Red-eyed, tight-faced parents watched in silence as the five children entered the room one at a time for arraignment on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit armed robbery and armed robbery.

Three of the boys also face charges of possession of a weapon and being accomplices after the fact, prosecutor Rene de Repentigny said outside the courtroom.

Dressed mostly in hooded sweatshirts, the boys, all with close-cropped haircuts, watched wide-eyed as their lawyers spoke to the judge.

One Pleaded Not Guilty

One, who is only 13, and must be tried in the juvenile division of Quebec Court under the Young Offenders Act, entered a plea of not guilty.

Another, 15, requested a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is mentally fit to stand trial. He is to return to court on Oct. 22.

Of the remaining three, one 14 and the other two 15, none entered a plea. They and the 13-year-old are to return to court on Monday.

All five were remanded in custody.

Prosecutor Jacques Diamant said it is too soon to say whether he will argue to have the 14- and 15-year-old boys tried as adults.

"There are more factors to consider than just the severity of the crime," he said. He did not elaborate on what those factors were.

"It seems evident that not everyone has the same level of complicity," defence lawyer Harold Gagnon said outside the court.

"It doesn't mean everyone who was there knew what was going on."

Before the arraignment, groups of lawyers stood on each side of the courtroom, talking in low voices and consulting thick leather-bound copies of the Criminal Code.

The five boys have separate lawyers.

"I've only had a chance to talk with my client a few times," Gagnon said later.

"My client is very affected by all this," added lawyer Pierre Lestage, who is defending one of the 15-year-olds.

Of the five boys, two appeared to be barely 5 feet tall. The 14-year-old stood, full of restless energy, as if he were in a penalty box instead of a prisoner's dock.

The last boy's father got up tearfully from his seat and stood quietly throughout his son's arraignment, making eye contact with the boy across the crowded courtroom.

The boys' youthful appearance was at odds with the severity of the crimes with which they are charged.

Pearl Rushford Lamarre was found by her son-in-law at 3 p.m. Monday in the kitchen of her home in Chambly, a South Shore town of 20,000 people about 25 kilometres east of Montreal.

The 81-year-old woman had been wounded dozens of times with a sharp object, police said. She had wounds consistent with desperate attempts to defend herself.

Police said her home had been robbed, although they would not specify what was taken.

The investigators found no sign of forced entry, which they said might mean that the woman knew her attackers.

For many Montrealers, the case sparked painful memories of the 1995 murder of Beaconsfield residents Frank Toope, 75, and his wife, Jocelyn, 70, bludgeoned to death in their bed by boys wielding a baseball bat and a beer bottle.

Some drew comparisons with the senseless slayings last April in Littleton, Colo., when two gun-wielding Columbine High School students killed 13 people and took their own lives.

Pierre Poupart, a Montreal youth-centre co-ordinator, said it's inevitable that people will point to the Columbine deaths when trying to analyze the motives behind youth crime.

"There could be a comparison," said Poupart, who called such events the tip of the iceberg of society's violence.

"It's very shocking when crimes are committed by people who are so young.

"There are all sorts of hypotheses. Is there one person in the group who's mentally ill and drew the others into the affair? Were drugs involved? What happened, exactly?

"We don't know yet."

However, Poupart urged parents to persist in overcoming any communication barriers with their children, and to speak openly about their own feelings about such horrendous crimes.

"It's important to tell them our reactions," he said. "Tell them how you feel. Even if you feel like giving up, don't do it."