OH v. Andrew Griffin Day 7

see here where the license plate would be and you can see where it is obstructed in that picture. You can see the similarities to the front of the motorcycle. The windshield, very similar. You saw testimony from Corey White when he was actually shown the windshield that Detective Allar got from Brett Cole's house that looked similar or he recognized it to be his. Again, more similarities with our windshield. Similarities with the front of the bike. The helmet on the picture on the left is the helmet that Detective Allar secured from Brett Cole's house. Similar as far as the face guard, top. Here we see the back. Now, Attorney Shamansky asked Corey White and pointed out that you can't say this is 100% your bike. You can't say yes, this is exactly the same bike. And Corey White said, "No, I can't say it's exactly the same one, but it looks awfully a lot like it." And there's all these similarities between the two. But think about that. Corey White didn't know where we got this picture. What are the chances that our investigation leads us to this picture at 10:52 PM in Louisville, Kentucky, and it's the exact same bike or exact same looking bike that Corey White sold to Brett Cole.

(05:43:18)
Now I want to talk about the helmet a little bit. You heard a lot of testimony about the DNA that was found in this helmet. Cybergenetics conducted testing. Cybergenetics is an independent private firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Because of their technology, they're not bound by the limitations of other agencies. They can look at everything, whereas some other agencies cannot do that. They work with both the government and defendants in different situations. Their investigation or their testing was done completely independent of any testing that Pure Gold did. The only thing that they relied on from Pure Gold was the evidence or data collection, the M-Vac that was done on the motorcycle helmet and those raw results as they call them. They didn't have anything to do with Pure Gold's reports. They didn't rely on the reports. They didn't review the reports and offer any criticisms. They relied on the results in that data and their testing.

(05:44:45)
Their reports indicate that the DNA in that helmet compared against Andrew Griffin's DNA indicated that it was 85.6 million times more probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated African American person. 1.52 million times more probable than a coincidental match to a Caucasian person, 44.6 million times more probable than a coincidental match to an unrelated Southwest Hispanic person. And it had a match strength of 1.52 million, which is only one in 17 million people would match as strongly. 17 million, that's about five million more than the population of the state of Ohio.

(05:45:48)
Now you heard some questioning from Attorney Shamansky to Ms. Bracamontes about the collection of this data. And they relied on the collection of this data and this raw data that Pure Gold collected and asked, "Well, you didn't collect this. You didn't do anything of this. You can't testify as to the reliability of this." And she couldn't. She didn't collect it. If only we had a witness here from Pure Gold who could have testified to that. Oh wait, we did. The witness prior. She was here from Pure Gold. She's the one who actually collected that data, that M-Vac. She's the one who provided it to Cybergenetics. If you recall, absolutely not a single question was asked of her about that data collection process.

(05:46:47)
Absolutely not a single question was asked to her is whether there was any issue with that data collection or how it was provided to Cybergenetics. And you know that defense counsel had no issue grilling her about the other things because they asked her quite a bit about her reports and how that changed when she changed the data. But he posed the question to Ms. Bracamontes from Cybergenetics because he knew she cannot say, "Yeah, I took the stuff myself."

(05:47:27)
As we sit here today, there's not a single shred of evidence to indicate to you all that there was any issue whatsoever with that M-Vac from the helmet, that data collection, or how that raw data was provided to Cybergenetics. Again, Pure Gold, Ms. Lacombe testified about her reports and what happened there. You all take that for what it's worth. The only thing I'm going to point out is her first report before it was modified later on, that report did not exclude Mr. Griffin. It might have leaned more towards that way, but did not exclude him. But the important thing to keep in mind is Cybergenetics was completely independent of any testing that Pure Gold did. And their results were reached by their system and how they processed the information themselves.

(05:48:29)
Back to our phone purchased in Walmart at Marion, Illinois. Arrives in Ohio, or arrives in Belmont County, I should say, around 3:27 AM. And from that time moving forward, it travels further to our crime scene. The location indicator here is the address at Trails End Road in Belmont, Ohio. That phone is hitting all around that area from the time it gets there at 3:43 up until this leads us the latest time on this is 11:53 AM.

(05:49:25)
Then moving forward, it is continuing to hit all around the same cell towers from 12:23 all the way to the latest time on this one is 6:32. It is using this area. This is where it is. It continues to be in that area. We're moving forward in time again from 7:00 PM headed towards midnight. It is all around that area until 11:37 PM. It then leaves and heads on a straight path west. 11:37, 11:42, 11:59, it's in Cambridge.

(05:50:23)
Again, during our timeframe when we believe these murders took place, it is pinging off all towers in and around Trails End. The 11:37 ping, you see that we talked about the pie shape and what that means. 11:37, it is now pinging off the west side heading west. It then travels, as I indicated, and the evidence indicates, straight from Belmont, Ohio to Columbus at 12:58. It's in Cincinnati at 2:38, Louisville at 4:02, and down in Nashville at 4:44. Pretty straight path. It did not cross that same bridge again in Louisville because if it did, it would have gone west. Here we go south down into Kentucky instead of over in Indiana.

(05:51:21)
Continues traveling, Nashville, Jackson, Tennessee. This is the piece of evidence. This is the anomaly that we're talking about that the FBI found. This call that this phone made, the only call that this phone made, Brett Cole, 7:03 AM Central Time, 24 seconds, makes that call. It's then back on the road to Memphis until its last recording ever in Benton, Arkansas at 10:40. It's either shut off or it dies and we have no further history on that phone.

(05:52:23)
Now we talked about what happens. It calls Brett Cole at 7:03. Brett Cole places a call to Dalton Ray around 8:18 AM for one minute. And what did Brett Cole tell you yesterday? After he talked to Andrew, Andrew sent him a few hours out, he called Dalton Ray and said, "Hey, you want to go with me back to Andrew's, take his stuff back?" And at that point, Dalton Ray told him, "No, sir. I don't want anything to do with this."

(05:53:08)
Now, our travel path ends in Benton, Arkansas as indicated at 10:40 AM. We talked, I talked in my opening and Ms. Dillion from UCI testified from Benton, Arkansas to Andrew Griffin's known home in Whitesboro, Oklahoma is a two hour and 50 minute drive. That's your fastest route to get straight there, right? Benton to Whitesboro, Oklahoma, Mr. Griffin's known address. 10:40 AM is the last interaction in Benton. So do the math, basically three hours out, right? 11:40, 12:40, 1:40, he should be home in Whitesboro.

(05:54:04)
What you see here are Mr. Griffin's known phone and the activity that was going on on that date. At 12:24 and 7:05 and 7:19, there are texts to Stacey Griffin, outgoing, two outgoing, one incoming. At 8:06 AM, he has a call from Brad Hunter, goes to voicemail. 8:04, call from Diane McFarlane, his mother, goes to voicemail. Text from Heather Eddington at 9:53. Then he gets calls from Lisa Balog at 10:03, Jim Wakams at 10:32, Bill Hughes at 10:43, an unknown call at 11:03, Bill Hughes again at 11:13, a David Johnson at 11:13, a Whitney Lewis at 11:13, a Chris Elite Tire at 11:24.

(05:55:06)
Another text from Heather Eddington at 11:50, a text from Lisa Balog at 11:55, two calls from Missy Murphy at 1:21 PM. All of those calls went to voicemail, not a single one was answered. All of those texts went unanswered as well. There was no activity on Mr. Griffin's phone after these texts outgoing to Stacey Griffin until 10:40, three hours, 11:40, 12:40, 1:40. 1:48 PM is the first call that phone makes and it's a return call to Lisa Balog. It then calls Brett Cole at 2:15 and it calls Stacey Griffin at 2:19.

(05:56:12)
We are now looking at his activity as far as calls that day as well. Again, all of these incoming calls and texts in our timeframe went to voicemail or went unanswered. No activity, no response whatsoever. 1:48, the call to Lisa. Now the phone's active. Now we're very active. 1:48, outgoing call, 2:15 outgoing call. Outgoing calls to Brett Cole, Stacey Griffin, Bill Hughes, Whitney Lewis, Lisa Balog. And we have some texts from Stacy. We then have more calls returning Missy Murphy's call return Jim Wakam's call. This phone is now active for the first time in days.

(05:57:05)
Talking to Bill Kalaney, talking to Heather Eddington via text, talking to Brad Hunter, a call that he had received earlier and did not answer. Additional calls throughout the day, more folks. Axel Spears, Lisa Balog, Brett Cole, Donald Ewing, Lisa Balog again. You can see, I think, the point is that that phone had no activity on the morning of the 21st and after 1:48 PM, three hours from Benton, Arkansas, it is nonstop activity.

(05:57:44)
And I point this out to show you this. On Saturday, September 18, 2021, the phone's active. We have calls to Brett Cole, Stacey Griffin, Lisa Balog, Brett Cole again, Stacey Griffin. On Sunday, September 19th, 2021, Monday, September 20, 2021, absolutely not a single outgoing call from that phone. Not a call to his wife, not a call to his friends, nothing. Until we get to Tuesday, September 21, 2021, where if you believe the state's theory, he arrived at home at 1:48 PM and then that phone is calling like crazy because that's the first time he was back with his phone in Oklahoma.

(05:58:54)
Let's talk about the movement of his phone. We know that Brett Cole gets a call around 7:03 from this number. His testimony was that's Andrew saying I'm almost home. I'm a few hours out. Andrew's phone is in Hugo, Oklahoma from 12:00 AM until 8:30 AM on that date. At 8:30, it then takes a path to Antlers where it's hitting off towers from 8: 50, 8:40, 8:43. And then it goes straight towards Whitesboro where Andrew Griffin's home is. And it arrives there around 10:00 AM and it stays there until 3:55.

(05:59:45)
So it starts the day in Hugo after a call was made from a burner phone to Brett Cole, about an hour. It then starts traveling back to Whitesboro. Some of the calls we talked about earlier, so you know the location, when his mother, Diana McFarlane calls the phone and it goes straight to voicemail, that phone is pinging off a tower in Antler. So it is on that path back towards Whitesboro. When it's getting texts from Stacy Griffin, we talked about there was one after midnight on the 21st or very early in the morning. And then the 7:05, 7:19 text, it is still in Hugo. So it's in Hugo at that time and it is in Antler's heading towards Whitesboro around 8:42.

