Girls, guns, highlight 2011

Two girls - one found dead days after disappearing, another who watched as one of her mother's killers was sentenced to life in prison - became the top news stories in New Hampshire in 2011.

Their cases made an impression in a year of dramatic events, including the surprise October storm that dumped up to 34 inches of snow in one part of the state and cut off electricity to 315,000 customers; the loosening of gun restrictions; and the tug-of-war over setting New Hampshire's first-in-the nation presidential primary date.

Celina Cass, 11, disappeared in July from her West Stewartstown home. Her body was found in the Connecticut River a week later.

The attorney general's office classified her death as a homicide but has not revealed how she was killed. No one has been arrested. A reward fund was established and condolences poured in from across the nation, but residents in the small community a mile from Canada are frustrated by the lack of answers.

"I go to the cemetery every week," her mother, Luisa Cass, said in September. "I talk to her. I want her to come and tell me what happened so we know."

The 12-year-old survivor of a brutal 2009 home invasion in Mont Vernon, Jaimie Cates, appeared in court for the first time to witness the sentencing of a man convicted in the attack that killed her mother, Kimberly Cates.

Jaimie, who played dead, recovered from severe injuries to see the five young men involved in the attack sentenced to prison, two of them for life. During the March 25 sentencing of one of them, Christopher Gribble, the judge provided some reassuring words to the girl. Most of his knife blows had targeted her.

"I hope you know that this man and the other men that were involved in this terrible crime can never hurt you again," Judge Gillian Abramson told her.

The home invasion led legislators to expand New Hampshire's death penalty law - one of the narrowest in the nation - to include killings during burglaries. House Speaker Bill O'Brien, who is from Mont Vernon, sponsored the bill and named it after Kimberly Cates. Gov. John Lynch signed it into law in June.

Deadly force expansion

The Republican-led Legislature also made news for voting to ease gun regulations, including allowing guns in the State House complex. And despite objections from law enforcement and Lynch's veto, the Legislature passed a bill that allows people to use deadly force to defend themselves any place they have a right to be.

"No law-abiding citizen should have to turn his back on a rapist or a robber," said state Rep. Jennifer Coffey, a Republican from Andover.

The measure also says brandishing a weapon isn't considered deadly force under the law. That provision was inspired by Moultonboro farmer Ward Bird's incarceration on a mandatory minimum three-year sentence for showing a gun when a trespasser refused to leave his property.

Bird was jailed in November 2010 and released in February after the Executive Council took the rare step of commuting his sentence. Bird and his supporters carrying "Free Ward Bird" signs had asked for a pardon, but Lynch vetoed it. He said the judicial system gave Bird's case a thorough review, and he would not undermine it.

New Hampshire also reinstated a requirement for pregnant girls seeking abortions to tell their parents or a judge first after state lawmakers overrode Lynch's veto of the measure. Lynch had argued that the legislation was unclear and too narrow.

Legislators supported Lynch's veto of a bill that would have barred unions from collecting a share of dues from non-members. Currently, unions and businesses must negotiate whether to require the fees as part of a collective bargaining agreement. Lynch said repeatedly that the bill interfered with private businesses and their employees' negotiations over contracts. (next page »)