ASHLAND – New evidence about Shawn Grate’s violent sexual acts and thoughts emerged Friday during a hearing in which the judge declared him guilty of additional sexually violent predator specifications.
The purpose of the hearing was for the judge to make a ruling on sexually violent predator specifications to the two kidnapping charges on which the jury convicted Grate Monday. Because Grate previously pleaded guilty to rape and to other sexually violent predator specifications, the remaining specifications were pulled out for the judge to decide rather than the jury.
To make a case that Grate would be likely reoffend as a sexual predator, Ashland County Prosecutor called Ashland Police Detective Kim Mager to testify about portions from her interviews with Grate that were not previously presented as evidence in the case.
Mager testified that Grate admitted to abducting and raping a woman in Mansfield approximately two years prior to his arrest. The woman, who was named in court Friday, was not one of the two women officials say Grate admitted to murdering in Richland County.
Grate told Mager he took the woman, who was a prostitute, to a location on Walnut Street where he forcibly raped her and did not pay her, according to Mager’s testimony. Mager said Grate told her that he considered himself a “tax collector” because prostitutes do not pay tax.
Mager also testified that Grate admitted to feeling a sexual attraction toward children. Grate told Mager that he developed the attraction while researching and learning about serial killers, according to Mager’s testimony. Mager said Grate stated he had not acted on his urges but that he did not know what he would do if he had an opportunity to engage in sexual activity with a minor.
Considering both the new evidence and the evidence previously presented in the case, Forsthoefel found Grate guilty of the sexually violent predator specifications.
Grate has been convicted of the kidnapping and murders of Elizabeth Griffith and Stacey Stanley as well as the rape of Stanley and the kidnapping and rape of another woman, whom Ashland Source is referring to as Jane Doe.
On Monday, the jury found Grate guilty of four counts of aggravated murder, three counts of kidnapping and one count of aggravated robbery. Grate previously changed his not guilty pleas to guilty for each of the other 15 counts in the 23-count indictment, including four counts of rape, gross abuse of a corpse (2 counts), burglary (4), tampering with evidence, unauthorized use of a vehicle, one of the kidnapping counts, robbery and breaking and entering.
With the evidentiary phase of the Shawn Grate trial complete, Forsthoefel and attorneys on both sides are looking ahead to the mitigation– or sentencing– phase of the trial.
During that phase, the defense plans to call neuropsychologist Dr. John Fabian as an expert witness to testify about Grate’s mental state.
If the jury determines Grate has a mental disease or defect and lacks the capacity to appreciate the criminality of his offenses, the jury would weigh that defect as a mitigating factor in determining whether to give Grate the death penalty or a lesser sentence.
Because Fabian had not yet completed his mitigation report when the jury returned its guilty verdicts, the judge scheduled a nearly two week break before the start of the sentencing phase.
The jury is scheduled to return to court May 18, but one juror will be discharged and replaced with an alternate because of a prior schedule conflict that weekend.
Prosecutor Chris Tunnell said he needed to see Fabian’s report in order to develop a strategy for the mitigation phase, possibly scheduling his own expert witness to testify in response to Fabian’s testimony.
In addition to being late in producing a report, Fabian frustrated the court and prosecution with a last-minute recommendation that the defense hire a consultant from New Mexico to provide further brain scan analysis of Grate.
Judge Ron Forsthoefel approved $2,000 for the defense to have Mindset Consulting Group participate in a Skype hearing Monday to justify the scientific validity of what Fabian had referred to as “space age” technology.
Mindset did not participate in the hearing, so the judge denied the defense’s request for additional funding to hire Mindset.
In preparation for May 18, the judge and attorneys are ironing out the details of the jury’s instructions for the sentencing phase.
Forsthoefel said he will err of the side of caution in his interpretation of the state law, giving the jury four possible sentencing options– the death penalty, life in prison without parole, 30 years to life in prison or 25 years to life in prison.
Though the prosecution argued the sexually violent predator specifications apply to all charges in the indictment and therefore require a sentence of either life in prison without parole or the death penalty, the judge said he believes the specifications apply only to the individual charges to which they are attached. In this case, there is no sexually violent predator specification attached to any of the aggravated murder charges.