(06:00:36)
There was a call from Brad Hunter that went to voicemail at 8:06. It is still in Hugo at that time. Now, at 10:03 AM... Sorry, first was a 9:53 AM text from Heather Eddington that we talked about on the 21st. That phone is now pinging off the tower that services his home in Whitesboro. That's where we get a text from Ms. Eddington. We get calls coming in that are not answered from Ms. Balog, Mr. Wakams, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Hughes again, an unknown party, Mr. Johnson, Whitney Lewis and Chris Tyre.

(06:01:20)
Text messages are sent again in our timeframe, and these are all pinging off this tower that services his home. And then the calls that start 1:48, 2:15, 2:19, again, all pinging off the tower, servicing the home in Whitesboro. Now we've got some outgoing calls. This is more activity throughout that day on the 21st. We start out, it's pinging off the tower that services his home. And then later on, it starts to ping off the tower a little to the west near Talihina. Then that phone travels from around 4:00 PM, starts heading back to Hugo. So Brett Cole told us yesterday, they talked once he got back and Andrew was going to bring the bike back to him, remember Hugo? So 4:00 PM, here we go. Starts traveling back down. It's hitting here at 4:07, 4:25. 4:36, 4:44, we're back near Antlers. And then 4:58 to 7:59, we are pinging again off all the towers surrounding Hugo and surrounding Brett Cole's home.

(06:02:45)
During this timeframe, he's talking to Brett Cole. There was actually an earlier call, but here at 4:23, Brett Cole calls him. And at that point, he's already on his path. His house is up here in Whitesboro. Here's Antlers. He's already on his path at that time, heading down towards Hugo. While in Hugo, the phone is still active, making calls, receiving texts, and it is in Hugo from... It arrives around 5:00, a little after 5:00, and it is there until about 7:13.

(06:03:25)
There's a call at 7:51 to Luke Sorgi. I'm sorry, he called Stacy before that at 7:47 and he's still in Hugo. The phone then leaves Hugo and returns back to Mr. Griffin's home in Whitesboro. So 8:01, we're leaving. 8:15, we're in Antlers, traveling on our path. And then at 9:00 PM, he's back at his home in Whitesboro till about 10:00 and then actually leaves and goes to Mena, Arkansas, which is where Stacey Griffin was living at the time.

(06:03:58)
So he gets his phone back at 1:48 PM. He's at his home for a while. He then drives to Brett Cole's house in Hugo to take the motorcycle there. He then leaves Brett Cole's house, goes home, and then goes to Mena. This again is showing his path back. When at 9:42, he talks to Stacey. His phone is pinging at Whitesboro before he leaves to head to Arkansas.

(06:04:34)
Now, we talked about the lack of activity on Mr. Griffin's phone in these days, the 19th, 20th, no phone calls made, nothing. The only texts that were returned were to Stacy Griffin. Here we are looking at Brett Cole's records for that same timeframe. His known phone with US Cellular, he testified to. On the 18th, he's making 26 calls and texts. 19th, 25 calls and texts. 20th, 29 calls and texts. On the 21st, he's got 37 calls and texts.

(06:05:14)
Now, from looking through his phone contacts yesterday on the record and looking at these phone records, here's the people he was talking to. His grandmother, Judy Cole, a friend, Michael Young, Dalton Ray, Papa Babcock, his grandfather, Carolyn Babcock, his mother, his brother, Colton Carr, Jesse Babcock, his uncle, his girlfriend, Amy Chase, Andrew Griffin, Buddy Cole or Arthur Cole, another unknown number, and of course, our burner phone that called him at 7:03 on the morning of the 21st.

(06:05:54)
Now, out of all those calls, outgoing calls, on the 18th, his phone made five calls. On the 19th, his phone made three calls. On the 20th, his phone made nine calls. On the 21st, his phone made five calls. And looking at the records, all of these calls are more than two minutes. We looked at that because that's a pretty strong indication there was an actual communication that he was talking to somebody. And again, during this timeframe, his grandma and his friend, Dalton Ray, his grandpa, his brother, his girlfriend, and his uncle. So he is actively using his phone to talk to his family members.

(06:06:40)
Now, as far as Mr. Cole and where he was during this time, we saw from his bank records the purchase at F&F Feed Mill on the 20th at 2:22 PM. Now, at this time, our burner phone is circling around the home of Tom and Angela Strussion in Belmont County, the 20th at 2:22. Mr. Cole is making a purchase at the F&F Feed Mill in Grant, Oklahoma. We have the receipt. You heard him testify as to what the Fura-Zone ointment is, and you have his signature on a receipt there at the bottom. As far as that signature goes, you heard other testimony, State's Exhibit 168, his signature line from the jail when he came in with the paperwork just a couple months or just last week, we have the feed mill there at the top, 138 BB with his signature, and we've got his signature on the checks that Mr. Griffin wrote to him, which is State's Exhibit 137 CCC on the 19th.

(06:07:58)
So just so we're clear, this is five years difference, okay? So these were 2021, this is last week, 2026. You can look at those signatures and see that they are similar, and that is in fact Mr. Cole's signature as the F&F Feed. Now, I've talked to you about anomalies. These are things that stand out that you can't hide. These are data driven. We showed you during the trial Mr. Cole's bank records from First United.

(06:08:40)
Now, this is Exhibit 138 for the state. We had two months of his records from August 4, 2021 to October 4 of 2021. What this slide shows you is that in that just two month period, Mr. Cole visits the Shell service station in Hugo, Ohio 11 times. I'm sorry, in Hugo, Oklahoma. He is there 11 times. You will see some of these purchases are similar in price. There's a 577 on the 13th. There's a 577 on the 22nd. Then there's some very even around numbers, $59 purchased here on the 13th, and there's a $33 purchase here and a $55 purchase here, which is also on the 13th.

(06:09:44)
We know on the 13th of September 2021, Mr. Cole had to make a road trip. He went to Texas to get gas or to get the motorcycle. So you had two purchases at a gas station that same day. Fill up is when he left, fill up his truck when he came back. I think it's pretty reasonable to think that. But what we have here, folks, in two months time, 11 purchases, this is what we call pattern of conduct. He visits this place all the time.

(06:10:18)
Contrast that with this. This is Mr. Griffin's Arvest bank record. And the judge talked to you about the stipulation. We know on September 20th, so when we believe Mr. Griffin was up here getting ready to commit these murders, his bank card is making a purchase. It's making a purchase at the Shell service station in Hugo, Oklahoma. The state, through this investigation, subpoenaed and obtained years of bank records for Mr. Griffin, covering all of his known accounts with Arvest Bank.

(06:11:09)
It's an 860, 70 page document, all these records that they looked at, covering 21 and 2022. And all of those records in their entirety, one purchase in two years is made by Mr. Griffin at the Hugo Shell service station on the 20th. And that is for $59, which is actually the same exact amount Mr. Cole spent there on his own account the week before. That's what we call an anomaly. This is what we call a pattern of conduct. And the reason that matters is because we know Mr. Griffin was not using his card at the Shell service station in Hugo on the 20th. Mr. Cole was.

(06:11:58)
Okay. The defense suggested last week that this was all some grand conspiracy to paint Andrew Griffin as the fault guy in these murders. So what we're looking at here is all of the people who would have to be involved in this grand conspiracy. You would have to believe all these people conspired together to do this. Or you can simply believe the facts that Andrew Griffin committed these murders.

(06:12:46)
So let's talk about these folks. Well, first of all, you're probably saying, oh, what the heck's Andrew Griffin doing up there? How is he complicit or how is he a part of this conspiracy? When I was a kid, a younger man, my dad told me and gave me a piece of advice that sticks with me. Always tell the truth and you never have to remember what you said. And what that means is if you're telling the truth, it's always going to be the same. It doesn't matter what you said to somebody else or said before. If you're telling the truth, it doesn't matter. Your story's going to stick.

(06:13:29)
Mr. Griffin never got that lesson, right? Because we know when Philip Broadwater talked to him about where he was at the time these murders were taking place, Mr. Broadwater actually got two different stories himself. One was that he was in West Texas working. Another was that he was on his dozer in News or Whitesboro working on his property. So if Mr. Griffin can't keep his story straight when he's just talking to Mr. Broadwater, then-

Mr. Vavra (06:14:00):

... talking to Mr. Broadwater. Then he tells his buddy, Justin Monroe, during the time of these murders, that he's working on land in the Poteau Mountains. So he has now told three different stories about where he was. Meanwhile, we know that his phone is hitting in and around Hugo that entire time. So is he in four places at once or is he in five places at once? Because we believe he's in Belmont County. What makes more sense?

(06:14:38)
We know that he fled the country and went to Mexico. He told his friend Justin Monroe that. He told Philip Broadwater that. He was telling anybody that would listen that his wife was talking to the FBI about his involvement in these murders.

(06:14:57)
And we also have the wiretaps that we played for you. And I'm not going to replay them, I'm not going to hash them out in great detail, but I would remind you in State's Exhibit 150B, a wiretap from July 19th, 2024, when he's talking to his mother, he tells her that if he goes to prison, "You'll never see me again. I'll be in Costa Rica." He tells her that, "If I get locked up, if I get these charges, I'll start clearing house. Everyone will have a bullet right through their fucking head." He also tells her, "It's all over for everyone involved. I will hunt her down like she's the last Comanche on the planes. I'm going to start killing people if I don't get off the phone." That's him talking to his mother like that.

(06:15:52)
Exhibit 150F, a July 30th, 2024 call to his brother. He talks about how anger is wrong, anger is bad, but if somebody invites you into their house and steals from you, you're supposed to forgive them. But also there's nothing wrong with defending your property and killing their ass right there too.

(06:16:23)
Stacy Griffin would have to be involved in this grand conspiracy. Again, Andrew was telling everyone that would listen she was talking to the FBI. She testified she didn't see the defendant on September 19th or 20th or until the late evening on 20/21, which the phone records somewhat indicate when he went to her house in Mena late in that day.

