UPDATE: Michael Robie, Amber Talbot, Anthony Howe, and Timothy Smith
THREE FRIENDS RECEIVE DECADES IN PRISON FOR MURDER PLOT
excerpts of an article by Jack Thurston – WCAX Channel 3, Vermont
NORTH HAVERHILL, N.H. — The Grafton County Courthouse had to bring in extra chairs to accommodate all the friends and relatives of Christopher Gray, the 25-year old Groton, Vermont man stabbed to death 14 months ago. They came to watch the sentencing of Timothy Smith, Anthony Howe, and Amber Talbot, all charged with plotting and carrying out the murder because Gray had flirted with Talbot.
“Multiple defendant murder cases in New Hampshire are definitely the exception as opposed to the norm,” said New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin.
The defendants faced a barrage of statements from Gray’s loved ones who wondered what kind of selfish monsters could kill the man they remember as funny and hardworking, who spent years trying to conquer severe learning disabilities to
get a job.
In response, Amber Talbot said nothing. Timothy Smith told the court Chris Gray’s face haunts him in his dreams. Anthony Howe apologized for causing Gray’s family a lifetime of heartache. Howe’s prison sentence was 40 years to life. So was Smith’s. Talbot got 25 to 50 years.
A fourth man who helped devise the plan from his jail cell will be sentenced later.
“We’re satisfied. It’s fair and just under the system. The only thing that would be truly fair would be to bring Chris back and obviously no one can do that,” said Strelzin.
“It makes me feel good that they have not taken this lightly. It’s all been very serious. Three down, one to go,” said Christopher Gray’s guardian, Annie Crowley.
That “one to go” is Michael Robie, the fourth person who helped orchestrate the murder. He is expected to be sentenced in January.
THREE FRIENDS SENTENCED IN NH WAL-MART WORKER SLAYING
excerpts from an article by John Curran – AJC.com Website
Denounced as “evil” and “despicable,” three young friends who plotted the killing of a developmentally disabled Walmart cashier who had been hitting on a co-worker drew long prison terms Monday.
Timothy Smith, Anthony Howe and Amber Talbot, who pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy in the October 2008 death of 25-year-old Christopher Gray, sat at adjoining tables in court as the victim’s family members tearfully remembered him and berated his killers.
“Just remember that night,” said David Kemp, 33, Gray’s brother. “I hope it eats you and eats you and eats you until can’t take it (any) longer.”
Smith and Howe each got 40 years to life and Talbot 25 to 50 years for taking the Groton, Vt., man to a mobile home under the pretext of watching movies. There, Smith, 24, and Howe, 19, who are cousins, stabbed and strangled him as they stood around a campfire.
Gray, an aspiring auto mechanic whose buoyant personality helped him overcome a low IQ, attention deficit disorder and a speech impediment, became a target after wooing Talbot, 18, who also worked at the Woodsville Walmart.
Her boyfriend, Michael Robie, 19, became enraged when he heard about it and plotted revenge, enlisting the other three from his cell.
Robie, who was heard discussing the attack in tape-recorded telephone calls from jail, has pleaded guilty to assault and conspiracy.
He is awaiting sentencing.
On the night Gray went missing, Walmart surveillance video showed the three picking him up after work at the Woodsville store, before they drove to Talbot’s home. “He was only there because he wanted you to be his friend,” his father, Michael Gray, told them Monday.
Talbot hung her head, her brown hair falling in her face, as Gray’s “mom,” legal guardian Annie Crowley, 38, of Groton, Vt., chided her as the one who lured Gray.
“Are you more than just a stupid girl that who caught up with the wrong crowd?” she told Talbot, standing at a podium in the hushed courtroom. “I think so. I believe all the young men involved are your victims.”
Crowley, who had been his guardian for about two years before his death, broke down in tears as she read her statement. “How am I supposed to live with myself, knowing that I was his guardian? I was supposed to be looking out for him,” she said.
Shirley Kingsbury, Gray’s aunt, stood by the podium as Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin read her statement for her.
“You are despicable human beings,” he read from her statement. “My heart is broken forever.”
Smith, who had confessed to the killing in a handwritten letter to Gray’s family after the slaying, apologized again Monday.
“I see Chris every time I try to sleep. No matter how many times I say I’m sorry, I can’t bring him back. But I wish I could. That night, I should’ve told Chris what we planned on doing, and not to come,” Smith said.
So, as the man said, it’s three down and one to go as the main perpetrators of Chris Gray’s murder head off to start their sentences. I was very surprised that the beautiful and talented Amber Talbot received a lighter sentence than her two genius accomplices, Anthony Howe, and Timothy Smith. Most people, myself included, believe Christopher Gray would still be alive were it not for the manipulations of Ms. Talbot.
I was touched by how the friends and family of Christopher Gray chose to memorialize him. They set up a fund in his name, hoping it will create some good from this crime. They will use donations to offer small loans or items like home furnishings to people in the Upper Connecticut River Valley who have fallen on hard financial times.
According to Chris’s friend Kim Bienvenue:
“We will do whatever we can to give in his name.”
“I think he would be absolutely thrilled! (if he knew about the fund)”
If you’re interested in helping these good folks out, the Christopher Gray Memorial Fund is administered by the Rivers Reach Resource Center in Wells River, New Hampshire. The group’s telephone number is (802) 757-3137.
