Accused serial killer on trial in Ashland for deaths of Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith.
ASHLAND With the prosecutor declaring “this is not a whodunnit case,” witness testimony got underway Monday in the third week of capital murder trial of a accused serial killer Shawn Grate.
After a 12-person jury and five alternates were seated first thing Monday morning in Ashland County Common Pleas Court, Prosecutor Christopher Tunnell’s 90-minute opening statement ran through Grate’s 23-count felony indictment. Grate’s attorneys, Robert and Rolf Whitney waived their opening argument.
“The defendant confessed to every crime with which he is charged,” Tunnell said. “This is not a whodunnit case, this is a he did it case.”
Grate is on trial for the deaths and kidnappings of Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith and is linked to the deaths of two other women in Richland County and another in Marion County. He has not yet been charged in the other three deaths.
Tunnell worked through described each victim and detailed Grate’s arrival in Ashland County in June 2016. Eventually, Grate settled into an abandoned house located at 363 Covert Court, Tunnell said, where he spent about two months.
The Covert Court house is where Grate was arrested Sept. 13, 2016, and where a woman was found and rescued by police after she called 911, saying she had been abducted. It’s also where the bodies of two other women were found.
The woman had been restrained to a bed and repeatedly raped over the span of two days, Tunnell said, and only was able to call 911 after Grate fell asleep.
Tunnell also spoke of how Grate met Griffith and Stanley.
Tunnell said Grate videotaped himself raping Stanley and the woman, who was rescued by police, and that video would be shown to the jury as part of the state’s case.
“Not only will you hear him describing the crime, you will see it,” Tunnell said.
Tunnell also said several hours of videotaped interviews between Grate and police will be shown.
Monday was the first day witnesses testified after two weeks of preliminary jury selection in which 48 of nearly 350 jurors called cleared death-penalty interview phase. Attorneys for the prosecution and defense agreed to the final jury from that pool at the bench of Judge Ronald P. Forsthoefel first thing Monday morning.
The first witness was Sara Miller, the 911 dispatcher who handled the call of the woman who said she was abducted.
With the prosecutor declaring “this is not a whodunnit case,” witness testimony got underway Monday in the third week of capital murder trial of a accused serial killer Shawn Grate.
After a 12-person jury and five alternates were seated first thing Monday morning in Ashland County Common Pleas Court, Prosecutor Christopher Tunnell’s 90-minute opening statement ran through the 23-count felony indictment of Grate. Grate’s attorneys, Robert and Rolf Whitney waived their opening argument.
“The defendant confessed to every crime with which he is charged,” Tunnell said. “This is not a whodunnit case, this is a he did it case.”
Tunnell worked through described each victim and detailed Grate’s arrival in Ashland County in June 2016.
Tunnell said Grate initially was breaking into and living in campers at Charles Mill campground, and later constructed a “fort” in the woods near Mifflin before coming up to the city of Ashland.
Initially, Grate lived in the old Hess and Clark building before moving onto the house located at 363 Covert Court, Tunnell said. The house was believed to be abandoned, but Grate spent almost two months in the house,
The Covert Court house is where Grate was arrested Sept. 13, 2016, and where a woman was found and rescued by police after she called 911, saying she had been abducted. It’s also where the bodies of two other women were found.
The woman had been restrained to a bed and repeatedly raped over the span of two days, Tunnell said, and only was able to call 911 after Grate fell asleep.
Tunnell also spoke of how Grate met Elizabeth Griffith and Stacey Stanley, both of whom Grate is accused of kidnapping and strangling to death.
Tunnell said Grate videotaped himself raping Stanley and the woman, who was rescued by police, and that video would be shown to the jury as part of the state’s case.
“Not only will you hear him describing the crime, you will see it,” Tunnell said.
Tunnell also said several hours of videotaped interviews between Grate and police will be shown.
Monday was the first day witnesses testified after two weeks of preliminary jury selection in which 48 of nearly 350 jurors called cleared death-penalty interview phase. Attorneys for the prosecution and defense agreed to the final jury from that pool at the bench of Judge Ronald P. Forsthoefel first thing Monday morning.
The first witness was Sara Miller, the 911 dispatcher who handled the call of the woman who said she was abducted. Miller listened as the woman, referenced as Jane Doe in the indictment filed in the case, whispered throughout the call, terrified Grate might wake up. At one point Jane Doe placed the phone on the ground and there is silence for several minutes.
Ashland Police Sgt. Jim Cox testified he and two other APD officers responding to the 911 call were able to find the victim after seeing her through a window, and then came into arrest Grate, who was still sleeping when police entered 363 Covert Court, Cox said.
When police began to search the house, Cox said they noticed fabric restraints on the bed Grate was sleeping on, as well as more restraints on a bed on the second floor of the house.
Cox also said police went into the basement of the home and found a large pile of trash.
“There was a pretty ugly odor that I have learned over time that is what we call a dead body odor,” Cox said. “We did not see anyone down in the basement. There was a pile of trash right by the stairs that an insect infestation and the odor was coming from.”
It was after further investigation by police and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations that they found Stanley deceased and under the pile of trash and Griffith found dead in closet in the upstairs, Cox said.
Two BCI investigators, who took photos of the crime scene were also called as witnesses.
The defense did little cross examination on Monday. Robert Whitney asked Miller how long the 911 phone call was between the victim and had not further questions for the two other witnesses who completed their testimony.
The trial will continue Tuesday.
Dylan Sams can be reached at 419-281-0581, ext. 240, and dsams@times-gazette.com.