ASHLAND — The attorneys for accused serial killer Shawn Grate filed a motion claiming he is not guilty by reason of insanity.
Robert and Rolf Whitney filed the papers Tuesday in Ashland County Common Pleas Court.
Grate was scheduled to undergo a competency exam on Nov. 29 with a doctor from the District V Forensic Diagnostic Center in Mansfield. The doctor was required to submit a report within 30 days to the judge and attorneys. A competency hearing is set for 11 a.m. on Jan. 6 in Ashland Common Pleas Court.
Grate, 40, has been indicted on 23 felony counts and could face the death penalty if found guilty.
Grate was arrested Sept. 13 after a woman called 911 and said she was being held against her will in a home near East Fourth Street in Ashland. Upon their arrival, police found the woman and Grate. The woman is not being identified because she is a sexual assault victim and the Ashland County Prosecutor does not identify victims of sexual assault.
Grate was taken into custody and police and BCI investigators searched the two homes on Covert Court, near the Fourth Street Laundromat. Two bodies were discovered in one of the homes. The victims were identified as 43-year-old Stanley of Greenwich and 29-year old Griffith of Ashland.
Grate was indicted on a total of 23 counts including four counts of aggravated murder, four counts of kidnapping, two counts of gross abuse of a corpse, four counts of rape, four counts of burglary, and one count each of tampering with evidence, aggravate robbery, unauthorized use of a vehicle, robbery and breaking and entering. He is being held in Ashland County Jail on $1 million bond.
Grate pleaded not guilty to all 23 counts but also admitted to the killings in several interviews with Cleveland news stations before a gag order was imposed on all parties involved in the case.
Grate has also been tied to three other victims. After his arrest, Grate led investigators to a body in a wooded area near a burned-out home on Park Avenue East in Madison Township. Authorities identified the body in November as 29-year-old Candace Cunningham of Canton, who reportedly was in a relationship with Grate.
Mansfield Police also have re-opened the investigation into the death of Mansfield resident Rebekah Leicy. Leicy was reported missing in February of 2015 and her body was found in rural Ashland County in March 2015. Her death was ruled as a probable drug overdose by the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office as there were no signs of physical trauma.
Grate has also been tied to a 2005 murder in Marion County. He reportedly admitted to authorities that he killed a woman there in 2005. On March 10, 2007, Marion County authorities discovered the remains of a woman who has never been identified. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office released a new sketch of the woman in October in a renewed effort to identify her.
