WOBURN, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts man accused of killing his
wife, two children and mother-in-law pleaded not guilty Thursday to
four counts of first-degree murder as a prosecutor described how he
left two letters confessing to the slayings.
Thomas Mortimer IV was arraigned in Woburn Superior Court on
Thursday following his indictment last week. He had previously
entered not guilty pleas in district court and has been held
without bail since his arrest following the killings in June.
Mortimer frowned as he listened to a clerk read an indictment
charging him in the murders of his wife, 41-year-old Laura Stone
Mortimer, mother-in-law, 64-year-old Ellen Stone, and two children,
4-year-old Thomas Mortimer V, and 2-year-old Charlotte Mortimer.
The family was found beaten and stabbed to death in their
Winchester home.
District Attorney Gerard Leone has said that the slayings
followed a fight and "ongoing marital discord." Leone said there
were signs that Mortimer attempted suicide at the home.
In court Thursday, Assistant District Attorney Adrienne Lynch
said authorities believe the victims were killed some time between
9:10 p.m. on June 14 and 7:10 a.m. on June 15, when Mortimer called
his new boss and told him he was too sick to come to work and also
called his son's school to say the boy would be absent.
Lynch said sometime between 11:16 p.m. and 3:19 a.m., Mortimer
wrote two letters on his computer in which "he admitted
responsibility for the murders of his family."
Prosecutors said previously that the letters said: "I did these
horrible things. What I've done was extremely selfish and cowardly.
I murdered my family."
After making the phone calls, Mortimer left the house, taking
his wife's cell phone with him, Lynch said. She said that when his
wife's sister called to talk to her, Mortimer gave her a chilling
response. "He indicated she was not able to come to the phone and
it would be a while before she would be able to," Lynch said.
The bodies were found on June 16. A day later, Mortimer was
captured in northwestern Massachusetts.
Mortimer's lawyer, Denise Regan, has said he has mental health
issues.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