(06:16:48)
She provided to the officers Brett Cole's phone, the Tracki named Tom that was used to track... construction, as well as paperwork that was found. And these three items were provided in November of '23 and they were found prior to that in the vehicle she was driving that belonged to Mr. Griffin. Later on when Detective Oller called her and asked her to look for a powerpack charger, she went and looked and found it, provided it to him. And that appeared to be the exact same charger from our receipt purchase in Marion, Illinois, the same time our burner phone was purchased. Then in the spring of 2026, she located the other Tracki devices in storage, provided them. And in July of 2026, she provided the two other cell phones, the older cell phones of Mr. Griffin's, one of which is where we get the contact, James Jobe. She testified to you about an injury that she saw to Mr. Griffin's arm in September of 2021. And if you will recall, Brett Cole testified that when he test drove that bike before taking it to Ohio, he laid it down and crashed it and [inaudible 06:18:20].

(06:18:25)
During her testimony, she told you about two separate occasions during issues in her marriage where she told Mr. Griffin that she was going to be his third victim. And we have another incident where Mr. Griffin tells her, "You and Brett are the only ones that know, and if someone finds out, I'll know it was you because Brett wouldn't say anything. I knew it would come from you and you could disappear whether or not Mr. Griffin was in jail."

(06:19:09)
Amy Chase would have to be in on this, right? Because she testified she saw this motorcycle at Mr. Cole's house. She testified that she saw Mr. Cole with a second phone, and being his girlfriend, naturally though that was a little suspicious and confronted him about it. And Mr. Cole told her it's Andrew's phone. He's gone to Ohio to take care of his business partner before his business partner takes care of him. "I have his phone to make it look like he's in Oklahoma."

(06:19:45)
She also testified about visiting the farm and feed with Mr. Cole. She testified that Andrew, Mr. Griffin, became Mr. Cole's power of attorney after Mr. Cole was incarcerated, that he received his property, his cell phone, his vehicle, a couple of other things, that Mr. Griffin would give her money to put on Mr. Cole's books while he was incarcerated. Mr. Griffin would get clothes from her to give to Mr. Cole for court appearances. She testified to as well that she hasn't talked to Andrew or Mr. Cole in years, but she would have to be in on this conspiracy. Tommy Williamson testified how he knows Mr. Griffin. He testified about how he knew he was missing for a period of time. Testified that at one point he asked Andrew on the phone point blank, "Did you commit these murders?" And what did he say to Mr. Griffin's response was? "I can't talk about it over the phone." At that point, Mr. Williamson, his relationship with Mr. Griffin was terminated. Ladies and gentlemen, when someone asks you if you committed two murders and your answer is not no, any other answer is yes. Why would you just not say no? I had nothing to do with this. Saying I can't talk about it on the phone is an admission.

(06:21:34)
Philip Broadwater had to be on this conspiracy. If you'll remember, he testified that Andrew Griffin talked to him about running to Mexico and how he would leave the country. He actually called him from Nicaragua, said he left for a number of reasons. One specific was that Stacy was talking to the FBI. He told him a story about Mexicans or Hispanics rear-ending him and shooting at him in West Texas. Mr. Broadwater didn't believe that. And I think I understand why if you're being shot at and rear-ended by Hispanics or Mexicans, I don't think going to Mexico would be the most logical response.

(06:22:21)
Mr. Broadwater told him, "If you run out of the country, that makes you look guilty." Attorney Shamansky talked to Mr. Broadwater about that and made it clear you don't run out of the country because of domestic violence situations or things going on with Stacy, and Mr. Broadwater agreed. You do run if you feel you're going to be tied up in a double homicide case.

(06:22:51)
Mr. Broadwater expressed that Mr. Griffin had told him that his former business partners had been shot in the face here. What I would tell you, that's a little bit of guilty knowledge, because where they were shot was not public information. He told Mr. Broadwater that he was tracking Tom. He told Mr. Broadwater, talked a lot about 22 caliber bullets.

(06:23:24)
He also told Mr. Broadwater that Brett Cole was his best friend, that he had been locked up for rape, he had his truck, that he was innocent. And he said that he actually paid, I think it was in this telling of it, $50,000 for Mr. Cole's attorney. Did he do that out of the goodness of his heart because they're best friends or did he do it because he knew Mr. Cole knew things that he didn't want coming out? Justin Monroe in on this conspiracy as well because he reports Mr. Griffin told him he was on some piece of equipment in the Poteau Mountains at the time of these murders. He also reports that when Mr. Griffin was in Mexico or Costa Rica or Nicaragua, that Mr. Griffin also told him he was being shot at by folks leaving Texas. Of course, he later corrected that story and told him that's not true, that didn't happen, and that he left because he was stressed about everything.

(06:24:43)
Colton Carr is in on our conspiracy, right? He said he saw a motorcycle. He saw Andrew and Brett with a motorcycle working on it at Brett's house. He identified it as having a windshield and saddlebags and said it was black and chrome. He actually asked to purchase it and Andrew and Brett told him, "You don't want anything to do with this motorcycle." And he also said they were somewhat dismantling it at the time. I think they were actually actively removing the windshield when he saw it. Mr. Carr also testified to seeing his brother with a second phone at one point.

(06:25:23)
Mr. Carr also testified that while hanging out with his brother Brett, they were drinking. Brett was emotional. Mr. Carr actually told him, "I don't want to hear this." And Brett continued to talk and he told him that Andrew came up here on a motorcycle, shot a husband and wife multiple times with a 22 caliber revolver. Now, Mr. Cole testified, I think he was in federal prison at the time he talked to Detective Oller in December 2024, and this conversation happened long before that. Actually, Mr. Cole would not have been incarcerated at all at this point, so we know that this happened long before any form of his incarceration. He also testified that he was told this was over the money in the restaurant and that Mr. Griffin destroyed the firearm that was used. Now, Brett Cole, in in our conspiracy, when Mr. Cole talked to detectives in December 2024 and when he testified to you yesterday, he had so much guilty knowledge. And what guilty knowledge is is knowledge of the crime that is not public, that nobody would know. He had so much guilty knowledge that there's only two conclusions. One, he did it. That's how he knew. Or two, he had direct contact and got the information from the person who did.

(06:27:22)
So guilty knowledge. What did Mr. Cole testify yesterday or testify to yesterday? That Mr. Griffin waited outside the home for this to happen. We know that's true because of the cell phone where that burner phone was the whole day of the 20th, that he waited in a wooded area behind the house. How would Brett Cole know there is a wooded area behind the house unless he talked to Mr. Griffin? He's never been to Ohio. That he entered through the back door, it was unlocked. That they were sitting on the couch drinking at the time, that Tom was shot in the upper shoulder. That's what he said. He said that when he first went in, he asked, "Where's the money? Where's the money?" And he shot Tom in the upper shoulder, which is exactly what we know to be true. Angela jumped up, was shot multiple times in the head. He then returns to Tom and "Where's the money? Where's the money?" More shots to the head with a 22 revolver.

(06:28:47)
That Mr. Griffin wanted to make it look like a burglary or robbery gone wrong, we know that to be true. Drawers were pulled out. Things were thrown throughout the house, moved around. Now here's where things get a little interesting. You heard Mr. Cutrer testify about the podcast and the information he provided. That would've been put out in the public record. We also know that he gave some wrong information, that factually it's not true that they were both on the same couch, that they got two to the body and one to the head. And there was also a lot of talk in that about the details of the fires that were set.

(06:29:36)
You'll recall yesterday when Mr. Cole testified, nobody asked him if he had heard this podcast. You also remember that when he was asked about the fire, Mr. Cole provided no details. He could not provide any details because he said he was so angry that Andrew did this, he kind of zoned out because he told Andrew not to start the fire, that it was a bad idea. So if Mr. Cole somehow would've gotten outside information about the fire, he would've told you about it yesterday and he did not.

(06:30:07)
We know that he said he had Andrew's phone to make it look like he was in Oklahoma. Our phone records confirm that. And investigators, when they met with him in December 15, might've told him they knew that, but they knew it from talking to Amy Chase years ago because he told Amy Chase years ago. He said he was told by Andrew not to text anyone but Stacy, "Don't answer calls." Again, that's what our phone records show. The only person he texted was Stacy. No calls were made, no calls were answered on Andrew's phone.

(06:30:53)
The motorcycle, we heard him testify he advised Mr. Griffin to cover the area with the plate because they won't pull you over and you won't get picked up by any license plate readers or any video. What does our camera footage show? The plate was covered with a backpack. Use prepaid cards. Use cash. Don't get on camera anywhere. Don't use your card or a card. Tape up your wrists so there's no DNA. Wear boots that are a size off.

(06:31:27)
He testified that Andrew told him Andrew traveled straight back here afterwards. That's exactly what we know, independently corroborated by the travel path of that burner phone. He said he believed it happened late at night, which again, we know. He said when Andrew called him, he called Dalton Ray, confirmed by the records. He then traveled to Whitesboro to leave all Andrew's property at his house, which we know based on the travel path of the phone. That happened. And the phone is left in Whitesboro where it sits until 1:48 PM.

(06:32:24)
He said that later that day, Andrew called him and wanted to bring the motorcycle down to him. What did Andrew's phone do? Calls to Brett Cole. It travels down to Whitesboro. Or sorry, down to Hugo from Whitesboro. Again, independent corroboration.

(06:32:46)
He provided completely accurate information about the purchase of that motorcycle. The detectives when they met with him in December 2024 already knew all that because they had their records, but Mr. Cole testified yesterday and told them exactly what happened.

(06:33:05)
He led the detectives to find the helmet, the windshield, the speakers to that motorcycle. They were all at his mom's house still. He told them about that. He told them that the gun in question had been ground down and destroyed, that they wouldn't find it. The only thing left of it was the grips, that it was a 22 revolver. And I believe he testified he suggested a revolver because the shell casings aren't extended. They stay in the gun. You don't have to get around picking up casings after. And we know no casings were found at the scene.

