Convicted murderer Steven Spader is asking for a new sentencing hearing in the Mont Vernon thrill-kill case, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

“I can’t comment on what kind of sentencing we’d be looking for at this stage,” Spader’s attorney, Jonathan Cohen, said Tuesday.

Neither Cohen nor prosecutor, Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin, could give a timetable on when the new sentencing hearing, if granted, would be heard.

“There likely will be another sentencing hearing where the state will ask for its sentence,” said Strelzin. He declined to say how much prison time he might request.

Spader, now 20, was convicted of first-degree murder for hacking Mont Vernon mother Kimberly Cates to death and maiming her then 11-year-old daughter, Jaimie, during an October 2009 home invasion. Judge Gillian L. Abramson immediately imposed the mandatory sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole on the premeditated first-degree murder conviction.

“The U.S. Supreme Court said someone who’s under 18 at the time they committed a murder can be sentenced to life without parole, but it can’t be automatic,” Strelzin said.

“He (Spader) was a month shy of his 18th birthday,” Strelzin said. Or more precisely, 36 days short.

If he had turned 18 before committing the murders, he said, “then there wouldn’t be this issue.”

Cohen said the attorney working on Spader’s appeal filed a request with the state Supreme Court to delay Spader’s appeal and to send the case back to Hillsborough Superior Court North. Cohen filed his motion in Superior Court requesting a new sentencing hearing.

“We reviewed the decision and think it applies and filed a motion,” Cohen said.

Cohen declined to say how his client reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling or to the possibility of getting his sentence reduced.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states that require juvenile defendants be sentenced to life imprisonment without the chance of parole prevent judges from considering a juvenile’s “lessened culpability” and “greater capacity for change.”

“We therefore hold that mandatory life without parole for those under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the majority opinion.

In another high-profile murder case, attorneys are exploring whether their client, Robert Tulloch, should be entitled to a new trial. The former Vermont man was 17 when he and an accomplice killed Dartmouth College professors Half and Susanne Zantop in January 2001.

- - - - - - - -

Mike Cousineau may be reached at mcousineau@unionleader.com.