Shawn Grate
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Shawn Michael Grate (born August 8, 1976) is an American convicted
serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
,
rapist Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or agai ...
, and former
drifter A drifter is a vagrant who moves from place to place without a fixed home or employment. Drifter(s) or The Drifter(s) may also refer to: Films and television Films * ''The Drifter'' (1917 film), an American film directed by Fred Kelsey * ''Th ...
who murdered five young women from 2006 to September 2016 in and around northern
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Grate was convicted on two counts of aggravated murder on May 7, 2018, in Ashland County, pleaded guilty to two additional murders on March 1, 2019, in Richland County, and pleaded guilty to an additional murder on September 11, 2019, in Marion County. Grate was
sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
and is scheduled to be executed in 2025.


Early life

Shawn Michael Grate was born in
Marion Marion may refer to: People *Marion (given name) *Marion (surname) *Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion" *Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992) Places Antarctica * Mario ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, on August 8, 1976, to Terry Grate and Theresa McFarland. He was said to have "lived a normal" early life, playing softball and football in his backyard and socializing with neighborhood children. Terry and Theresa married in 1974. That marriage produced two children, one in 1974 and Shawn in 1976. In school, Grate was said to have had many problems and was held back for kindergarten and the first grade of his education. Despite these problems, he was said to be very charming and amicable, with a former female friend of his stating that "all the girls liked Shawn." Two days before Shawn's 6th birthday, his parents divorced on August 6, 1982. When Grate was 11, his mother abandoned the family in Ohio to live with a man in Kentucky. Grate was upset with this affair and did not like Theresa's boyfriends, continuing to live with his father for the next four years. Living with his father, he attended River Valley High School, where he excelled as a baseball player but never played again after breaking his arm, which required surgery following the discovery of a tumor. Harboring murderous fantasies toward his mother from a young age, his half-sister would state that "it was a battle in the household, and that was apparent at a young age between the two of them." According to a high school girlfriend, Grate would lie on the couch "for days" at a time before returning to normal. A court psychiatrist described Grate as "kind of a depressed kid" despite his reputation as a happy youth, stating that his condition hailed from "
neglect In the context of caregiving, neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator, who is responsible for caring for someone who is unable to care for themselves, fails to do so. It can be a result of carelessness, indifference, or unwillingness an ...
and emotional detachment" faced in childhood. The custody of Shawn and his brother was transferred to their father, Terry, on June 28, 1994. He was arrested for grabbing his girlfriend's throat on November 24, 1994. After graduating from River Valley High School in 1995, he broke into a house in Marion County with a juvenile accomplice on October 23, 1996, to steal jewelry and money. Grate was given a felony burglary charge in January 1997 and sentenced to four years in prison before being released early in October 1997.


Trials

A grand jury
indict An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of an ...
ed Grate on two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of two women, Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith, and the kidnapping and multiple
sexual assaults Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
of an unidentified woman whose
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call to Ashland police led to Grate's arrest on September 13, 2016. In court documents, her name has been redacted. She is being referred to as "Jane Doe." Grate was indicted on 23 counts, all first, second, or third-degree
felonies A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
; lesser charges include
breaking and entering Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...
, burglary, and
tampering with evidence Tampering with evidence, or evidence tampering, is an act in which a person alters, conceals, falsifies, or destroys evidence with the intent to interfere with an investigation (usually) by a law-enforcement, governmental, or regulatory authority. ...
. Grate was represented in court by court-appointed attorney Rolf Whitney, who entered a plea of not guilty on all charges on his behalf. In a press interview Grate confessed to five murders. Grate's attorneys later filed a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. His trial date was set for November 6, 2017, and was later delayed to April 9, 2018. Ashland County prosecutor Christopher R. Tunnell said that given the "...depraved actions and the gruesome evidence", he would seek the death penalty. Shawn Grate has also been charged in the deaths of his former girlfriends Candice Cunningham and Rebekah Leicy in neighboring Richland County, and has also been charged in the death of Dana Nicole Lowrey, 23, who died in 2006 and was found in 2007 in Marion County. In the second of two letters he sent to
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
news station
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(News 5 Cleveland) reporter Megan Hickey, Grate attributed his motives to " government assistance", writing that it took his victims' minds. "They were already dead, just their bodies were flopping wherever it can flop but their minds were already dead! The state took their minds. Once they started receiving their monthly checks." Grate claimed he once received a $197 food card and that he "never was able to receive any encouragement, though many bodies received 700". After Grate gave details of the murders to two news organizations while in custody, attorneys for the defense and prosecution jointly requested and obtained a
gag order A gag order (also known as a gagging order or suppression order) is an order, typically a legal order by a court or government, restricting information or comment from being made public or passed onto any unauthorized third party. The phrase may ...
preventing Grate from communicating any further with the media. On January 6, 2017, a competency hearing determined Grate fit to stand trial. An evaluation released March 6, based on a January 17 assessment to evaluate Grate's claim of insanity, declared that he was not insane at the time the crimes were committed. Grate's counsel then withdrew the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on April 7, 2017. In a settlement with the owner, the City of Ashland obtained ownership of the house where Grate was apprehended, two bodies were discovered, and police rescued a kidnapped woman. The city pursued a federal grant intending to demolish the house. According to Andrew Bush, assistant law director for the city of Ashland:
"There is a settlement agreement among the parties that essentially obligates the Pump House to transfer all property that is the subject of this action to the city of Ashland and transfer their title thereto, provided that the city pays off the sums owed to the county for delinquent taxes and to the Muskingum Watershed District."
Grate's trial for the Ashland crimes began with two weeks of jury selection on April 9, 2018. The trial began with opening statements on April 23. On May 2, Grate, who showed no remorse pleaded guilty to 15 of the charges against him. On May 7, Grate was found guilty of murdering Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith. On June 1, Grate was sentenced to death. An initial execution date was set upon conviction for September 13, 2018, but the execution was stayed due to a pending appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court. The defense counsel in the trial was Robert Whitney and Rolf Whitney. The prosecution team was Ashland Prosecutor Chris Tunnell, Medina County Assistant Prosecutor Michael McNamara, and Special Prosecutor Mark Weaver. On March 1, 2019, Grate pleaded guilty to the murders of Rebekah Leicy and Candice Cunningham and was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of Leicy and 17 years to life for the other charges, with the sentences running consecutively. On September 11, 2019, Grate pleaded guilty to the murder of Dana Lowrey and was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 16 years. On December 10, 2020, it was reported that Grate lost his appeal against the death sentence, with the Ohio Supreme Court upholding the sentence by stating there is no mitigation or "reversible error" in Grate's case on the grounds of dismissing the appeal. Grate is scheduled to be executed on March 19, 2025. That date is when he is to be transferred to Lucasville. The method of execution is to be determined; Ohio no longer uses lethal injection as of 2020, but state law does not currently permit any other method.


