Alleged kidnapping, rape victim testifies in Grate case

ASHLAND — A tearful witness took the stand Thursday in the capital murder case against alleged serial killer Shawn Grate. 

The 38-year-old, who Ashland Source is referring to as Jane Doe, described the events of Sept. 11 through Sept. 13, 2016 as best as she could remember. 

Jane Doe said she was sitting on Grate’s bed at 363 Covert Court on Sept. 11, reading him Bible verses, when his demeanor quickly changed and she saw a side of him she’d never seen before. 

“When he started pulling the Bible from my hands, I looked up just curious, like ‘What are you doing?'” Jane Doe said. “That’s when he said, ‘You’re not going anywhere.'”

A fight ensued, Jane Doe said.

“I tried to push him away and get up and I was just doing everything, trying to kick, punch,” she said. “But everything I did, he just did it so much harder.”

Grate faces 23 felony charges, including four counts of aggravated murder, four counts of kidnapping, two counts of gross abuse of a corpse, four counts of burglary, tampering with evidence, four counts of rape, aggravated robbery, unauthorized use of a vehicle and tampering with evidence.

Jane Doe testified that Grate struck her in the head and face with his fists. He then began to choke her, and she stopped struggling. 

Grate raped Jane Doe several times, according to her testimony.

“Was this a substantial change from what you had seen from him before?” Ashland County Prosecutor Chris Tunnell asked.

“Yeah,” Jane Doe answered. 

Jane Doe said Grate tied her up at least three times, binding her wrists and legs together and sometimes tying her to the bed. He also put makeup on her and put duct tape on her mouth, and sometimes he videotaped the assault.  

At one point, she testified, something was tied around her neck and he told her not to move or she would strangle herself. 

Jane Doe testified that Grate put pills in her mouth. He told her they were muscle relaxers. 

She said much of the time between the night of Sept. 11 and the morning of Sept. 13 was a blur. She said she was exhausted throughout the ordeal, and she had nothing to eat the entire time. 

Jane Doe described Grate’s state during her captivity as “on edge.” She said he slept very little and jumped anytime she moved. 

At one point, Jane Doe said, Grate tied her to the bed and left for a couple of hours. He returned, “got high,” and became sexual again, she said. 

Around 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 13, Jane Doe said, she managed to free herself from her binds to the bed, reach over a sleeping Grate and retrieve what she thought was a cell phone from the nightstand. The object turned out to be a taser made to look like a phone. 

Jane Doe said crawled down the side of the bed to get up, found a real phone and called 9-1-1. 

As she was on the phone with the dispatcher, Jane Doe said, she accidentally set off the taser, waking Grate. She quickly put everything down, in hopes he would think she was just going to the bathroom.

Tunnell asked Jane Doe to say what she was thinking when Grate woke up. 

“At least the 9-1-1,” she said, trailing off as she began to cry once again. “…At least they knew my name.”

But Grate seemed groggy and ended up laying back down, Jane Doe testified. 

She unlocked the kitchen door and let in the officers who had arrived at the scene, and they came into the house and arrested Grate.  

Ashland Police Officer Curt Dorsey was one of the first officers to arrive at the Covert Court house and find Jane Doe in the kitchen. 

“The best way to describe her is complete and utter shock,” he said. “She couldn’t move. She just stared straight ahead. A face I’ll never forget.”

Jane Doe was taken to Ashland Police Department, where she spoke to two detectives. Then police took her to the hospital to be examined by registered nurse Lisa Riley and physician’s assistant Chad Kaufman. 

Riley testified that Jane Doe’s internal injuries were consistent with blunt trauma, that she was bruised in several places and had some scratches and cuts. Photos of the injuries were shown to the jury. 

Jane Doe consented to having a rape kit collected, and the prosecution submitted the kit as evidence. The kit’s results had not yet been revealed in court as of Thursday. 

Jane Doe also testified in court about how she ended up at 363 Covert Court with Grate. 

She said she had met the defendant in the summer of 2016 while walking to the Salvation Army Kroc Center and that the two had lunch together there a couple times a week. They also regularly went for walks together, and they sometimes played tennis at Brookside Park, she said.

“He was kind of like my brother,” Jane Doe said. “He was kind of goofy, but he struck me as kind.”

She said Grate let her know he would be interested in being more than friends, but she said she made it clear that she was not interested in anything beyond friendship. 

Jane Doe testified that a majority of her conversations with Grate were about the Bible. 

Throughout their friendship that summer, Jane Doe had not let Grate into her own apartment because of her religious beliefs.

“I have boundaries,” she said. “I don’t let guys in my apartment. It’s just not a good idea.” 

Despite that belief, Jane Doe testified that said she went willingly into the house at 363 Covert Court where Shawn was living as a squatter. She said she went in to pick up some clothes he wanted to give her that he said came from his mother and sister. Jane Doe said she did not expect to be in the house long and did not think it would be a problem because she could leave anytime she wanted. 

In her testimony, Jane Doe indicated she believed Grate’s living space consisted only of a kitchen and a bedroom. Prior images shown during the trial depict a living room off the bedroom that could not be seen from the bedroom because the opening from the bedroom into the living room was obscured with a wall hanging. 

Jane Doe’s testimony also touched on Elizabeth Griffith, one of the alleged murder victims in the case. Jane Doe said Griffith was an acquaintance who lived in the building next to her own apartment building in the Stoney Creek apartment complex. The pair had attended the same church for a time, and Jane Doe said she was present when Griffith and Grate met. 

Jane Doe described Griffith as childlike and said she had a tendency to tell strangers about her personal life and her problems. Griffith did that with Grate, Jane Doe testified. 

Also during Thursday’s court proceedings, officer Dorsey testified about how he first interviewed Grate while the defendant was sitting in a police cruiser, right after Grate was apprehended at the Covert Court House. 

Tunnell played audio of the interview, some of which was difficult to hear. Jurors were provided a transcript of the interview, but the transcript was not provided to media members. 

In the interview, Grate admitted to staying in the former Hess and Clark building and then in the Covert Court house. Both places were supposed to be vacant. 

He also said, “June’s when it all started,” but he did not clarify what he meant. 

Grate told Dorsey he and Jane Doe were “talking about marriage” and that she sometimes sat on his lap. 

Dorsey asked Grate, “What happened last night?”

“A nightmare,” Grate answered, adding that things “got out of control.” 

Dorsey asked if the sexual activity was consensual.  

“I thought it was mutual, and then, I don’t know, she kind of flipped out,” Grate said. 

Grate said Jane Doe told him that what he was doing hurt her and that she told him to stop.

Dorsey took Grate to the detective bureau, where he was interviewed by Capt. Dave Lay and detective Kim Mager. The prosecution plans to play tapes from those interviews later in the trial.