Found Deceased OH - Mandy Gottschalk, 36, Ashtabula, 15 Aug 2015 *Arrest*

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Deputy medical examiner says victim died of blunt force trauma

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/deputy-medical-examiner-says-victim-died-of-blunt-force-trauma/article_20933048-d2e4-5db7-93da-77fed50c3c6d.html

Mandy Gottschalk died of blunt force trauma — not stomach problems — the Cuyahoga County Chief deputy medical examiner testified Friday.

Felo said he and Maskoyvak reviewed the information from the autopsy and ruled the death was the result of blunt trauma to the head, neck, trunk and extremities. He also said the injuries were the result of a “crushing blow” that was similar to a car crash, a “stomping” or a fall from a significant height.

While the fatal injuries were determined to be from the blunt force trauma, Felo also detailed injuries that might have occurred after her death, which included scalp, leg, foot and other injuries.

Per Due questioned Felo about an opinion filed with the court by Dr. Werner Spitz, who has testified in a variety of high profile cases. Per Due, during opening statements, said Spitz would attest Gottschalk died of a “stomach ailment.”

Felo said he disagreed with Spitz’s opinion and believes her death was clearly the result of a “blunt force trauma.”

Ashtabula County Coroner Dr. Pamela Lancaster, who makes the final determination that the case was a homicide, also testified Friday. She said the county hires the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office to perform autopsies because Ashtabula County doesn’t have it’s own facility to perform them. However, she disagreed with Per Due’s characterization that she just signed the document prepared by the the CCMEO, saying she reviewed the autopsy and police reports as well as photographs taken at the scene.

The defense also continued its focus on authorities’ evidence collection methods Friday with Per Due questioning why maggots found on the body during the autopsy were not saved to determine a more accurate time of death. Felo said other maggots taken from the burial scene would have been more helpful in finding time of death.

Jurors also saw dozens of suspected bloodstains throughout the first floor of the Washington Avenue home Starkey shared with Gottschalk.

Assistant County Prosecutor Cecilia Cooper walked Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations Special Agent Justin Soroka through dozens of photos taken inside the home, showing reddish-brown specks found on carpeting, walls, furniture and fixtures — even parts of the ceiling — almost all of which Soroka identified as blood through field testing.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Backpack had Starkey DNA

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/backpack-had-starkey-dna/article_fbf0aeb5-4c4a-59c7-b317-c8be58490f3d.html

Kyle Starkey’s DNA was extracted from the inside and outside of the gloves, boots and a bandana found in a backpack Starkey is accused of using to dump murder evidence, a crime-scene expert told jurors Tuesday.

Forensic scientist Halley Dreyer from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) testified on the sixth day of Starkey’s murder trial in Ashtabula County Common Pleas Judge Gary Yost’s courtroom. She also said Starkey’s blood was on the living room wall of the Washington Avenue home in Ashtabula that Starkey shared with 36-year-old Mandy Gottschalk.

Brenda McNeely (now Butler) from Ohio BCI also testified Tuesday morning about her analysis of the blood patterns on the walls, ceiling and furniture in Gottschalk’s living room and bathroom closet.

McNeely recreated what she believed happened in the early morning hours of Aug. 15, 2015 after she used a product called Blue Star Luminol, which detects blood traces at the scene of a crime even if there was an attempt to clean up, she said.

“There was an attempt to clean up blood in the house,” she said.

During cross examination, Per Due asked if she saw a “drag pattern” in the house, referring to McBride’s previous testimony that he saw Starkey punch and kick Gottschalk and then drag her body into a bathroom closet.

“I did not see a drag pattern from the front door to the closet, but I didn’t use Luminol on the area,” McNeely said.

Per Due asked McNeely if she knew Starkey was a tattoo artist and that it’s not uncommon for people to bleed when getting a tattoo.

“I would imagine a person would go to the hospital if they lost that much blood,” she said.

Gottschalk’s mother, Barbara Carraher of Ashtabula, was the prosecution’s final witness. She struggled to hold back tears as she described her daughter’s tattoos at the prosecutor’s request — her children’s names were tattooed on wings on her shoulder blades.

Per Due questioned Carraher about the time her daughter was missing and she said she knew something was wrong when she didn’t hear from her daughter that weekend.

“We were suppose to go to the fair and then go shopping,” she said.

Two days later, Carraher went to the Ashtabula Police Department to report her missing. Starkey and Gottschalk’s friend, Glenna Patton, met her there.

When Per Due asked her about Starkey’s behavior, she said, “They were laughing and joking at some girl’s butt — not proper demeanor.”

The state rested its case Tuesday, and Per Due called his first witnesses, three of Gottschalk’s neighbors.

 

[JLSChook]

OMG, horrific.

Thanks for the updates, JusticeWillBeServed.

 

[physco219]

Maybe he will be given the ultimate justice. Death. Imo monsters like him deserve it.

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[JusticeWillBeServed]

Deliberations in Starkey case continue today

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/deliberations-in-starkey-case-continue-today/article_498bc215-4b4d-55ca-af21-6be26aa838f1.html

Defense attorney David Per Due rested his case Wednesday morning, but not before 64-year German forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz took the stand. The 90-year-old said he’s testified in courts across the U.S. states throughout his career — even during proceedings for the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

His report on Gottschalk’s case conflicted with area authorities’. However, though Per Due said at the trial’s outset a coroner would eventually testify Gottschalk died of “stomach problems” — not of blunt force trauma as the Cuyahoga County deputy medical examiner testified Friday — Spitz told the court he could not give an opinion on the cause or manner of Gottschalk’s death.

