OH - Shawn Michael GRATE: 3 bodies found, Ashland/Madison, Sept 2016

Owutatangledweb said:

Gardener, maybe they show him the pics between the two phases of the trial and take the death penalty off the table for cooperation? It's an interesting issue....

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Owutatangledweb said:

https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.co...ion-final-batches-potential-jurors/510841002/

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Gardener1850 said:

This is so interesting to read. A woman who knew two of the victims and said she gets upset every time she talks about it was dismissed. Many were dismissed for work or school reasons and one self-described "anarchist" was dismissed-- that one really gave me a laugh. Who knew it was so easy to get out of jury duty? Just say you are biased against the government! In all seriousness, I really hope they have a full jury by the end of tomorrow.

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Owutatangledweb said:

Jury selection updates

https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.co...said-accused-killer-asked-her-date/528420002/

https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.co...es-confusion-some-potential-jurors/524245002/

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ASHLAND - A potential juror in the case of suspected serial killer Shawn Grate said he asked her for a date.

"I was at Hawkins grocery store," the older woman said Wednesday during jury selection. "He was sitting on a bench. He walked up to me and said, 'You're such a beautiful lady. Would you consider going out with me?' "

The woman said she turned Grate down, and he offered to carry her groceries. She again said no, and he asked her if she would have coffee with him. She rejected him again.

"If I'd accepted that, I would have probably been a victim," she said.

Ashland County Common Pleas Judge Ron Forsthoefel excused the woman from further consideration for the jury.

"It's a little too close to home for you," the judge said.

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Owutatangledweb said:

Jury selection updates

https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.co...said-accused-killer-asked-her-date/528420002/

https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.co...es-confusion-some-potential-jurors/524245002/

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Owutatangledweb said:

Opening statements.

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-lorain/shawn-grate-trial-opening-statements

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Prosecutor's opening statement
With the courtroom silent, prosecutor Chris Tunnell started the trial by saying, "This isn't a who done it case. This is a he done it case." He recalled the details: On Sept. 13, 2016, a woman called 911 saying she had been abducted. She was able to free herself from being tied up to a bed while Grate was asleep naked.


Grate was living in a two-story abandoned home on an isolated street, the same house where Grate allegedly raped and killed two other women. When police arrived at the house on Covert Court, they noticed what the prosecutor said was “a smell that was unmistakable” as they walked through a home filled with trash. The smell would later point them in the direction of two decomposed bodies.

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When evidence technicians arrived at the home where Grate allegedly committed these heinous crimes, they found a pile of clothes and stuffed animals in a room that nearly reached the ceiling. While examining the room and its furnishings, BCI found restraints on the bed and a pole propped up against the wall with a sock and a layer of condoms wrapped around it.


A swarm of fly larva surrounded a pile of clothes. Underneath the clothes, was a closet door taped shut. When they opened the door, another pile was discovered. Underneath the pile of clothes, the body of Elizabeth Griffith was found.

Her decomposed body was naked, with her hands bound and ankles restrained. One restraint was attached to her neck to prevent her from moving, the prosecutor said.

The body of the second victim, Stacey Stanley, was found covered in a pile of clothes in the basement.

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The prosecutor said Grate videotaped the rape of Stanley, as well as the woman who managed to escape after being raped repeatedly over the course of three days in September 2016.


Grate admitted to police that he kidnapped, raped and killed Griffith and Stanley. The prosecutor said Grate demonstrated on video with police how he strangled the two women.


“You’ll see the grin as he demonstrates the killing,” the prosecutor told the jury.


After the opening statements, the chilling 911 call of the woman who escaped pleading for help was played in the courtroom.

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Owutatangledweb said:

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-ashland/day-4-grate-murder-trial

Testimony of the woman who got away.

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The woman — whom we are not naming — said she met previously met Grate at a Salvation Army Community Center.

She told the jury she thought of him as a "big brother," but everything changed on Sept. 11, 2016, when she went to the place he had been staying on the 360 block of Covert Court.

The woman told the jury she was reading Bible passages when Grate took the book from her hands and said, "You're not going anywhere."

She said Grate hit her in the face, tore her clothes off and sexually abused her in "every imaginable way" over and over.

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