Jury selection to start for Ashland man charged with killing 2 women

Shawn M. Grate
Shawn M. Grate Ashland County Sheriff Office

ASHLAND >> An Ohio man charged with abducting and killing two women is slated for trial starting this week.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday in Ashland County court for 41-year-old Shawn Grate’s potential death penalty case.

Grate has pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder and kidnapping in the deaths of 29-year-old Elizabeth Griffith and 43-year-old Stacey Stanley. He faces a total of 23 counts.

The women’s bodies were found in a supposedly unoccupied Ashland home in September 2016 after a third woman called 911 from a bedroom and said Grate was holding her hostage.

Investigators say Grate admitted killing at least two other women elsewhere.

Grate’s attorneys aren’t allowed to comment about the case because of a judge’s gag order.