CONCORD – A Hollis man who helped cover up the 2009 murder of a Mont Vernon woman by his machete-wielding friends will be up for parole Tuesday, with the possibility of leaving jail three years before his maximum sentence.

Autumn Savoy, 25, helped convicted killers Steven Spader and Christopher Gribble, of Brookline, dump bloody clothing in the Nashua River hours after Kimberly Cates was hacked to death and Jaimie Cates, then 11, was maimed at their Mont Vernon home.

He later told investigators that the killers had spent the night at his Hollis home, giving them an alibi.

Savoy pleaded guilty to conspiracy and hindering apprehension and was sentenced to as many as 12 years in prison. In 2012, he was granted parole for the first of those sentences as he neared the end of his minimum term. His first attempt at parole for the second sentence was rejected last year.

The three-person New Hampshire Parole Board will judge whether Savoy has met all of the requirements for programs and good behavior while in prison before deciding whether to grant parole, which would allow Savoy to leave prison.

Savoy is in a halfway house, said New Hampshire Department of Corrections spokesman Jeffrey Lyon.

Gribble, 25, and Spader, 23, were convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

Two Amherst men, William Marks and Quinn Glover, both 24, were convicted for participating in the murders. They also broke into the family’s home, but didn’t attack them.

Glover is eligible for parole in 2017. Marks is eligible in 2024.

In September, the state parole board said Savoy needed to prepare a better plan for his life following any release. Board members said they weren’t pleased with Savoy’s proposal that he live in a Nashua rooming house occupied largely by convicted felons.

David Cates, Kimberly’s husband and Jaimie’s father, has spoken out at previous hearings against Savoy being granted parole. Cates was traveling on business when four young men, led by Spader, then 17, invaded his home and attacked his family.

“Autumn Savoy could have prevented all this from happening. … He knew a full 24 hours in advance,” Cates said in a prepared statement in September.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531, dbrooks@nashua
telegraph.com or @GraniteGeek.