An Ashland County jury has recommended the man convicted of killing two women in an abandoned home in 2016 receive the death penalty.
Jurors say 41-year-old Shawn Grate should be executed for killing 43-year-old Stacey Stanley and 29-year-old Elizabeth Griffith. The presiding judge is scheduled to announce June 1 whether he'll sentence Grate to death or to life in prison. Defense attorneys and prosecutors weren't permitted to comment after the jury's decision because of a gag order. The jury convicted Grate of aggravated murder and kidnapping charges May 7. Grate has also been linked to but not charged with the deaths of two women in Marion and Richland counties.
