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| This is what Christopher Gribble once looked like |
Gribble was one of four reprobate punks who staged a home invasion on October 4th, 2009, hacking local nurse Kimberly L. Cates to death and severely wounding her 12-year-old daughter Jaimie Cates with a knife and machete. It is said that had Jaimie not managed to reach a phone, she would have bled to death.
Gribble tried to play the insanity card, blaming his parents and what he called childhood trauma and physical abuse at the hands of his mother for his rage. He testified that he could kill again if ever set free. Gribble also reportedly fancied himself a "destroying angel", comparing himself to Porter Rockwell. However, Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery A. Strelzin explained how the prosecution successfully countered that ploy, saying that the proof of Gribble's sanity was in the receipt Gribble signed after he pawned Kimberly Cates' jewelry for $130.62. Strelzin called it "blood money." Strelzin noted that Gribble and his four playmates planned the home invasion and burglary and planned to kill anyone they found inside. Gribble himself even testified that he and Steven Spader, who was convicted on the same charges on November 9th, 2010, wanted to kill for fun and bragged about it afterwards.
On March 17th, Richard Gribble, the father of Christopher Gribble, took the stand and described how he struggled to have a good relationship with his son, even after he was arrested and jailed on murder charges. But Christopher began to refuse visits from his parents after hearing from his father last July what he perceived as a snub. Dr. Grace Tallarico, a psychiatrist who treated Christopher, earlier told jurors that Gribble had thoughts of killing his own parents two years before he killed Kimberly Cates. Christopher had been referred to her in 2007 for sexually harassing a woman at his church.
Christopher Gribble once had an unlimited future. He was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had the Melchizedek Priesthood conferred upon him, was ordained to the office of an elder, and had even aspired to serve as a full-time missionary, although his stake president, in one of the most prescient decisions ever made by a stake president anywhere, refused to forward Gribble's application to Salt Lake City and advised Gribble to resolve personal conflicts first. While Gribble's stake president most likely had no foreknowledge of what Gribble would eventually do, it's obvious that the Holy Spirit might have prompted the stake president not to send Gribble's missionary application forward. Stake presidents and bishops are entitled to the power of discernment.
In many respects, Christopher Gribble would meet the criteria of being a son of perdition, as described in this post, although the final call will be made by our Heavenly Father. A son of perdition will be found "filthy still" during the second resurrection, and will be sent into eternal exile with Satan and his hosts.
Menawhile, Gribble joins co-conspirator Steven Spader in the maximum security unit at 281 North State St., in Concord, NH. He will live in a gray concrete-block cell for 23 hours a day, with just one hour out for exercise. He will eat in his cell, an 8-foot-by-10-foot room secured by a heavy steel door. The cell has a small window, which looks out on part of the state men's prison in Concord. Next to a mattress, there is a toilet and sink, and a small desk and seat, all attached to the wall. He will be kept away from other inmates. He will likely spend a few years in maximum security, possibly longer, before a transfer to "close custody," the next secure unit where inmates have some interaction, and good behavior could lead to a transfer to general population as time goes on. But inmates sentenced to life without parole never make it to minimum security.
