Jurors In Spader Trial Speak Out
NASHUA, N.H. (CBS) -- From the jury box, Scott Tuthill and Mark Langlois listened to and looked at every horrifying detail of Steven Spader's murder trial.
"It just made me think more about how precarious everything is. We're not safe all the time," said Langlois.
"The graphic details of how it was methodically planned out, you just have to shake your head," said Tuthill. He knew little about the case when he was seated on the jury and found it "surprising and overwhelming. First of all the volume of the evidence being laid out. And the sheer brutality of it."
Both Langlois and Tuthill say prosecutors absolutely convinced them that a machete-wielding Spader killed Kimberly Cates and severely injured her 11-year old daughter Jaimie during a random home invasion he masterminded.
"They gave us an unambiguous schematic of the entire thing. It made our decision easy," said Langlois.
The jurors couldn't discuss the case, even among themselves, until they'd heard all the evidence. They arrived at unanimous verdicts in less than two hours.
Langlois said he stared at Spader when he and other jurors were polled, one by one, for their individual verdicts.
"I looked at him a lot and I was happy to look at him for five times as I said, "Guilty."
"He spooked me. It's just a spooky look. I can't explain it. But I can still see it."
In the end, Tuthill didn't deliberate-- he was selected as an alternate juror.
"I think one of the other jurors told me he saw my shoulders slump. Certainly, you want to be there in the end, but I don't think my being there would have changed a thing."
Both men said if there was any relief in the weeks of haunting testimony, it was the littlest witness who was not called.
"We really didn't need to see Jaimie there, and we were hoping the prosecution would realize they did their job, she didn't need to be on that stand."