(06:33:46)
One of the most interesting independent guilty knowledge facts is you heard Brett say yesterday, he was kind of spooked when Cory White was taking their picture in Texas. And when he took the bike to Andrew, he actually told Andrew, "Hey, we might want to wait. You might want to get a different bike. This guy was taking a picture." And Andrew told him, "Can't wait. I have to do this now because Tom and Andrew are going to Florida." How the heck would Brett know that unless Andrew told him? You know they're going to Florida because you heard it from Lisa. How the heck would Brett Cole of Hugo, Oklahoma and know that unless Andrew told him?

(06:34:31)
Now I said before, there's two possibilities. Brett Cole either got all this from the killer or he did it. Well, we know he couldn't have. We know he was in Oklahoma at the time. Amy Chase puts him there, Colton Carr puts him there, his Walmart purchase puts him here, the farming feed purchase puts him here. Additionally, his cell phone is active that entire time, whereas Andrew's is not.

(06:35:07)
Now, the last witness that would have to be in on this conspiracy is Arthur Cole or Buddy Cole, Brett's grandfather and somewhat Andrew's grandfather. Andrew called him Papa or Buddy. You heard him testify, saw his demeanor. I don't know if there's a more genuine soul on the planet. You heard what he had to say.

Arthur Cole (06:35:37):

He got a phone call and I heard Andrew say, "He was a mumbler now. I'm going to tell you, he was about half or two thirds drunk." But Andrew said, "Well, I had to go get my money and I killed two people." He had to get Andrew give Brett the money to buy him a motorcycle.

Mr. Vavra (06:36:24):

And they were talking about that at the fire.

Arthur Cole (06:36:28):

And they was talking about ditching a motorcycle in Red River in the quicksand. Then they talked about tearing the motorcycle apart and just sell it as parts. Now what they would owe once that was over, I don't know. All right.

Speaker 8 (06:36:54):

[inaudible 06:36:55] to Oklahoma, you guys hop in the truck, right?

Arthur Cole (06:36:57):

Yes, sir.

Speaker 8 (06:36:57):

He's either one third or half drunk, right?

Arthur Cole (06:36:57):

Yes, sir.

Speaker 8 (06:37:05):

Get out of a cabin, right?

Arthur Cole (06:37:06):

Yes, sir.

Speaker 8 (06:37:06):

You hear a little quick conversation about...

Arthur Cole (06:37:08):

Killing two people.

Speaker 8 (06:37:08):

Huh?

Arthur Cole (06:37:15):

Killing two people.

Speaker 8 (06:37:16):

Yeah.

Mr. Vavra (06:37:24):

Now, say what you want about Mr. Cole, maybe he's a little elderly, maybe he can't tell you exact dates, those are conversations he remembered. And you heard him testify about how these conversations affected him, that after that he was done with Mr. Griffin. You also heard him testify about the change in behavior that Mr. Griffin exhibited before he came to Ohio and after he returned. But those comments, he heard Andrew say, "I went to Ohio to get my money and kill those two people." You overheard a conversation from Andrew and Brett about the motorcycle and their plans for it. Again, not a more genuine soul on the planet.

(06:38:19)
Now, looking at our timeline, just so everyone's clear, September 18th, Andrew's still in Oklahoma. He's talking to his wife. September 19th, his phone is around his house between 12:00 AM and 3:00 PM. Around 3:00 PM, the phone leaves that house and heads to Hugo, Oklahoma. 4:50 PM, that phone is in Hugo, Oklahoma near Brett Cole's home. Meanwhile, at 5:05 PM, the burner phone in Walmart is purchased, and at 5:48, it is now on the road. It is now active hitting off the tower in Marion, Illinois. And by 6:00, it's traveling towards Louisville, Kentucky. Meanwhile, at 7:00, Andrew's phone is in Hugo hitting near the Walmart. Mr. Cole's debit card is used to make a purchase at Walmart in Hugo, while Mr. Griffin's phone is sitting off the cell tower right next to that Walmart. 10:52, our motorcycle and that phone are crossing the bridge in Louisville, Kentucky. And at 10:52, that photo captures them that we saw from RiverLink. 12:06, the phone and motorcycle are in Cincinnati. 2:00 AM, it's in Columbus. 3:43, it is in Belmont County, Ohio, near Trails End Drive where it stays until 11:37 PM.

(06:40:05)
At 10:43 on the 20th, there's a purchase. That's the one purchase Andrew's card made at the Hugo Shell store for $59. At 2:22, Mr. Cole himself on his bank account makes a purchase at the F&F Feed Store. At 2:22, Mr. Griffin's phone is pinging off the tower near that F&F Feed Store in Grant, Oklahoma. At 10:18 PM, the burner phone registers with the tower near the structure home. By 10:30, both Tom and Angela are home. At 11:18, that prepaid phone or burner phone is still registering with the tower near structure home. And at 11:37, it is on the road out of Belmont County heading west back to Oklahoma. During this entire timeframe, Mr. Griffin's known phone is in and around the Hugo area other than when it goes near the F&F Feed Store in Grant, Oklahoma.

(06:41:20)
Tuesday the 21st, Mr. Griffin's phone is at Cole's home or near Cole's home. The prepaid phone travels through Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, Nashville. 7:03 AM, makes the call to Mr. Cole's phone [inaudible 06:41:38] with a tower near Jackson, Tennessee. Tom and Angela, who would've been about an hour earlier because we're talking about Central Time and Eastern Time, but 7:00 AM Eastern Time, 6:00 AM Central Time, they're found deceased at their home. 8:06, Mr. Griffin's phone receives all those calls that never got answered. It also travels from Hugo to Whitesboro. 8:00 AM, Mr. Cole, on his known phone, calls in Dalton Ray and also makes a call to Amy Chase. 8:30, Andrew's phone is traveling again back to Whitesboro. 10:00 AM, the phone arrives at Whitesboro where it stays and has no activity, other than receiving calls and texts, until 1:48 PM. Again, 10:40, our prepaid burner phone shuts off in Benton, Arkansas, three hours from Mr. Griffin's home. Three hours later, 1:48 PM, Mr. Griffin's personal phone begins returning calls and has its first activity, makes its first calls in two and a half days. Mr. Griffin is then home with his phone until he leaves to go to Hugo, Oklahoma, which is when he returned the motorcycle to Mr. Cole. And then he returns home and ultimately in the evening ends up back with Stacy Griffin in Mena, Arkansas, which is exactly what she testified to as well.

(06:43:15)
During and throughout the days we're talking about, September 19th, 2021 through September 21, 2021, this is Mr. Griffin's phone travel. It starts at his home in Whitesboro. It then returns south and then west to Hugo where it remains. It hits off these towers down here. That's the F&F Feed at one point. And then eventually it returns back to the home in Whitesboro on the 21st. During the entirety of the days of question, this is the path and where his phone is.

(06:43:52)
Folks, that was a lot of information and it was important to go through it all because I want you to think about all of it. I want you to apply your common sense and your reason as the judge talked about. I want you to apply it to the known data-based evidence, the corroborated witness testimony, the guilty knowledge and the anomalies that are present in this case. Because when you do that, the only conclusion is that Mr. Griffin traveled to Belmont County, Ohio on September 20th, murdered Tom and Angela Strussion in cold blood and then fled back to Oklahoma. Thank you.

Judge (06:44:37):

Thank you, Mr. Vavra. Mr. Shamansky, are you [inaudible 06:44:48] closing statement?

Mr. Shamansky (06:44:37):

May we approach a second please?

Judge (06:47:05):

Yes, you may.

(06:47:05)
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you heard Mr. Vavra make a reference to Arthur Cole as a genuine soul. That reference to him is stricken. You're not to consider that for any purpose. You are the one to determine the credibility and what a person is like who's testifying. That is not for the state nor the defendant to make that reference to you. So that is stricken.

(06:47:33)
And with that said, we are going to take a 15 minute recess at this time. So Mr. Lawrence is going to take you back to the jury room.

Judge Chris Berhalter (06:48:14):

We are outside the presence of the jury. Mr. Vavra, any issues from the state?

Mr. Vavra (06:48:18):

No, Judge.

Judge Chris Berhalter (06:48:19):

Mr. Shamansky?

Mr. Shamansky (06:48:20):

No, sir. Thank you.

Judge Chris Berhalter (06:48:21):

All right. Then the court will be in recess for 15 minutes. Please, everyone be seated. Are you ready, Clerk?

Speaker 9 (07:13:53):

Yes.

Judge Chris Berhalter (07:13:54):

All right. We are back on the record in the State of Ohio v. Andrew Griffin. Mr. Griffin is present in the courtroom with his counsel, the State of Ohio is present, and the jury is present. Mr. Shamansky, are you ready to proceed with your closing?

Mr. Shamansky (07:14:10):

I am, sir. Thank you.

Judge Chris Berhalter (07:14:11):

All right.

Mr. Shamansky (07:14:12):

Judge, and Christy, and members of the prosecution, ladies and gentlemen, we're now at the time where your fatigue and hard work is at [inaudible 07:14:23] and so I wanted to express first and foremost our gratitude, and it's unyielding. Andrew, and Kate, and I appreciate all the hard work that you've done and that you're going to continue to do, because this is no easy case. There's nothing easy about it. Mr. Vavra stayed up here for an hour or more going through the evidence, because it made him feel good, but there's a lot of it. There's no question about it. And it makes your job more difficult than just the average case. And I've been through more of these than you can shake a stick at.

(07:15:03)
There is a lot of information here, and a lot of it is not subject to dispute. And we're going to discuss that in a second, but when we met, it's now been the last Wednesday or Thursday. I don't know, whatever day it was, whenever that big call was made. We talked up close and personal about the job that faces you, and why it's so difficult, and why you are such a uniquely suited group of individuals to do the right thing. That's all this is about.

(07:15:37)
Now, we all understand the tragedy that has befallen the Strussions. I'm going to be the last person to get up here and say that Thomas Strussion deserved any of it. The fact that he had maybe different values than the rest of us doesn't mean he deserved a bullet to the head, doesn't mean it at all. It is a tragic loss of life, and unfortunately, his family is here experiencing the fallout. And that can't be ignored, but it also can't be considered as you do your job. And I'm going to submit to you that what would also be of tragic magnitude would be returning verdicts of guilty on this evidence, because of the reasons that are about to follow. This case hasn't been proven beyond reasonable doubt.

