NASHUA – William Marks, an accomplice in last year’s Mont Vernon murder, on Wednesday admitted he changed his story to police in the days and weeks following the Oct. 4, 2009, home invasion in hopes he could escape blame.

Under cross-examination from Steven Spader’s defense attorney Jonathan Cohen, Marks said he thought he knew what prosecutors wanted to hear when he was negotiating his plea deal and that giving them more information about Steven Spader would get him a better deal.

Thursday, Nov. 4, was the ninth day of Steven Spader’s murder trial, which began Oct. 25 with a jury tour of the crime scene and its surrounds. As of noontime Wednesday, about a third of the 68 potential witnesses listed by the state have been called. It’s possible some may not be called; among those remaining are Spader’s parents, alleged accomplice Christopher Gribble and Gribble’s parents, and 12-year-old Jaimie Cates.

Spader, who turns 19 Tuesday, Nov. 9, is charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, witness tampering, and conspiracy to murder and burglary and faces life in prison without parole if convicted. Gribble, 21, faces the same charges as Spader and may employ an insanity defense at his trial in February.

Marks, who says he accompanied Spader, Quinn Glover and Christopher Gribble to 4 Trow Road, took the stand at the start of Tuesday afternoon’s session and was in the middle of defense attorney Jonathan Cohen’s cross-examination when proceedings ended for the day.

During his Tuesday testimony, Marks told the jury that he and his father, James Marks, talked about selling the details of what he knew about the murder of Kimberly Cates to a national media outlet because that would bring them more money than a local outlet.

While they were at the Cates house, Marks said, he was in the doorway and saw Spader using two hands to bring a machete down on the bed where Kimberly and Jaimie Cates were sleeping.

Marks said he heard Kimberly Cates say “It’s OK. Everything is going to be OK.”

Last week, David Cates’ testimony riveted the courtroom. Probably the most dramatic moments to this point in the trial came when prosecutor Jeff Strelzin asked Cates if he had given permission to Spader, or anyone else, to enter the Cates home on Oct. 4 or take things from the house.

“I did not,” Cates said emphatically while staring at Spader. Cates also identified a number of items the group allegedly took from the home, which were later recovered by police. Among them were Cates’ wallet and two jewelry boxes, one belonging to Kimberly and the other, to Jaimie.

“Jaimie and I got that for her on Mother’s Day,” Cates said of his late wife’s jewelry box.

Spader’s attorneys did not cross-examine Cates.

Last week’s testimony also included that of Quinn Glover, the former Souhegan High School senior who says he was one of the four to break into the Trow Road home. Glover has accepted a plea deal of 20-40 years for burglary, robbery and conspiracy to burglary in exchange for his testimony against Spader and Gribble.

Like Cates, and parts of the medical testimony, Glover’s recollections, which took up most of the testimony on Oct. 28, stilled the courtroom.

“I heard screams and cries. I heard begging,” Glover said in describing the moments after Spader and Gribble entered the last room at the end of the hallway – the master bedroom where Kimberly and Jaimie Cates slept.

Leading up to the screaming and crying, Glover said, he heard two voices, a woman and a little girl. He quoted Kimberly Cates as saying, “Jaimie, is that you?” and the response, “Yeah, mom,” he told prosecutors.

The cries and screams were soon accompanied by thuds, repetitive thuds, coming from the bedroom, Glover continued. Standing just outside the bedroom, he said, he tried to cover his ears, but could still hear. He admitted he could have tried to stop it, but didn’t.

Then, “Jaimie, run.”

“Please don’t do it.”

“No. Please, no.”

Assistant Attorney General Peter Hinckley asked how the voices sounded to him.

“They were terrified, sir,” Glover said.

After turning the power back on and seeing Spader in the living room, Glover said he went into the bedroom and saw Jaimie, tangled in some curtains in front of a sliding door. She wasn’t moving.

“I thought for sure she was dead,” he said. “On the bed there was a woman who was covered in blood. She was moving slightly and moaning. She seemed close to death but still alive.”

Gribble put his knife at her throat and Glover looked away, he said. When he looked back, he said the knife was at the other side of her throat and she wasn’t making any noise.

Moments later, Glover said, he saw “a euphoric” Spader emerge from the bedroom carrying the machete covered with hair and blood. Glover added that later, Spader joked about how Kimberly Cates woke up to being hacked to death with a machete. At one point, Glover said, Spader grabbed him by the shoulders and said, “Quinn, we broke up a family. Isn’t this great?”

Glover went into great detail about many aspects of the weeks, days and hours leading up to the attack on Oct. 4, 2009. Perhaps the most gripping words Glover uttered all day was his reference to Spader’s behavior in the days leading up to the home invasion.

“He talked about eating people, roasting people … putting heads on stakes, making scenes for the press,” Glover said of Spader.

On Oct. 29, Spader friend Autumn Savoy, arrested a month after the incident on charges he helped the suspects hide and dispose of evidence, also took the stand.

After ambushing Kimberly and Jaimie Cates in a bedroom and attacking them with a machete and knife, Spader and Gribble went to Savoy’s home in Hollis, Savoy said.

Savoy has pleaded guilty to two counts of hindering apprehension and one of conspiracy to hindering apprehension and received a prison sentence of 5-12 years, plus a suspended sentence, in exchange for his testimony against Spader and Gribble.

The three men sorted through jewelry taken during the burglary, he said. They threw a bag of clothes and boots into the Nashua River and then bought soda, cigarettes and breakfast at the Hatch Convenience Store on Runnells Bridge Road near Savoy’s house, he testified.

Savoy said he was “almost like brothers” with Spader and gave police a false alibi for the men partially because of that bond and partially because Spader threatened to kill him if he talked to police.

Savoy said he and Spader used to see each other nearly every day and would hang out, listen to music and “do stupid teenage things.”

Savoy said Spader had bragged to him about having killed before the murder, and said he had dropped bodies in quarries in Milford and participated in drive-by shootings in Lowell, Mass., with members of a street gang. Spader said he was a prospective member of the Crips gang, Savoy said.

Savoy said he met Spader and Gribble in his own driveway around 5:30 a.m. after the murder. Later in the day, the three men looked for news of the killing online and learned that Jaimie Cates, 11, had survived. Spader and Savoy teased Gribble about it, Savoy said. Savoy told Gribble he wasn’t smarter than a fifth-grader. Savoy fetched a board game of the same name based on the TV game show to put in his face, he testified.

According to Savoy, Spader said, “You’re an idiot. You can’t even kill a fifth-grader.”

The men were watching “Dexter,” an HBO show about a serial killer, when Spader told him the details of what happened, Savoy said.

Savoy said he originally told police that Spader and Gribble had stayed at his house Saturday night and into Sunday, as Spader had told him to. He said Spader threatened to kill him if he talked to others.

“I love you like a brother, but if you tell anyone, I’ll f—— kill you,” Savoy said Spader told him. Savoy later told police what he knew, he testified, and showed them where he tossed the bag of clothes into the Nashua River. Police were able to recover the bag.

Daily trial updates can be found online at www.cabinet.com. Or, from the Cabinet’s homepage, click on the Spader Trial icon for live video coverage and rolling blog updates hosted by The Nashua Telegraph.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 31, or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.