ASHLAND — Day six of the Shawn Grate murder trial continued with audio tape recordings of conversations with detectives and additional evidence collected from the home where the accused serial killer was staying in Ashland.
Det. Kim Mager took a deep breath opening a evidence bag that was collected following another search of the Covert Court home where the bodes of Elizabeth Griffith and Stacey Stanley (Hicks) were found and a third woman escaped.
Mager pulled out a “daily reader” that included written dates of Sept. 9 & Aug. 17. She said those dates were significant because that’s when Grate told her he killed the women. Mager said Grate had told her where the book was located, stating it was on a table in the living area.
Since the start of the trial, more than a half a dozen audio tape recordings were introduced to the jury that included discussions between Grate with Det. Mager. Grate had requested to speak with Mager multiple times between Sept. and Oct. of 2016.
Among the conversations that took place, Mager testified that Grate had drew a map representing where he had thrown a key that belonged to Elizabeth Griffith's apartment. The key was eventually recovered by officers. Another map showed where Grate said he threw Griffith's second phone, which he claimed was thrown into a creek. The phone was not recovered.
The defense did not cross-examine Mager.
Another detective took the stand to address the items of evidence that was collected from the search of the Covert Court home, which included a two phones, a stun gun, brass knuckles and Stanley's Ohio Direction card. The two phones was analyzed for its material and detectives reported 13 videos in the phone that included a video of an unknown woman, two videos of Stacey Stanley being raped and 9-10 videos of "Jane Doe" being held against her will and being raped.
The trial continues on Tuesday.