22 Comments »
I hope they all fucking die! Two posts in one day at PYSIH!!?? FTW, I just splooged in my pants!
LOL – I feel so special.
I think its bullshit that Amber Talbot received a lighter sentence than the boys.. Why? Cuz shes a girl? In my opinion, she was the ringleader and should rot for what she did. Some girls are just so hungry for attention…
Looking at the pictures now and the previous entry, Amber could have been Michael’s posession, so she may not be as guilty, IMO.
Michael Robie should have been jealous of just about anything as he is one of the ugliest fucks I have seen here, I was guessing that he was the “special person”/ Chris Grey was way more handsome and probably way nicer to Amber than michael ever was going to be.
She’s a dumb fuck for messing that up.
Michael’s ugliness may even scare Satin. It’s too bad that he’ll be fed and treated better than some of our returning troops for many years before the Grim Reaper can get to him.
I do understand wanting to rough people up, but killing them – duh? It’s a crime, there will be punishment – they were on surveillance tape……. So fucking stupid – And we are talking about middle of nowhere where there is about how many servellance cameras???? Up there there are more moose than cameras, so this gang is just too stupid.
I hope that the memory of Chris Gray lives on to accomplish much good and I hope that it also serves to keep these fucks behind bars the entire length of their sentence as in 20 years there may be bleeding hearts who care more about these fucks than chris Gray – see the Sharon tate murders…..
Fred, I couldn’t agree with you more! Michael Robie is uglier than Death backing out of a shithouse reading a Mad Magazine! Judging by his picture, he looks like he’s a regular meth head! I know that I would definitely not have the stomach to lie down with his fugly ass!
We could play connect the dots on his face…with a razor…..
Now that sounds like fun! And his trailer trash girlfriend looks like a broke-ass Heidi Fleiss! They are both disgusting!
These two should never be able to reproduce!!
..Snicker….now that’s funny….lol
i still say he had a bigger cock than them,and she loved it,but was to much a coward to admit it.now they will ALL get a big cock up the ass in the joint.
Where is god ?
Last I heard …wasn’t he on his way down a ‘canal’ about this time of year??….
Chris’ aunt said in her statement to the court, “You are despicable human beings,”
Sorry, but that is wrong. They are *NOT* human beings. Despicable, yes. Human, no. I feel less disgust toward the dog shit I scrape off my shoe than I do for these despicable SUB-human pieces of trash.
So where is Chris’s baby? The baby was his right? Does his family have him now? I hope so, because even though (unfortunately) he is apart of that bitch too, a little piece of Chris Gray will live on through his son.
The baby IS NOT Chris’s…DNA testing done..He is in fact Mikes…Wish the Family of Chris could take him and give him a better life..but, no legal right to do so…
That made me sad to read.
As a parent, this breaks my heart. To prey on someone so defenseless is sub-human.
I hate to be judgmental… But these are really the type of ppl I hope fry in hell. Stories like these, where mentally challanged people are hurt for nothing more then sport is beyond me. I have a little boy who is mentally challanged as this man was. And I hear stories like this and all I can think about is the fact that this man that was murdered is no different then my son. It just breaks my heart to know that my son too can be a victim just as easily as Mr. Gray. As a mother, espically one of a special needs child, the fact that human shaped people like this could be so selfish, crule and just plain horrible.
I’m torn day to day between allowing my son to do one thing or another. Parents of special needs children are litterly torn between wanting to shelter our children from the real world. To allow them to keep their innocents forever. Or do we allow them to get hurt once in a while?
There are days I want to curse God for giving me a child who needs so much of my time and effort… While others (most) I thank God for knowing that I can handle this beautiful wonderful little boy that is so creative, loving, and kind. I can’t tell you how hard it is to let your child go and explore the world, allowing them to get hurt. It’s a war we fight with ourselves every day. The only way I can sum it up is like this… You can tell a child the plate is hot as much as you want, but sometimes he needs to touch the plate and get burned before he understands what you are talking about.
People with speical needs has this nieve innocence too them that you want to protect and cherish… To make it last forever. But we all know you can’t. They NEED to live their God given lives. But it’s people like this that make it so hard to allow that. I worry every day what my son will be like when he’s an adult. What jobs will he have? What life will he live? And as a parent I have to allow him the freedom to do what he wants to do. Right now, my son’s dream job is working at Sonic (a restruant.) But after reading a story like this, just seeing him do that scares the shit out of me. I should be hopeful that this dream will come to pass, not worried about the next looser that will take advantage of him.
These people are sick, horrible digusting scums of the earth. They don’t deserve the release of death. I wish that there was a way they could die the horrible painful death of Cancers or Cystic Fibrosis, ALS… Some horrible painful waisting away disease that would waist their bodies, with keeping their minds intact. I want them to live that last six weeks over and over and over again until eternity. Just like that Greek God who was chained to the side of a mountian, forced to suffer as a bird eats his liver and other parts of him alive, only to die and repeat the same situation again the next day.
(Sorry about the ramble.. I just had to state my mind, thanks for listening. Also sorry about any typos, it’s nearly 4 a.m. on Christmas Day.)
What happen to the Baby that Chris and Amber share?
“share” is a terrible term. If the word isnt hard enough–throw all of this on a kid. Damn. Heart breaking.
That bitch is pure evil. I’m absolutely astounded that she didn’t get more time. She looks like she’s likely to lip of the wrong person in prison, so there may still be hope.
oops, that should say “off”.