious
murder cases in the history of Crime Check out the cases that haunt us by John Douglas and Mark olshaker you can
find that great title as well as many others on our website true Crim garage.com absolutely one of my favorite
true crime books I have listened to it twice on Audible and until next next week be good be kind and don't
[Music] litter you can start your day off right when you find a professional on Angie to get
your plumbing right first connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well
visit angie.com you can do this when you and do that

Mont Vernon Murder /// Part 2 /// 434

Part 2 of 2

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In October of 2009 a home invasion murder rocked and shocked the small affluent town of Mont Vernon, New Hampshire. These horrific and senseless acts forever changed Mont Vernon. New laws were established in hope of deterring future offenders.

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Brief Summary

Teenagers commit a brutal murder in New Hampshire, leading to shocking confessions and complex trials.

Key points

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True Crime Garage Introduction. Nick introduces the podcast and thanks listeners for joining.
Shock Over Teen Arrests. The community is stunned to learn that the murderers are teenagers from middle-class families.
Yearbook Controversy. David Kates requests an apology from the school for including photos of the murderers in the yearbook.
The Tragic Death of a Young Man. A mother recounts the heartbreaking moment she found her son dead in his room.

Episode highlights

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2:00WatchNov 16, 2023

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