MANCHESTER — How the court will proceed in resentencing convicted murderer Steven Spader, sentenced to life without parole for the hacking death of a Mont Vernon mom and the maiming of her daughter, is expected to be outlined Wednesday during a Superior Court hearing.

Spader was given an automatic life sentence after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2009 death of Kimberly L. Cates, 42. Added to the life sentence were accumulative, consecutive 76 years-to-life sentences on other offenses, including trying to murder Cates’ daughter, Jaimie.

That life sentence, however, became unconstitutional June 25 with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Miller vs. Alabama. The high court decided an automatic, mandatory life sentence without possibility of parole for a juvenile constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment.

The court said “that the distinctive attributes of youth diminish the harshest sentences on juvenile offenders, even when they commit terrible crimes.”

The court said a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a juvenile is similar in nature to a death sentence and, therefore, could not be mandatory.

It did not rule out a juvenile being given life without parole but said “occasions for sentencing juveniles to this harshest possible penalty will be uncommon,” according to court documents filed by Spader’s defense attorneys, Jonathan Cohen and Andrew Winters of Concord.

Spader, 20, and formerly of Merrimack, was 36 days shy of his 18th birthday when he committed the crimes, according to Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin.

In court documents, Strelzin agreed Spader needs to be resentenced, based on Miller vs. Alabama, but disagreed with the defense that he needs to be resentenced on the other charges as well because the cumulative sentences are “tantamount to a consecutive sentence of life without parole.”

Spader contends the court must consider mitigating factors on those charges as well, but Strelzin said he is mistaken.

As a matter of law, Strelzin wrote in court documents, Spader is entitled to parole on the other convictions. He agreed Spader should be resentenced on the murder conviction and, at the same time, be resentenced on the other charges, but in accordance with established New Hampshire case law on sentencing.

Spader’s appeal was put on hold, pending the resentencing in Hillsborough County Superior Court, Northern District.

Wednesday’s scheduled status hearing is before Judge Gillian Abramson, who presided at Spader’s trial.

Abramson made it clear what she thought of Spader when, in sentencing him, she said she could go on for days about his “depth of depravity,” but said it was sufficient to say he belonged in a cage “for the rest of your pointless life.”

pgrossmith@unionleader.com