Teen Gets Life for Machete Murder in Home Invasion

(Nov. 9) -- A New Hampshire teen who hacked a woman to death with a machete and maimed her young daughter during a brutal home invasion was sentenced today to life in prison with no possibility of parole.

A Hillsborough County Superior Court jury in Nashua deliberated just 90 minutes before convicting Steven Spader on all six counts in the 2009 attacks on nurse Kimberly Cates, 42, and her daughter, Jaimie, who was 11 at the time.

"I could go on for days and days and days about the depth of your depravity. Suffice it to say you belong in a cage," Judge Gillian Abramson told Spader at sentencing, according to The Union Leader and The Boston Globe.

"I sentence you to the maximum, the rest of your pointless life," the judge said.

The verdict and sentence came on Spader's 19th birthday. He was heard earlier in the day joking to his lawyer, "Maybe the jury will sing 'Happy Birthday' to me."

Prosecutors said Spader led a group of four intruders who broke into the Cates home in the tiny town of Mount Vernon on Oct. 4, 2009. David Cates was away on business, but his wife, Kimberly, and daughter, Jamie, were asleep in the master bedroom.

Witnesses said Spader was obsessed with killings. About a month before the attack, he had formed a small group of teenagers known as the Disciples of Destruction. The idea came from "The Sons of Anarchy," a TV show about outlaw bikers, according to co-defendant Quinn Glover, who reached a plea deal with prosecutors.

"He spoke about breaking into houses. And then he spoke generally, fantasizing, about violence, murders, killing people, roasting people, eating people, putting heads on stakes and making scenes for news crews," Glover said.

According to gruesome testimony in the two-week trial, Spader and Christopher Gribble, who was armed with a knife, hacked and stabbed Kimberly Cates as she begged for mercy and screamed for her daughter to run.

Kimberly Cates sustained 32 stab wounds. She died at the scene after Gribble allegedly cut her throat. Jaimie, suffering from 18 stab wounds, pretended to be dead until the intruders fled with money, jewelry and other items stolen from the home. Then the bleeding girl dragged herself to a phone and called 911. She survived but has to undergo several surgeries.

Spader was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder -- one for the killing itself and one for killing someone during a burglary -- as well as attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit burglary and witness tampering

Gribble is expected to go on trial in February, the Nashua Telegraph said.

Two other co-defendants, Glover and William Marks, pleaded guilty to burglary and other felonies in the case in exchange for lengthy prison sentences. Both testified against Spader.

A fifth young man, Autumn Savoy, 21, has admitted to providing Spader and Gribble with false alibis and disposing of a bag of evidence. He pleaded guilty to two counts of hindering apprehension and one count of conspiracy to hinder apprehension in exchange for a five- to 12-year prison term, the Union Leader said.

Before Spader was sentenced, David Cates spoke of the strong tie between his wife and daughter.

"Kim and Jaimie were inseparable. It was more than the usual mother-daughter bond. They were like one," he said, according to the Union Leader.

"Everybody smiled at Kim's energy and kindness, " he said, according to the Globe.

As for Jaimie, he said, "She has had to witness more evil in this world than any other human being."