Women charged in girl's disappearance enter pleas
HARTFORD, Conn.—Two women who lived in the West Hartford home where a missing teenager was found hiding last year could face up to 10 years in prison after pleading no contest Tuesday to criminal charges in her disappearance.
Kimberly Cray and Ann Murphy entered the pleas in Hartford Superior Court to one count each of kidnapping, conspiracy and risk of injury to a minor, attorneys in the case said.
They lived with Adam Gault, 42, who awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to kidnapping and sexually assaulting the Bloomfield girl.
The girl was 14 when she disappeared in 2006 and moved in with Gault, a family acquaintance, without her parents' knowledge. Police found her hiding in June 2007 in a locked storage area in Gault's home during a search after fearing she was dead.
Gault told police officers and her family several times that he had no idea where she was.
Prosecutors say he repeatedly sexually assaulted her while she lived with him, arranged for her to have an abortion when she became pregnant and forced her to use an assumed name.
They say Murphy and Cray -- Gault's common-law wife and live-in girlfriend, respectively -- helped hide the girl, despite knowing she had been reported missing.
"They're as complicit as Adam Gault," Marc Needelman, a lawyer for the girl and her family, said Tuesday. "They were not innocent bystanders. They looked away and allowed him to do what he did."
Cray and Murphy could face up to 10 years in prison, and Gault faces up to 30 years in prison when all three are sentenced July 11.
Michael Georgetti, Cray's defense attorney, said Tuesday that the judge left open the possibility of arguing for less prison time. Georgetti said he hopes the judge will consider the power that Gault held over Cray.
"Adam Gault is an individual who lives his life dominating people, especially women -- and especially women who are least able to look out for their own best interests," Georgetti said. "That was the case with the victim in this case, and also with Kimberly Cray."
Attorney Jeremy Weingast, who represents Murphy, said Gault also "certainly had a strong influence" over Murphy, who cried during Tuesday's court appearance while entering her no-contest pleas.
"She feels horrible for what happened to the girl," Weingast said.
The teen's family has said the teen worked with Cray as a dog trainer and then got to know Gault, a self-employed dog trainer. The girl's stepfather also worked briefly with Gault several years earlier.
The Associated Press is not naming the girl or her family because it does not typically identify victims of sexual assault.
The teen and her family might speak during the July 11 sentencing, or Needleman said he might address the court on their behalf. She is now 16 and attending school, but is still dealing with the emotional effects of the ordeal, he said.
"She has some good days, she has some bad days," he said. "The scars are never going away for her or for her family. They went through hell."