(07:16:28)
Now, let me tell you up front what the government has done a great job of proving, and that's that the electronic evidence indicates that... Well, we know that Brett Cole [inaudible 07:16:38] a motorcycle. That's what we know for sure, and that's about where it stops and starts. Because in order for you folks to legitimately and righteously make a finding of guilty, you got to be willing to rely on [inaudible 07:16:55] by the likes of Brett Cole. Now, you'll recall we discussed at length the burden that the government has willingly and must accept and meet before any of these five counts are proved beyond reasonable doubt.

(07:17:13)
And in order to so determine, you've already been instructed that reasonable doubt is present when you are convinced after you've carefully considered and compared all the evidence, you cannot say you are firmly convinced of the truth of the charges. You do have to use your reason and common sense, because reasonable doubt is a doubt based on reason and common sense. It's not mere possible doubt, because everything relating to human affairs, everything is subject to some imaginary or possible doubt, and that is most genuinely not what I'm discussing with you.

(07:17:51)
And remember the standard here. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is proof of such character that an ordinary person would be willing to rely and act upon it in the most important of her or his own affairs. And I want you to think about that for a second, because a week or so ago, I asked you, "What is it that is the most important in your own affairs?" And we all, I think, universally agreed it was the health and safety of those that we love. That's the standard. And that's the standard that you've got to embrace and you've got to make sure that the government succeeded before you can find anybody guilty of anything.

(07:18:33)
Now, one question is who's on that motorcycle, right? We've heard a lot of talk about the bike, and we'll get into it a minute, but what we know for sure is that in terms of the flow of this evidence, both Eddie and Lisa, who testified in the beginning, there's no question Tom carried lots of cash, flashy guy, flashed his money. You know, did that get him killed? We don't know. But we sure know that he had lots of it. Lisa claimed that Angela cashed out her retirement and paid for the house and maybe the [inaudible 07:19:22]. Who knows? Lisa said Angela would always call looking for Tom. He was always in the way and he was unfaithful.

(07:19:29)
But most significantly, Tom became scattered in the last weeks of his life. In the last couple of weeks, he was desperately seeking new investors. And I'm going to suggest to you what he was doing was seeking new people to rip off. And that's a double-edged sword for us, and I'm the first to acknowledge it. On the one hand, the government suggests that this man over here, Andrew Griffin, in cold blood, at 30 years old or whatever he is, comes over here and executes two people over 100 grand, without any evidence of what his net worth is, zero. It's left for you to, "Oh, gee. 100 grand." That sounds like a lot of money to him, but is there any evidence of that? Zero.

(07:20:16)
You have this man [inaudible 07:20:18] stands up here and gives you his big financial analysis, and what did I ask him? I said, "If you really want to do something useful, tell us what the net worth is." Why is it so worth it for Andrew Griffin to take out a pistol and execute two people in cold blood, light the place on fire, kill the animals, over 100 grand? Because that's all the money he has in the world? You have no idea, because the government didn't ask that question when they should have.

(07:20:47)
We know that Tom was being blackmailed. We know that he was dealing with unsavory characters, and drug dealers, and everything else. And again, you're smart folks. You're thinking to yourself, "Okay. [inaudible 07:20:58] soften it up." The theory of course, that you espoused in the beginning, is that this is a conspiracy. And who are the most likely conspirators? And we'll get to that in a second. I'm going to go quickly through that which you already know. Pam McKim said Tom had tons of cash. The Strussions booted Andrew off the account, left him high and dry. He called and seemed surprised, no angry. And we talked about the firefighters, very simple. The scene was contaminated, yeah. Now, I'm sure that was a deliberate move on whomever set that fire. Brett Cole conveniently says, "Oh, I didn't tell him to do that. I was angry that he did." That's all hogwash, but we'll get to that in a minute.

(07:21:42)
Amanda Fisher, I'm going to urge you to disregard whatever she claimed was her investigator's time of death, because I couldn't have established more clearly to Dr. Lee that she is singularly unqualified and not allowed to make any conclusions to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, because she's not a medical doctor.

Mr. Shamansky (07:22:00):

... to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, she got a medical doctor. If you really wanted to know the time of death, that's the coroner's job. That's a medical doctor's job. Not somebody that adjusts bones for a living. So I would urge you to recognize Dr. Lee, when you look at his report, there's no time of death in there. Zero. And he told you in no uncertain terms, "She's not qualified." We know that the nice lady from Walmart regarding the phone charger, there's hundreds of thousands of them sold. Tommy Williamson, remember the distinction? He heard about the murders and he asked Andrew and Andrew said, "I can't talk about this over the phone." Now, Mr. Babber does a compelling job of trying to convince you that, hey, if anybody asked you about that, he'd say, "Hell no, I didn't do that." Maybe, maybe. But if you're a person that has gone through the trauma that this young man went through with your head all twisted around, becoming increasingly scared and anxious, maybe not. And remember, maybe he's not good enough. Don't forget that.

(07:23:24)
And then in court, Tommy indicates that Andrew also said, "They're listening to what I say." And that was separate from the interview. And we also established that around that time, Andrew figures somebody's maybe listening to his phone. So consider that as you gauge the power of that testimony. Mr. Lacey, Brian Lacey, acknowledged he doesn't know who has the phones. He does a good job of going through information, but also acknowledge that he gets some information from a paid informant that points in the direction of a guy named The Reaper. Who knows? The question is, who knows? That's the problem. We don't know. And why don't we know? Because there's not one single piece of physical evidence of the crime scene. Zero.

(07:24:20)
Now you're thinking, okay, of course there's not because the firemen were there trying to save lives and put out the fire. That's all true. But that doesn't detract from the lack of physical evidence, not there.

(07:24:33)
Cold case financial, we talked about that. Mr. Blumling confirmed that his department has the ability to work with other agencies. We'll talk about why that's important in a minute. He was unable to confirm who created the contact list and indicated that had Stacy Griffin gave them permission to search the residence, they would not have needed a warrant. And significantly, the phones that are turned over, one of which yields that Facebook information, supposedly, what don't you know? You don't know when that contact was added, by whom, and how curious, those phones don't get here until July of 2026.

(07:25:18)
Also remember, it was confirmed that the tracking devices were not used at the time of the murders. And why in the world would you track somebody? Well, how about somebody that's robbing you blind? Maybe you'd be curious about where are they going? What are they doing with all that cash and my money? Why in the world is this happening? And remember, the tracking devices aren't at the time of the murder at all. If you're going to keep tracking the guy, why do you stop if you're doing it for a nefarious reason? The answer is you don't.

(07:25:52)
Now, Corey White, he sort of smelled a funky situation because it was funky. I'm thinking to myself, I like cars, I like motorcycles, and would I go to a spot, spend three grand for something and not get on it? No, I wouldn't do that. I'd get on it, I'd ride it around, I'd make sure it worked, check the oil, I'd [inaudible 07:26:18] the transmission. I'd do whatever I could to safeguard my investment. That wasn't done here.

(07:26:23)
It also what's significant, remember who was there? Dalton Ray. And it has me thinking that if you remember the slide that the government put up of this cast of individuals whom they want you to believe would all have to be implicated in this conspiracy. Well, the one person they didn't put up was Dalton Ray. You got to ask yourself why not? We don't have Dalton's phone records. We don't have his testimony. We don't have any of this. He's right there. He's supposedly right there when people come back, right in the middle of it. And yet he's conspicuously absent from that slide.

(07:27:07)
Now, it was Brett Cole who said, "How long is it going to... Will the bike make a long trip?" What a question. And yes, the government points out that there is phone traffic from Cole to Andrew around that time, but none the other way. The government's going to ask you to buy into the fact that a $5,000 withdrawal was made, but then the bike was only three grand. And then as it turns out, I guess Brett Cole said, "Yeah, I ripped off my buddy. I kept the rest of the money." Or words to that effect. It's so murky, you have no idea where the money went. And also imagine the government wants you to believe in some ways Andrew is the sinister, cold-blooded killer who wraps up his wrists, lights the scene on fire, leaves his phone there, goes to all these great lengths to complete this crime. Goes to all of those lengths, but doesn't take the most basic steps to cover it up afterwards.

(07:28:17)
Oh, my bike, let's ride it around. Let's sell it. Let's do whatever we want. Oh no, he really said you don't want nothing to do with that bike, yet they don't get rid of the bike. None of it makes any sense because it didn't happen. I mean, who in their right mind shoots two people in the head, oh, by the way, where's that $25,000 in $1 bills? I was trying to think to myself, I've never seen $25,000 in $1 denominations. Where is that money? Not one single person talks about the money. All these guys are thick as thieves. Andrew's in the middle of it. And where is that money? Not one person sees it. Nobody. Why? Because he wasn't there and he didn't steal anything. That's why. Arthur Cole. Now Mr. Cole was deposed a while ago. I can't remember exactly when. It doesn't matter. And you will recall, and I want you to please pay careful attention to that deposition, not just the sentence, but when you watched that deposition, I was very careful. I said, "Mr. Cole, what's your phone number? Because he claimed you've been called and there was this big talk around the campfire, blah, blah, blah." I'm looking for a little piece of verification if there was a phone, because you know how big they are in phone records, if there had been some phone call to Mr. Cole, verify it. And as you sift through this evidence, you look for that verification. Why isn't it there? Why wouldn't you pull that phone record? That's the question. Now, is he protecting his grandson? Was he telling the truth? I don't know. He's got a story that he gets from his grandson, whom he also calls a liar. That's a question I want you to ask yourselves, please.

(07:30:24)
Let's talk about Mrs. Griffin for a minute. What is beyond me is that the government learns at some point early on that she has knowledge. Maybe she has evidence or maybe she has something in her house. We know it. At some point early on she sends some tracking devices and she sends a phone charger. At no point does the government say, "Well, wait a minute, maybe we ought to get over there and search that house." And that's why I asked Lieutenant Blumling "Why in the world..." You can use... I didn't ask the question. Did you have the ability to use sister agencies? Oh, yeah. And I also asked, "You don't need a search warrant if the owner of the house gives permission." That's right. And at no point does anybody go over there and search Stacey's house because had they and these items were present, you wouldn't have to be relying on her. You wouldn't have to.

