Updated: Mortimer Pleads Not Guilty to First Degree Murder Charges

Thomas Mortimer, IV pled not guilty this morning in Woburn Superior Court to four counts of murder in the first degree.

Mortimer, 43, was indicted by a Middlesex Grand Jury on August 27.

As the Clerk Magistrate, Michael Sullivan, read through the charges facing Mortimer, the father stared blankly at him. Mortimer never turned his head to look at the Stone family.

Sullivan ruled that Mortimer will be held without bail.

The court reconvened an hour later at 11 a.m. because the defense had filed a motion to seal the statement of the case.

Defense Attorney, Denise Regan believed that pages five through nine of the nine-page document "could do irreparable harm to my client if it's released."

She urged the court to impound the statement until Sep.9, which would allow her to fully look at the evidence and make a more intelligent decision on where to go from there.

"I haven't had a chance to challenge it," Regan explained to the court and to Judge Thomas Billings. "These allegations are informatory and if they got out could hinder the chance at a free trial, that's why I'm asking you to temporarily impound the documents.

Assistant District Attorney, Adrienne Lynch, opposed that motion explaining that the defense can choose what information is released.

However, Billings sided with the defense and decided to temporarily impound the documents until Sep. 9 at 2 p.m. when a hearing will take place in courtroom 630.

A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Sept. 27.

The father faces four charges of first-degree murder in connection with the quadruple homicide in his family's Winchester home. He is accused of murdering his wife, 41-year-old Laura Stone Mortimer, her two children, 2-year-old Charlotte Mortimer and 4-year-old Thomas Mortimer V, and Laura's mother, 64-year-old Ragna Ellen Stone.

Authorities allege that the defendant murdered four members of his family after an argument with his wife and ongoing marital discord. He allegedly murdered the four members of his family sometime between Monday, June 14 at 9 p.m. and the morning of Tuesday, June 15.

According to police, at 7:10 a.m. on June 15 he called his work and his son's preschool to inform them that they will not be making it in. When he spoke to his sister-in-law on the phone, who was looking for her sister, Mortimer said that she cannot come to the phone and indicated it would be a while before she would be able to.

Police also found two typed written letters that were made late that Monday night or early Tuesday morning explaining what he had done. He then fled his house and travelled west on Route 33 and at some point along that way he discarded both his and his wife's cell phones.

Mortimer was arrested June 17 after he was seen in Montague, MA at approximately 11:45 am by a father and son. The witnesses then copied the plate number of the vehicle Mortimer was driving and reported it to local police.  Mortimer was apprehended in Bernardston after attempting to flee and was arrested by members of the Bernardston Police Department

Throughout the hearing, Mortimer occasionally whispered to his attorney, Denise Regan. And at one point, when speaking to her, smiled. The rest of the time Mortimer stood behind the cut-off glass barrier located at the side of the courtroom, expressionless. He was handcuffed, wearing a long-sleeve blue shirt with a burgundy tie and short black hair.