Jury Deliberates In N.H. Home Invasion Slaying

Jury deliberations began Thursday in the trial of a man who has admitted killing a New Hampshire mother and maiming her daughter in a machete and knife attack.

During closing arguments, defense attorney Donna Brown said her client suffers personality disorders that justify a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Brown told jurors the state's own psychiatric expert diagnosed 21-year-old Christopher Gribble as having depression, a developmental disorder and personality disorders.

"These horrible crimes are the product of those mental disorders," Brown said.

Under New Hampshire law, she says, jurors will get to decide whether Gribble suffers from a mental disorder and whether that disorder triggered the murder of Kimberly Cates and attempted murder of Jaimie Cates in their Mont Vernon home.

Prosecutor Peter Hinckley earlier told jurors Gribble's insanity defense is an excuse to attempt to avoid a life sentence.

"That claim is the farthest thing from the truth, and the farthest thing from justice," Hinckley said.

With reporting from The Associated Press and the WBUR Newsroom.

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