NH Supreme Court Says Circumstantial Evidence Enough For Gorham Double-Murder

By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org, InDepth NH

Craig Keville will continue to serve his life sentence for killing ex-girlfriend Holly Banks and Keith LaBelle after the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled the state presented enough evidence to convict.

Keville, 37, denies he snuck into Bank’s apartment in the early morning hours of April 27, 2022 before shooting her and LaBelle. And while there was no direct physical evidence or witnesses tying him to the murders, the unanimous Supreme Court opinion found the state’s circumstantial evidence sufficient.

“We are not persuaded that the defendant has established that the evidence at trial fails to exclude all reasonable conclusions except guilt,” the justice wrote.

Hours before the murders, Keville angrily confronted Banks at Fagin’s Pub as she was talking to LaBelle, according to court records. Keville was soon thrown out of the bar and police were called due to his aggressive behavior. Keville texted Banks a couple of hours after he was thrown out “You’re going to get people hurt, Holly.”

Banks and Keville had split up months before, but text messages show Keville was trying to get Banks to go to his apartment in Berlin before the confrontation in the pub. After Keville was thrown out of the pub, Banks and LaBelle continued talking. Banks then asked a friend to follow her home to her Gorham apartment.

Text messages and cell phone data indicate Keville was outside Banks’ apartment after she got home, demanding that she talk to him. A little after midnight Keville made a disturbing comment to Banks after she asked if he was OK.

“You okay?” Banks asked.

“No, not at all. I was ready to do some really bad stuff tonight. Not to you,” Keville replied. “When are you gonna realize I’m not going to hurt you? And if it happened, I was just going to end myself.”

Keville was eventually seen leaving the area near Banks’ apartment, and LaBelle arrived for a romantic tryst around 12:15 a.m., according to court records.

Surveillance video from a convenience store near Keville’s apartment in Berlin shows a vehicle matching Keville’s truck drive to the rear of his apartment building around 12:22 a.m., and then leave again at 1:44 a.m. Between 1:46 a.m. and 1:49 a.m., Keville’s cell phone signal went from a Berlin cell tower to a Gorham cell tower. Data further shows that his phone was in the vicinity of Banks’ apartment starting at around 1:51 a.m. Between 1:52 a.m. and 1:55 a.m., Keville’s cell phone was connected to Banks’ home password protected wifi network.

The truck was seen leaving Banks’ apartment complex at 1:55 a.m., and at 1:56 a.m. he texted his mother, “I’m sorry, mom.” Data shows that Keville drove around Gorham for about an hour before he again texted his mother near the Gorham Police Department, “I love you.”

Keville then went inside and asked to speak to an officer, and Keville told that officer to go to Banks’ apartment. Police found Banks dead with a single gunshot wound to the head, and LaBelle dead after being shot eight times.

Though Keville argued at trial and in his appeal there are other hypothetical explanations for his location and actions in those early morning hours, the justices ruled those unsupported alternatives do not outweigh the facts as presented by prosecutors.

“We have objectively reviewed the record and, evaluating the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, we conclude that, as the State asserts, the evidence supports that the defendant ‘had the means, motive, opportunity, and intent to commit the murders, and that he exhibited a consciousness of guilt after committing them.’ Accordingly, we hold that there was sufficient evidence for a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed two counts of first degree murder,” the justices wrote.

On similar grounds, Keville challenged his convictions on charges of falsifying physical evidence for getting rid of the murder weapon and items connecting him to that weapon.

During an initial search of Keville’s apartment, police found an unzipped and empty handgun bag, as well as a receipt for a Ruger 9E pistol chambered in 9 mm ammunition. Banks and LaBelle were both killed by 9 mm bullets.

Keville was initially held by police after he told an officer to go to Banks’ apartment, and he was in custody while they first searched his apartment. But police released Keville, and he returned to his home and got rid of the handgun bag and receipt, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors also accused him of getting rid of the Ruger 9E during the hour drive before he went to police. Police found 9 mm ammunition in Keville’s storage unit, despite him not having possession of any other 9 mm firearms.

Keville argued there is no evidence that he had the gun, or that he got rid of the gun, and later the bag, and the receipt. But the justices ruled, as with the murders, there is enough evidence to show that Keville did what prosecutors alleged.

“The defendant’s alternative hypotheses do not reasonably explain the defendant’s entire course of conduct, including the presence of the unzipped, empty, pistol-sized gun case that he left on his kitchen table before going to Banks’ apartment, his message to his mother after leaving Banks’ apartment saying that he was sorry, and his decision to go to the Gorham police department and direct them to go to Banks’ apartment. Nor do the alternative hypotheses explain his decision to dispose of the empty gun case and bill of sale after being released from the police department, or the presence of 9mm ammunition in his storage unit despite the absence of any firearm in his possession capable of firing such ammunition,” the justices wrote.

Keville is serving two consecutive life sentences, one each for Banks and LaBelle, on two convictions for first degree murder.

This story was originally published by InDepth NH.