James Marks thinks back to last summer when a judge showed leniency to his son, who was arrested with a friend for chasing down another vehicle and ramming their car into it. He can't help but wish a judge had thrown his son in jail.

"He would've learned his lesson," Marks said of his 18-year-old son, William, who now stands accused with his friend, Steven Spader, and three other young men in connection with the fatal machete attack on a Mont Vernon woman and her 11-year-old daughter.

In an interview with the Associated Press, James Marks described his son as a lost and impressionable youth who quit his job because a friend did, and wanted to drop out of school.

"He was like 'follow the leader' a lot," Marks said. "If he didn't, we probably wouldn't be in the situation we are today."

The suspects remain jailed in the attack that killed Kimberly Cates and seriously injured her daughter, Jaimie. They are: Quinn Glover, 18, and William Marks, both of Amherst; Spader, 18, and Christopher Gribble, 20, both of Brookline; and Autumn Savoy, 20, of Hollis.

Authorities say Spader and Gribble, who are charged with first-degree murder, used a machete and knife to kill Cates in her bed on Oct. 4. They also are accused of attempted murder in the attack on her daughter. Marks and Glover, who do not face murder charges, are charged with burglary, conspiracy to commit burglary and robbery.

Savoy was arrested this week on charges he helped Spader and Gribble come up with an alibi and helped them throw away evidence in the Nashua River.

"I didn't know what to do," Savoy told a judge. "I just did what I was told."

A grand jury met Thursday and yesterday in Manchester's Hillsborough County Superior Court to decide on indictments. Grand jury proceedings are secret, so it wasn't known if any of the cases would come up, and court records that explain how the police linked the young men to the attack remain sealed.

James Marks said his son - he calls him Billy - always struggled in school and had been in and out of counseling through the years, dealing with social anxiety issues. He said he watched his son, who once excelled at baseball, retreat from the sport by age 13 or 14, holing himself up in his room to play video games and surf the internet. He had few friends.

Marks says he believes his son - a slight boy about 5-foot-4 - became friends with Spader because "he was a giant kid who was going to have his back."

Ironically, having his son behind bars - where he can only see him through glass - may help achieve a goal to have him earn a high school diploma.

"He's got tutors coming in and they're trying to get him his high school diploma, which I really appreciate," James Marks said. "They don't have to go out of their way for him. He's getting some classes. He's still restricted, still only an hour a day out of his cell" at the Hillsborough County Department of Corrections in Manchester.

The families of Spader, Gribble, Glover and Savoy have declined to speak with the AP.

Prosecutors have refused to release details of the attack or documents showing how the men were linked by the police to the assault. And James Marks is not pushing his son for the details.

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