Plumber convicted of conspiring in Deerfield home invasion that targeted family friend and former customer

By JAMES A. KIMBLE Union Leader Correspondent

BRENTWOOD A plumber who plotted a home invasion targeting a Deerfield veterinarian that he once did work for was convicted on Friday afternoon on all charges that he conspired with two partners to loot a safe with $20,000 in cash, silver bars and firearms.

A jury convicted Christopher Martin, 40, of Danbury of conspiracy to commit burglary and being an accomplice to a Manchester man who carried out the violent break-in by donning a ski mask and beating the homeowner over the head with a handgun.

The jury reached its verdict just before 2:30 p.m. on Friday in Rockingham County Superior Court. It marked the third and final conviction in the case.

Dr. Arthur Cutter, the homeowner who suffered nearly 50 staples along his head from his injuries, watched from the front row of the court gallery as jurors were individually polled on their decision.

Deputy County Attorney Tom Reid said during closing arguments that Martin served as the nexus between Cutter and his masked attacker, who knew exactly where a bedroom safe was located after being given a hand drawn map of the house.

Who is this man in the mask? He has no idea, Reid said of Cutter. He is seriously injured. He is forced to take things out of the safe and load his own car.

Martin became familiar with Cutters home and the valuables he kept in it after working jobs at his home. The plan for the home invasion went awry when the attacker, Jacob Palo, 37, of Manchester lifted up his ski mask to take a cigarette break.

Thats when Cutter fled to his basement and escaped through a back door into the woods.

Palo is serving a 20 to 40 year prison sentence on a litany of charges for beating Cutter in his home and setting off a county-wide manhunt that ended after he crashed his second stolen getaway car into an Epping police cruiser in Fremont.

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Plumber convicted of conspiring in Deerfield home invasion that targeted family friend and former customer