Victims


Kidnapping victim

While Grate slept, the victim identified by the indictment only as "Jane Doe" called 911 from the Ashland house where Grate had bound her to a bed and held her for three days, during which time he sexually assaulted her. She was safely rescued by the Ashland police. Because she was the victim of a sexual assault, police declined to reveal her identity. Grate claims he did not plan to kill her and that they were going to get married. Having seen Shawn as something of an "older brother," the 38-year-old Doe had first met Grate in the summer of 2016 at the Ashland Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center. There they would share lunch and go on long walks, frequently discussing the Bible and occasionally playing
tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
at Brookside Park in Ashland. Despite Grate's attempts to sexually engage her, her relationship with him was described as completely
platonic Plato's influence on Western culture was so profound that several different concepts are linked by being called Platonic or Platonist, for accepting some assumptions of Platonism, but which do not imply acceptance of that philosophy as a whole. It ...
, refusing to exchange phone numbers. On Sept. 11, 2016, Grate persuaded Doe to walk with him to the Ashland house on 363 Covert Court to receive some clothes he had in his possession. As Doe read
the Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
in Grate's room, his friendly demeanor changed as he returned from the house's kitchen; Grate pulled the Bible out of her hand, telling her that she was not "going anywhere." Doe resisted Grate, to which he beat and strangled her. Grate then proceeded to bind her in various "weird positions," including one that would allegedly strangle her to death as she attempted to break free. During the three-day assault, she had sustained head, bruise, and sexual orifice traumas as well as vaginal bleeding from the ordeal, claiming she'd been sexually assaulted by Grate in "every way imaginable." During the assault, Grate was also noted to have shaved a heart shape into her pubic hair, which was removed following an examination by a sexual assault forensic examiner.


Stacey Stanley a.k.a. Stacey Hicks

Stanley's family had reported her missing the week before Grate was arrested. Her body was found at the Ashland house where Grate was arrested. She is also known as Stacy Hicks. An autopsy concluded she was strangled to death.


Elizabeth Griffith

Elizabeth Griffith had been missing for about a month before Grate was arrested. Her body was found at the Yellow Ashland house where Grate was arrested. An autopsy concluded she was strangled to death.


Candice Cunningham

Grate led police to what he claimed was Cunningham's body in neighboring Richland County on the day of his arrest. Police found the body behind a house that had previously burned down. The Richland County Sheriff's office officially confirmed that the body found was Cunningham's on November 1, 2016.


Rebekah Leicy

Based on information supplied by Grate, police have reopened the investigation into Leicy's death. Her body was found in March 2015, and her death was originally ruled a drug overdose. Grate says he strangled her after she stole $40.00 from him in his place of work.


Dana Lowrey

Grate claims to have killed another woman who was found dead in Marion County, Ohio in 2006 and remained unidentified for 13 years. Grate has stated he believes her name was Dana. In January 2018, isotope analysis indicated she was likely from the
Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
. The victim was identified in June 2019 by the
DNA Doe Project DNA Doe Project (also DNA Doe Project, Inc. or DDP) is an American nonprofit volunteer organization formed to identify unidentified deceased persons (commonly known as John Doe or Jane Doe) using forensic genealogy. Volunteers identify victims ...
as Dana Nicole Lowrey, 23, of Minden, Louisiana. Lowrey had two daughters aged 1 and 5 at the time of her death and was separated from her daughters’ father.


See also

*
List of death row inmates in the United States , there were 2,414 death row inmates in the United States. The number of death row inmates changes frequently with new convictions, appellate decisions overturning conviction or sentence alone, commutations, or deaths (through execution or otherw ...
*
List of people scheduled to be executed in the United States This is a list of people scheduled to be executed in the United States. Summary of scheduled executions As of February 16, 2023, a total of 46 people are scheduled to be executed in the United States. All of these executions are scheduled over f ...
* List of serial killers in the United States


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grate, Shawn 1976 births 21st-century American criminals American kidnappers American male criminals American people convicted of murder American prisoners sentenced to death American rapists American serial killers Criminals from Ohio Living people Male serial killers People convicted of murder by Ohio Place of birth missing (living people) Prisoners sentenced to death by Ohio Violence against women in the United States