ASHLAND — On Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously upheld the conviction and death sentence for Shawn Grate in the murder of two Ashland women.
Grate, convicted of killing five women in Ashland and elsewhere, was sentenced in 2018 to death and a minimum of 90 years to life in prison for the local murders of Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith.
He was later additionally sentenced to life in prison without parole in Richland County for the murders of two Mansfield women and again in Marion County for the murder of a Louisiana woman.
Thursday’s decision was a result of an automatic, direct appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. These appeals triggered in the wake of any death sentence.
The Ohio Supreme Court held that there were no errors in the trial proceedings that denied Grate of a fair trial.
Further, the court independently weighed the mitigating and aggravating circumstances presented during the penalty phase of the trial and found the death sentence recommended by the Ashland County jury and imposed by Ashland County Court of Common Pleas, Judge Ronald P. Forsthoefel, to be appropriate.
“We are obviously pleased and not surprised at all by this result. This conviction is the product of teamwork and an entire community pulling together to overcome the tragic facts of this case. Our thoughts today are with the victims and their families, and hopefully today’s Supreme Court decision aids in giving them peace,” said Ashland County Prosecutor Christopher R. Tunnell.
In his appeal, Grate argued there were errors in his trial and that his defense counsel was ineffective. He said his defense counsel was ineffective for failing to request a change of venue, for failing to request a gag order, for withdrawing his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity outside his presence, for declining to make opening statements, and for failing to cross-examine most of the state’s witnesses.
All the Ohio Supreme Court Justices ultimately upheld Grate’s conviction and sentencing, but Justice Michael P. Donnelly did issue an opinion. Donnelly considered the actions of Grate’s counsel “very concerning.”
“The failings by Grate’s defense counsel were more than plentiful; some were so blatant that they inspired the trial judge to intervene to prompt counsel to lodge the most basic of objections. But the ineffective-assistance-of- counsel claims that I find to be particularly significant are related to counsel’s failure to present adequate psychiatric and neurological evidence in the mitigation phase of Grate’s capital proceedings,” Donnelly said, according to court documents.
He went on to say the “overwhelming evidence of Grate’s guilt” would negate any possibility of prejudice in an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim.
The appellate case before the Ohio Supreme Court was handled by a team from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office, headed by Stephen E. Maher and Brenda Leikala of the Capital Crimes Unit.
The case was tried in Ashland County by Tunnell and Special Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys Mark Weaver and Michael McNamara. Michael McNamara is an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney with the Medina County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, who was loaned to Ashland County by Medina County Prosecutor Forrest Thompson. Mark Weaver, a private practice attorney and former Deputy Attorney General, has handled cases all over the state as a special prosecutor.
“These are big cases, and it’s a team effort from the very beginning. From the Ashland Police Department to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to assistance from surrounding counties and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office Capital Crimes Unit. Everyone is working hard in this and many other cases to keep Ohioans safe. Thank you doesn’t seem to say enough to these dedicated men and women,” Tunnell said.
Grate could choose to, and is expected to, appeal to the United States Supreme Court. A petition for post-conviction relief is currently pending before the Ashland County Court of Common Pleas, but due to COVID-19, a hearing is not yet scheduled.
“You get a conviction, a death sentencing pose, and then you have to tell the family to brace themselves for 15-20 years of appeals and motions. They’ll forget about the case and then nine months later someone will file something that could impact or destabilize that conviction,” Tunnell said. “But today, it’s a good day. It goes a long way towards finalizing things.”
Five Deaths in Three Ohio Counties
In total, Grate has been convicted of murdering five women in three Ohio counties.
The serial killer was arrested in Ashland on Sept. 13, 2016 when a woman called the police to tell them she had been abducted. Grate was caught and admitted to killing five women.
Grate was first tried for his crimes in Ashland County. After a long jury trial in 2018, he was sentenced to death for killing Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith in Ashland County.
He’d later received a sentence of life in prison without parole in Richland County for the murder of Rebekah Leicy of Mansfield. At that same time, he was also sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the murder of Candace Cunningham, also of Mansfield.
Most recently, Grate was sentenced in Marion County for what is believed to be his first murder. In September 2019, Grate was sentenced again to life in prison without parole for murdering Dana Nicole Lowrey of Louisiana in 2006.
“This is a guy who truly is a serial killer. If we’re not going to impose the death penalty on Shawn Grate, then do away with it, get rid of it,” Tunnell said Thursday. “He’s the poster child for the death penalty in Ohio.”
The state of the death penalty in Ohio
Earlier this week, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told The Associated Press that lethal injection is no longer an option for executions in Ohio and that another form of capital punishment should be chosen to put future inmates to death.
The governor told the Associated Press that he doesn’t foresee any executions in the coming year.
The state’s last execution was when Robert Van Hook was put to death by lethal injection in July 2018. Van Hook was sentenced to death for killing a man in Cincinnati in 1985.