(07:31:49)
You would send a team of trained law enforcement officials in, they'd do their search and they'd find things. They would preserve the integrity of this case. And that is another failure that contributes to reasonable doubt. These electronic items are very central, especially at the end. We've been working on this case for years and it's not until July of this year this magic phone appears and in it is a Facebook contact supposedly from Mr. Joey. Now granted, it's as coincidental as the day is long that that's the name that Brett Cole puts on the title. But that's Brett Cole and Brett Cole alone. Remember what he said. "Well, that's what Andrew told me to do." What? And why in the world, again, get this in your head. This man here has lost a hundred grand and he's going to take the chance, hop on a motorcycle, he doesn't even ride motorcycles, right?

(07:32:56)
No testimony that he's ever even been on a bike. If any of you had ever ridden a bike, try to go eight or 900 miles non-stop. Use your common sense. And so he's such a grade A mastermind, right, he tells this cast of imbeciles, "Oh, put my phone number down there, but just leave one digit off." Who's ever heard of such a thing? Who, besides nobody? Now you sat and judged Brett Cole, or you're going to, the person upon whom the government wants you to rely and act upon are the most important of your own affairs. We'll get to this guy in a minute, but you got to take his word for all this in order to find that man guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm going to suggest to you that's impossible.

(07:33:50)
Stacy Griffin, we know what she said, third victim and forks over all this evidence. There's things we don't know. I don't know what her relationship really is with Brett Cole. We know that the marriage has tanked, that Andrew, when he thinks nobody is listening, saying, "Hey, she's trying to rip me off. She wants my money. She wants my land." We know that. We don't know what she's capable of. That's something you have to consider. Now, I'm going to make quick work with this Pure Gold and cyber genetics. You get back there and you look at these reports, okay? Pure Gold doesn't give the government what they want. The reports are contradictory and they don't help. And what you don't hear, and it's not my duty in any way, shape or form to prove to you that Pure Gold bumbled anything. They've got to establish to you that their methodology is solid. It's not like they're using BCI&I, right?

(07:34:58)
We have a state agency that does this every day for whom allegedly the government has enormous respect and they don't submit to them. Instead, they use these little private [inaudible 07:35:10] and they sound like these big laboratories, right? Oh no, you got three people in one and five in another. They're a money grab. And what happened is they came up snake eyes with Pure Gold. The results are garbage. Look at them. Who used the MVAC machine? Who knows? They have no clue. So you don't get the results you want. You say, "Oh, wait a minute. Pure Gold manipulated the data a little bit and then got a different result. Then the work gets checked and the whole thing is wonky." And then what happens? They get these people from PA involved, throw more cash at them and voila, they got a result.

(07:35:47)
But here's what's important. I said to this lady, I said, "Now wait a minute. You can't attest to the reliability of this result because you don't know about the reliability of the collection because in DNA collection is king." She had no clue if it was done right. It was contaminated, not contaminated, no clue. That's not for me to establish. That's the government's job, 100%. Now, can you imagine being at your doctor's office with this group of people as your lab techs? What? My blood count's what? My cholesterol is what? I got the lymphoma. I don't. Huh? You don't even know how. I asked her. I said, Ms. Cyber Genetics, she goes, "No, I can't vouch for it. And if I can't vouch for it, then my result's not accurate. It can't be believed." I'm not making that up. Those are the facts.

(07:36:42)
And when you think about it, remember what Cole said about the helmet anyway. Everybody tried it on. And then I said to Ms. Cyber Genetics, "Well, you could have had that helmet brought to you and under your auspices had a new MVAC and a DNA extract." "Well, I could have, but we don't do that." Of course they don't. All they do is take raw data, they put it in their secret program, and mind you, it's secret. In 2023, they finally let people come in there, but only under [inaudible 07:37:14] you can't take the program out. You can't do anything. That's why they're unreliable and not worthy of your belief. And you're still going to scratch your head and say, what's wrong with BCI&I? The answer is nothing's wrong with them. Nothing.

(07:37:26)
And the DNA results themselves are contradictory. Remember, Pure Gold can't make a match. Can't even get close. But of course, once you hire Cyber Genetic, bingo. And they're only peer reviewed by cops. Remember I asked her, I said, "Well, who's reviewing you?" "Well, crime labs." Nonsense. And for what it's worth, the nice woman from Pure Gold didn't even understand the scientific method. What did Monroe tell you? Listen to the wiretaps. They're speaking freely. There's no admissions. He just says he's a hardworking guy and he saved up his money. Now, you heard from a very sincere woman from BCI&I who went through and looked at the data and she's right about the data. It shows somebody made a round trip. Bingo, bango, you got the toll road, you got some photos. And they're going to ask you, look at that picture, doesn't that look like Andrew? It looks like a lot of people, that's the problem. That's the real problem here. Remember that photo is enhanced. I'm not saying there's anything nefarious about it, but it's not a photo you can bank on. You can't tell who's riding that bike. They're going to suggest that you can, but the reality is once you look at it looks like a lot of people with a mustache, including Brett Cole. And by the way, when we talk about Amy, which I'll get to in a minute, but what does she really say? All she does is repeat what Cole tells her. She puts him somewhere. She's not sure the dates. She sees two phones. She's living unfortunately with a child rapist. She knows he's a rapist. Still staying with him. I certainly wouldn't be relying upon her in the most important line of affairs, but that's me.

(07:39:28)
Now, Brett Cole, is going to tell you [inaudible 07:39:41]. Accomplice testimony does not become inadmissible because of the accomplice's moral turpitude or self-interest, but the admitted or claimed complicity of a witness may affect his credibility and make his testimony subject to grave suspicion and require that it be weighed with great caution. Now here we're talking about Brett Cole. He's the accomplice. And what's the court telling you? It may affect credibility and make his testimony subject to grave suspicion. Think about that term for a minute, because that's how I'm going to submit would be a charitable way to look at this child rapist.

(07:40:47)
Now, I think there's probably a world in which you could rape children and still maybe be a truth teller or somebody reliable. I don't really know because most of us aren't around child rapists. We certainly wouldn't live with him like Amy Chase or whatever her last name is. And we certainly wouldn't rely upon him in the most important of our own affairs. When you think about what it takes to rape a little girl, you think about that mentality for a minute. Just take a second to think about it. Think about your 10-year-old and your 12-year-old daughter. The person you're going to rely and act upon, the person you're going to believe, anything that comes out of his mouth after what he's done and been convicted of and spending the rest of his life in prison. You'd let that guy babysit your children, come into your house, watch your dog? You going to entrust him with anything you hold near and dear? Anything? That's what the government wants you to do. They brought you Brett Cole. Now, what else do we know about this rapist? We know that he sits in jail for 10 months or so when he's charged by the state, right? And then he gets out, we're talking after 2019, but certainly before the events of this case, and gets involved, obviously, in this scheme with somebody. I'm going to ask you again, where's Dalton Ray? Who's on that motorcycle? Do we know for sure? We're going to bet the farm? We're going to bet our kids' lives that [inaudible 07:43:15] based on this evidence. We haven't even attempted to exclude Dalton Ray from that, or frankly, Brett Cole for that matter. You've got to believe Amy Chase who lives with the child rapist, knowing he's a child rapist. That's who she chooses as her boyfriend. And the government raises some issues like, gee, how could Brett Cole know all these details? Well, what details does he really know? The whole world was talking about the details, conjecture. We showed it to you with the podcast, right? Those details were not unknown. And you don't have to live very far and we'll get to it in a minute, but Detective Oliver tells him, "Hey, he was shot with a 22 before anything. I didn't shoot." Shot with a 22 and given a bunch of other details.

(07:44:11)
First of all, you heard me ask him about it. He acknowledged it. Yeah. Yeah. Now that's not the way you preserve an investigation. And remember what else happened with Brett Cole. What does he tell you? What do you know about his upfront comments? I'm not involved. Nope, not involved. I don't know the exact statement was something about, "Oh, I won't know anything about that." Detective Oliver tells him, "We know he paid for your attorney and he's your dear good friend, but you're talking about the rest of your life. You're looking at, we're hoping that you would help us in exchange. We would help you." So child rapist, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows in that direction. You're not going to rely upon him. And then to add insult to injury, his testimony is bought and paid for. And I asked him, I said, "As a kid, you loved the outdoors, you loved your lifestyle, you loved living off the land, hunting and fishing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

(07:45:31)
Now he's confined with a bunch of other perverts they can't even put with the general population. That's his whole life, the whole rest of his life. And you don't think you'll do anything to get out of that jackpot? And that's who the government wants you to rely upon in this case, the most important of your own affairs. Can you imagine if this guy walked into a hospital room, "I am Brett Cole, child rapist. You can bank on everything I'm going to tell you. Don't be afraid. I'm a good guy. Don't worry about those sex acts I performed on a 12-year old against her will. Don't worry about it. I'm believable. I'm trustworthy. I'm your kind of guy, Brett Cole." Because this whole prosecution is based on that man and his grandfather, who by the way, Mr. Salt of the Earth, what does he do when he learns that his godson or whatever you want to call Andrew Griffin, in cold blood he shot two people, what does he do? Well, that's right. Nothing. Zero. Nothing. What kind of person is that?

(07:46:51)
The Strussian family grieves. The cops works their tail off. And Arthur Cole, the good old boy, does what? Nothing. Is that what you folks would do? Is it? Never in a million years. Yet he's the salt of the earth. What else do we know? We know that in addition, the government says, "Hey, look, we're going to try to get this life [inaudible 07:47:34] off you." It's probably all BS but that's what they're telling him. You go so far as to say, "Who's your prosecutor? What's her name? Oh, we're going to call her. We're going to make it all better, Brett, because we need something from you." "I don't know nothing," and then suddenly he knows everything. Isn't that grand?

