ASHLAND, Ohio (AP) - A jury has recommended that a man convicted of strangling to death two women in Ohio receive the death penalty.
The Ashland Times-Gazette reports the jury in northeast Ohio’s Ashland County deliberated for less than two hours Friday before concluding that 41-year-old Shawn Grate should be executed for killing 43-year-old Stacey Stanley and 29-year-old Elizabeth Griffith in 2016.
Judge Ronald Forsthoefel 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.
The women’s bodies were found in an Ashland home after a third woman called 911 and said she was being held captive.
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