“Based on everything that I know here, I fail to be able to tell you what, really, this individual died of,” he told the court Wednesday morning, but added he couldn’t agree with the Cuyahoga County medical examiner’s ruling that blunt force trauma caused Gottschalk’s death.

“I’m baffled about that because I lack the one element I would have expected if that were so — that there is some response by way of infection within the abdomen. And I don’t have that.”

During closing arguments, Per Due said Starkey was the victim of police investigators who quickly settled — unfairly — on him as the culprit, as well as associates who decided to make him the scapegoat.

“A tunnel-vision case,” he said. “Kyle Starkey was guilty (in the eyes of police) from day one. Everything was geared to Starkey from the very beginning. Kyle Starkey was guilty — end of story.

“This is nothing more than a very easy set-up, and the police fell for it hook, line and sinker,” he said.

Per Due also noted the conflicting testimony from medical experts over the cause of Gottschalk’s death, including a defense witness who said Gottschalk did not die from blunt trauma.

During her rebuttal, Cecilia Cooper, chief assistant prosecutor, scoffed at the notion Gottschalk did not die from trauma-related injuries.

“I suggest there’s no way this poor woman died of natural causes — none,” Cooper said. “This is not some massive conspiracy to get Kyle Starkey.”

Ashtabula County Prosecutor Nicholas Iarocci singled out a few witnesses as particularly significant, such as Karen Allison, who discovered a backpack belonging to Starkey that contained a “treasure trove” of evidence, including a tarp prosecutors say he used to wrap Gottschalk’s body.

Jurors late Wednesday afternoon began deliberating the fate of an Ashtabula man accused of the August 2015 murder of Mandy Gottschalk.

After about 30 minutes in the jury room, the panel of seven women and five men were released by Yost for the evening. The jury will resume deliberations this morning.

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Starkey guilty of murder; sentencing set for today

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/starkey-guilty-of-murder-sentencing-set-for-today/article_9f1d1625-4e3e-587a-8c58-a57a1aa7c0ab.html

Jurors Thursday afternoon found Kyle Starkey guilty of killing Mandy Gottschalk, a 36-year-old mother of four, in August 2015.

After a seven-day trial and more than six hours of deliberation, the jury rendered guilty verdicts on all of Starkey's four counts, including unclassified felony murder, second-degree felonious assault, third-degree felony tampering with evidence and first-degree misdemeanor domestic violence.

Starkey's defense attorney, David Per Due of Madison, polled the jury after the reading and each confirmed their verdicts.

Starkey's sentencing hearing is set for 11 a.m. today before county Common Pleas Court Judge Gary Yost.

"It's closure — a lot of weight lifted off of us," said Gottschalk's father, Marvin Elam of Texas, following the verdict.

"I feel so much better knowing that (Starkey's) in jail," a visibly relieved Savannah told the Star Beacon while Gottschalk's family gathered. "Now I don't ever have to see him again. He's not going to hurt my mom ever again.

"Nobody's going to hurt my mom ever again," she said. "That was comforting throughout the trial, but now it's even better because he's in jail where he belongs and my mom has gotten justice, finally."

 

[cvaldez1975]

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/loca...cle_5ada0d25-0bad-5367-8c6e-9a77246fee8a.html

I somehow missed that he was already sentenced to 35 years on another case... another link

http://ashtabulacurrent.com/rapist-kidnapper-sentenced-for-his-crimes/


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[physco219]

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/loca...cle_391ed4fd-2326-55d6-b53a-10615c7ba7d5.html

18 to life plus the previous conviction. Glad but sad. Sad for the families glad for the sentences​.

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[cvaldez1975]

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/loca...cle_391ed4fd-2326-55d6-b53a-10615c7ba7d5.html

18 to life plus the previous conviction. Glad but sad. Sad for the families glad for the sentences​.

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He got more time on the other case! [emoji24]wtf!!! I hope he never gets out. Savage.


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[cvaldez1975]

Oh, it is consecutive.... relief


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[physco219]

I doubt he will ever see freedom again. It's very unlikely. Imo

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[JusticeWillBeServed]

Man who helped cover up murder gets five years - April 4th

http://www.starbeacon.com/news/local_news/man-who-helped-cover-up-murder-gets-five-years/article_c565afe9-bb01-53af-b38a-78b23cb13ab9.html

Ryan McBride, who witnessed the August 2015 beating death of Mandy Gottschalk, called himself a "coward" during his sentencing hearing Tuesday.

"I was a coward and I will have to live with that all my life," he said. "I was irresponsible, a kid that made dumb mistakes."

Ashtabula County Common Pleas Judge Gary Yost decided to honor the plea agreement with McBride because he testified against convicted murderer Kyle Starkey during Starkey's seven-day trial last month. Starkey was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 18 years to life for murder.

McBride will serve five years — the maximum sentence was seven years.

Before the judge rendered his decision, Dorothy Braden, Gottschalk's aunt, gave a statement on behalf of the family.

Braden asked the judge to consider McBride could have ran out the door and reported the crime, possibly saving Gottschalk's life.

"He abused her corpse and went out to a party afterwards and was having a good time," she said. "Show him the same compassion he showed my niece."

After the hearing, Gottschalk's mother, Barbara Carraher of Ashtabula, cried.

"Five years is just wrong; he is just as guilty as Kyle (Starkey)," she said. "He could have run out of that house and called the police. He did nothing but continue to party and abuse my daughter's body. He may be sorry now, but he sure wasn't then."