(07:47:55)
And that's who you're supposed to [inaudible 07:48:02]. And this is no fantasy here. There's no do overs here. That's how this system of justice works, because when you present evidence, you have to examine it from every side. And remember, who knows how to ride a motorcycle? Brett Cole does. Nobody else. By the way, that title, recall, I forget whose name they put on it. It was something Fisher. And maybe I conflated Jovi with that. Jovi is clearly put on the receipt to buy the burner phone. Now the government, again, wants you to believe that without even attempting to get Facebook to say, "Hey, when was that contact added?" Not one attempt to do that. Now I'll tell you what else they didn't do, this is what they [inaudible 07:49:10].

(07:49:11)
Stacey sends this phone in July. Why don't you print it? Why don't you get a speck fo DNA off of it? You know how much people use their phones? Always. Ear, hand, ear, hand. Not one effort to verify, to corroborate. Nothing. One of the most important pieces of evidence in this case goes uncorroborated.

(07:49:38)
Now, this bit about moving to Florida and the immediacy and all of that, if... I don't think it's much of a stretch to think that Brett Cole and Andrew, they're buddies. And if you don't think that Andrew is talking to him about his day to day life [inaudible 07:50:08], of course he is. And that's how Brett Cole's picking up these details. And that's how he's turning this around. And why? Because after his first trial with [inaudible 07:50:20], Andrew doesn't pay for a second lawyer, doesn't pay for the lawyer, and then he gets convicted. If you don't think he's looking to blame somebody, you're wrong. Because normal people don't rape children and they can't even begin to imagine what it's like to spend the rest of their life... Oh, this is a guy who doesn't even know the age of his kids. Do you believe that when I asked about his daughters? He can't even remember their birthdays. And this is who they want you to rely and act upon.

(07:50:53)
He can remember everything that Andrew supposedly told him he did, but he can't remember his kids' birthday. You got to be kidding me. Does anybody on this jury not remember their own children's birthday? He also, Cole acknowledges that he planned most of the killing, said, "Oh, drive that motorcycle. It's easy to cover the plate. Wear Frog Togs with tape. Wear bigger shoes. Get a burner phone. Use gas cards." And remember what Cole said, this is very interesting. He said that he claimed to have driven Andrew's car in front of the game cameras. Any attempt to get those photos to corroborate it? Zero.

(07:51:55)
And here's the other incredible inconsistency. Cole says that Griffin took great care to grind down the murder weapon right, grind it all down. But then do anything with the vehicle that supposedly got him here [inaudible 07:52:15]. How does that make any sense? It doesn't make any sense because it didn't happen. Why would you be that careless, that cavalier? You wouldn't be, is the answer. One key thing that he said that was interesting about leaving the country, oh, he said he's going to flee the country, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I had to ask him, I said, specifically, you guys were talking about fleeing the country because of the marital discord and the supposed charges that Stacey had put on you. Oh, yeah. Nothing to do with leaving the country because you were going to be implicated in a murder.

(07:53:16)
We know about Amy Chase. Now why in the world might she be interested in corroborating this story? Because this is a man that she supposedly loves and she's willing to overlook the fact that he rapes children and still tie herself to him. I don't know what that tells you about her. And I'm not being judgmental about why women might want to support a man, but under these circumstances, you really have to scratch your head. And Amy supposedly, here's another incredible thread that runs through all these people. She supposedly learns of these murders as they're happening, right? Supposedly Brett Cole confides in her, oh, I'm involved in this. Of course, does she pick up the phone? Of course not. No, she just sits silently as two people lose their lives in Belmont County. That's a glimpse into her incredible moral fiber.

(07:54:22)
And Colton Carr, just as his grandfather, of course he's going to cover for his brother. And the most inane testimony is that Brett is all broken up over his involvement in the killings, couldn't care less about the child rapes.

(07:54:40)
Now, let's get to this morning. We know that Tom Strussian behaved in ways that most of us would not. While he's married to Angela, maybe about the night before he passed or maybe the same night, I'm not sure, the timing's very close. The CEO who's also a rapist leaves the bar. And what do we know? Tom decides it's a good idea to have sex with this woman on videotape. And we know that a lot of people dislike Tom and I'm not suggesting that that provides direct evidence of another killer, but certainly worthy of consideration, I would submit.

(07:55:42)
We know that Andrew gave over the DVR passcode and willingly talked to investigators in the beginning. And here's what else we know, curiously. There's a great deal of conversation between investigators and Stacey, most of which goes unrecorded. We know that there's no...

Mr. Shamansky (07:56:03):

We know that there's no follow up on the phone records of Cole. We know there's no search of Stacy's home. And we know that there was no GPS analysis on Cole's phone that was recovered. And we remember in Brett Cole's December 18th, 2024 interview, Detective Allar connects Ray to the investigation. He says at 19 seconds in, "We know you bought that motorcycle for Andrew with Dalton Ray. We know that you kept Andrew's phone at your house and sent some text messages on it, and they proved that. And we've got three or four people that have given sworn statements about conversations you've had with them." This is all before Brett Cole is given one piece of information. And in fact, that's when Brett Cole says, "I'm not involved. I don't know what you're talking about." Yet they're feeding him details, including at 33:40, Detective Waller says, "But for the most part, we know what happened. He went up there, took a gun, 22 revolver." He gives Brett the information. And that's not something to dispute. Went up there, killed them both.

(07:57:21)
We know that the detective said that none of the details Brett stated had been released to the media, specifically that Angela and Tom were sitting on the couch, yet Mr. Cutrer provides those details or very similar details in a May 2023 podcast. "My daughter was sitting on the couch. They could tell from her [inaudible 07:57:41]. She was sitting there on the end of the couch. Tom apparently was on the other end of the couch. We're not sure. And we're not sure they could tell who executed first, but it was both in the same manner. Two to the body and one to the head." And this is information that's on a podcast.

(07:57:59)
So I'm going to ask you again to consider the source of the information in this case. What proof beyond a reasonable doubt do you have that Andrew Griffin was a trigger man or had any involvement in this case? There's no physical evidence. There's no firearm. There's no DNA. There's no fingerprints. There's no footprints. There's nobody that saw him there. These admissions to Arthur Cole, make of those what you will. The first thing I would've done is corroborated that there was a call to the campfire. That's the baseline for believability and that's not done. And when you add up everything you know about Cole, you got to ask yourself, where in the world is Dalton Ray? Where are his phone records? Where is he at?

(07:59:11)
Now you've had a great deal of information that you've absorbed and you've done a great job. And this is a criminal justice system and it's a system in which we have great faith, which means we have great faith in you. And I asked you a week ago, are you going to be willing to follow these instructions? And maybe you're thinking to yourself, well, sure seems like Andrew [inaudible 07:59:42]. There's a lot of stuff like phones matching up and receipts and things like this crazy plan and it's all been hatched. What real evidence do you have that he was at that scene [inaudible 07:59:57] Brett Cole?

(07:59:57)
And as you think about this quest for justice, which is what you want to do, you need to only follow these instructions. And maybe you're thinking to yourself that proof beyond a reasonable doubt is unfair, but it's not. It's what you swear to uphold. And maybe you think that maybe it's good enough in this case. It's not. Not even close. So please follow the rules, follow your hearts and follow the oath and ask yourself if you're willing to bet the farm on the life of a child rapist liar, opportunist, Brett Cole. Thank you.

Judge (08:00:58):

State have any additional closing?

Mr. Kinsler (08:01:00):

Thank you, Your Honor. The defense has asked you who in the world would rely on Brett Cole, and most importantly with their affairs? And the man sitting right there at counsel table for the defense, in the most important of his affairs, when he sought to take revenge on Tom and Angela Strussion, and that's the man he trusted with his phone and with his alibi. You also heard a great deal about Brett Cole here in closing, but you also heard testimony that this man told Philip Broadwater that he didn't believe Cole was guilty [inaudible 08:01:43], that Cole was his greatest friend. This case is more than Brett Cole. I'm certainly going to talk to you about Brett Cole, but I also took great pains when we heard testimony from Detective Ryan Oliver that this case wasn't just about Brett Cole.

(08:02:06)
Before he ever talks to Brett Cole in a meaningful way, you'll remember there was a conversation that took place earlier in which Brett Cole says, "I don't know nothing about anything. I want to talk to my lawyer." And then there was a subsequent conversation in December in which he begins to provide useful information. Prior to that conversation ever happening in December, they've already found the burner phone. They've already found the Facebook records of the motorcycle. They find RiverLink and the photographs of the bike going across the river. They've already spoken to Amy Chase. They've already spoken with Colton Carr. They've already spoken with Arthur Cole. They've spoken with Phillip Broadwater. They've already got all of this in place. They've already found out all this information before they ever talk to Brett Cole. And I say all that to say, before Brett Cole's ever got an immunity agreement, before Brett Cole has provided one piece of useful information to the Belmont County Sheriff's Office, they have all of this other information that points to the defendant as the killer.

(08:03:17)
When you're evaluating Brett Cole and his testimony, the judge will instruct you because he has a criminal conviction, because he is an accomplice in all this, you're going to take those things into consideration evaluating his credibility. But what you also do is look at the things he told us and what we were able to corroborate. In particular, things like the helmet. How does he know when he meets with investigators that they're going to find a photograph on RiverLink of a motorcycle riding across the Ohio River on a bridge with the rider donning a black helmet? What are the chances that the helmet he happens to have at home that has this man's DNA in it, just happens to be black, just happens to look like that helmet that was found in that photo? How does he know when he meets with these investigators that it was a motorcycle, the description of the motorcycle and the fact that it's going to have no plate and it was going to have a black bag on the back of the sissy bar to conceal it? It's because he has this guilty knowledge. Getting back to what we knew before Brett Cole, you heard from Brian Warcholak, the FBI analyst. One of the things he was doing was looking at phone records. In particular, the analysts were looking at the tower dumps that were taken from near Strussion's home and he was going through Brett Cole's phone records. Going through Brett Cole's phone records, he finds this anomalous phone number that winds up being that burner phone. He also shares that with Special Agent Lacy and they determined that that particular phone hits off the tower here in Belmont County during the timeframe of the murders. Using that information, they start working into Brett Cole.

(08:05:24)
We also have, prior to Brett Cole ever being involved in the case, we have the tracking device that was recovered in Oklahoma from Stacy, the tracking device that has the nickname Tom. And you saw the subscriber information. Tim Doolan testified to this. The subscriber information didn't have a username, but it came back to the defense [inaudible 08:05:48]. And we also have records that that device and, or rather the subscription plan for that device had been paid for out of the defendant's [inaudible 08:05:57].

(08:05:57)
Arthur Cole. Defense tries to tell you that Arthur Cole is doing this to protect Brett, to save Brett and help him. Arthur Cole had already talked to investigators. Arthur Cole did that before the December meeting that occurred here in Belmont County between the investigators, between the prosecutor's office and between Brett Cole and his attorney. And another thing about Brett Cole to remember, at no junction was Brett Cole seeking out the investigator in this case. It was they who had to pursue him. They went out to Oklahoma to try and talk to him. He told them he didn't know nothing. He wanted to talk to a lawyer. And then it was in December when they actually had him brought back here unannounced, had him brought back here, got him a local attorney and sat him down and explained to him what they wanted information from him. The information he gives includes the helmet, includes giving them the location of speakers, and he also gives them guilty knowledge of the crime, things that you couldn't know from listening to the podcast. You'll remember the testimony you heard today. When Mr. Curter went on the podcast, he talked about two shots to the body, factually incorrect. The podcast, the information shared in the podcast was that both Angela and Tom were shot twice in the body. That is not the case. The only one that was shot in the body one time was Tom Strussion.

(08:07:49)
Arthur and Mr. Cole, what did Mr. Cole tell you in his deposition? Well, amongst other things he told you, he's Brett Cole's grandfather. He also told you that he's known this man since he was born, that as a matter of fact, his wife was there when the defendant was delivered. And he told you that he loved him like a son. He said he grew up in his household. He then told you about the statements to the defendant, in particular the one they were drunk. The defendant was on the phone call, he was intoxicated and he talked about killing two people and getting back his money. He also told you about a time of the [inaudible 08:08:27] fire where Brett's present and another friend and the defendant [inaudible 08:08:32] a motorcycle. They're talking about Brett getting a motorcycle on behalf of the defendant and they're talking about disposing of it later and they conflict as far as are they going to dispose of it in the Red River or are they going to take it apart?

(08:08:43)
Now, Mr. Cole told you all these things. The defense would have you hand wave them away because he's Brett Cole's grandfather. But what in any of his testimony led you to believe that he would go to the great length of lying about someone who he looked at as a son telling you that that person confessed to these murders to him? There's no evidence in his deposition that suggests that.

(08:09:05)
Defense paints a picture of this grand conspiracy of all these people, the witnesses they've heard, the evidence they've heard, that it's all aimed at framing this person. Brett Cole's behind it, Brett Cole's not behind it. He's certainly a part of it in the defense's eyes. But the question you need to ask yourself is, outside of the testimony of the people here, what else [inaudible 08:09:41] the defendant? The defendant's own conduct was [inaudible 08:09:45] When Detective Allar testified that he was coming to Oklahoma, he had reached out to the defendant, he let him know he was going to come knock on his door and it's not long thereafter, the defendant disappears to Costa Rica.

(08:09:57)
What did Phil Broadwater tell you about that? He said he spoke to the defendant and he told him, "If this is about the stuff with you and Stacy, that's crazy. No one leaves the country for that. This just makes you look guilty." Now Phil Broadwater's right. It does make the defendant look guilty. It also makes the defendant look guilty that he tells different people, he tells Phil Broadwater two different stories as to where he was. And in fact, he's told three different stories as to where he was at the time. He was in West Texas or he was in Hughes, Oklahoma or he was on Potomac. None of those places are near Hugo. Hugo, Oklahoma is the one place where his phone is consistently at the timeframe of the murders. And that's important to us because it doesn't jive at all with the alibis he's trying to present or float to these different people he speaks to.

(08:10:48)
When you consider Brett Cole and the things he told you, his testimony, consider how many of the things he said checked out. If he's framing the defendant, he tells Detective Allar that I held the phone for this man while he went out and did those things. What are the chances ... Well, he not only told you he did that, but he also told you that the plan was for him to only text back and forth to Stacy Griffin and him to not answer phone calls. You saw the slide that Mr. Vavra put up there. There is a span from the 18th of September, I believe it's 8:00, when the last real phone activity happens on his phone. On the 19th, there are no outgoing calls from his phone. The only outgoing text from his phone to Stacy. He's ignoring texts from other people. He's not accepting calls from anybody. Those are ringing through the voicemail.

(08:11:50)
The same thing takes place on September 20th. It's not until the following day, the same day the destructions are found and the fire is discovered, September 21st. And it doesn't happen until afternoon at 1:40 when his phone becomes active. What are the chances that Brett Cole could tell Detective Allar that that's exactly what he did and then the phone records they find show exactly that? What are the chances that Brett Cole tells them that he takes the phone to Hugo and then the records they locate show exactly that? How extraordinary that would be if Brett Cole concocted this to frame the defendant and simultaneously the records prove out exactly what he said to Detective Allar.

(08:12:40)
Same thing with the bank records. Brett told you that while the defendant was on his way here to commit the murders, he trusted him with his debit card and he told you he bought gasoline. In that same timeframe, the only transaction that takes place on the 19th, 20th, 21st is a single bank transaction in Hugo, Oklahoma at the Shell station, the same Shell station that bank records show you Brett Cole uses regularly with his First United bank card. Again, what are the chances of Brett Cole having never possessed, if you believe the defense, Brett Cole never possessed the defendant's bank card and yet told these officers, "Hey, there's only one bank transaction. It's when I gassed up my truck," and lo and behold, that's exactly what they found. The defendant during that timeframe isn't running to the grocery or Walmart or anywhere else or in any way using his bank card.

(08:13:33)
When you look at this case, this case is quite a bit more than Brett Cole. When you look at this case, the defense presents it to you, would you trust Brett Cole with the most important of your affairs? I believe the analogy [inaudible 08:13:55] medical treatment. Obviously you wouldn't trust Brett Cole with medical advice because he's not a doctor, but the defendant trusted him when he was up to commit a double murder because that's the sort of guy Brett is. He's a standby friend and Brett Cole stands by him and he stands by Brett. He's exactly the person you trust to hold your phone, to hold your debit card.

(08:14:19)
Now, the defense also points out that a number of these things were foolish or reckless. At no juncture at any time did we ever suggest to you that we were going to do anything other than prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of the crime as charged. We never told you we were going to prove to you that he's clever. We never told you we were going to prove to you that he or his plan was perfect. In fact, it was inherently flawed and it began unraveling right out of the gate. The plan Brett told you was he was supposed to stay up by Whitesboro on the defendant's property and he chose not to. He described it [inaudible 08:14:53] he decided to go back to Hugo. But again, that is not evidence that this crime didn't occur. What it's evidence of is when you rely on someone like Brett Cole who's not a particularly reliable person in terms of he didn't do what he said, the two parties had said, the defendant and Brett decided they were going to do.

(08:15:14)
Again, we're not suggesting to you the plan was perfect. In fact, it was deeply flawed, but that's also why investigators were able to latch on and catch them because particularly in this case, defendant gets a burner phone but makes the mistake of calling from Tennessee on the motorbike. He makes that call to Brett Cole. He could have simply waited and left [inaudible 08:15:37].

(08:15:36)
The point of all this, folks, is that this case is more than Brett Cole. This case is things like Arthur Cole, [inaudible 08:15:47] Colton Carr, Amy Chase, the additional pieces of information that you've seen, particularly things like the phone records and particularly the things like the bank records, which support state's theory in the case and demonstrate to you that the person who committed these crimes is the defendant. Thank you.

Judge (08:16:13):

Thank you, Mr. Vavra.

Mr. Shamansky (08:16:15):

Judge, can we have one second?

Judge (08:16:16):

Yes.

Mr. Shamansky (08:16:27):

Can we approach a second, sir?

Judge (08:16:56):

Yes.

(08:16:56)
All right, we're back on the record. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we're going to stop here. So first I'm going to give you the same four instructions you've heard from me for over a week. Please have no discussions about this case with anyone. Don't let any discussions occur in front of you about this case. Do not watch any media stories about this case. Do not undertake any investigation on your own about this case and do not post anything on social media. You're going to leave the charge in your notebooks right underneath your seat. You're not going to take any of that paperwork with you. When you arrive tomorrow, I ask you to be here by 8:45. We're going to start at 9:00 AM. I'm going to finish that charge to you, that instruction, and then at that point, you will retire to the jury room and begin deliberating.

(08:17:51)
So at this point, once again, thank you for being very attentive all day and for your patience. You are released. I'll see you all 8: 45 AM.

(08:18:12)
All right. We're outside the presence of the jury. Mr. Vavra, any issues from the state of Ohio?

Mr. Kinsler (08:18:44):

No, Judge.

Judge (08:18:45):

Mr. Shamnasky?

Mr. Shamansky (08:18:45):

No, we're good, sir. Thank you.

Judge (08:18:46):

All right. You both parties heard my instructions to the jury. I'm going to finish that charge tomorrow morning. Then they're going to retire, begin deliberations with all the exhibits that the parties have agreed to and my instructions.

Mr. Shamansky (08:19:00):

I should have ... We have one little correction. We're not sure of exhibit ... Is it 140? 140 is in, but Kevin's going to take it out, Your Honor. So it should be off of your master list, 140.

Mr. Kinsler (08:19:15):

That's accurate, Judge.

Judge (08:19:22):

I see what you're saying. There's lines out of 140A and 140B, but the parties agree that 140 itself will not go back?

Mr. Kinsler (08:19:30):

Yes, Judge.

Mr. Shamansky (08:19:30):

Correct, sir.

Judge (08:19:31):

Okay. Anything in addition, Mr. Shamnasky?

Mr. Shamansky (08:19:35):

No. Thank you, Your Honor.

Judge (08:19:36):

Okay. Then the court will be in recess until tomorrow morning. Expect the parties to be here by 8:30.

‍