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Two waive preliminary hearings in freezer case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Two people charged with abuse of a corpse after the body of a missing woman was found in a freezer they had to access to waived their preliminary hearings Monday in municipal court.
Abuse-of-a-corpse charges against Arturo Novoa, 31, and Katrina Layton, 34, both of Mahoning Avenue, were bound over to a Mahoning County grand jury by Judge Robert Milich.
The body of Shannon Elizabeth Graves, missing since Christmas, was found July 29 in a freezer in Campbell that the two had access to.
A cause of death for Graves is pending. She was reported missing in June after having last been seen on Christmas and last heard from in February.
Her body was identified last week by the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office, which is doing autopsies for Mahoning County until the county hires a forensic pathologist.
There was a different aura in court for the preliminary hearing that is rarely seen for such cases. Usually, defendants in municipal court waive their hearings and have their cases bound over automatically.
There were several spectators in the courtroom and all police personnel who would have testified were wearing suits and ties – which are typically not worn in municipal court by police personnel, even if a hearing is held.
There were several detectives in the hallway and in the courtroom as well who were not associated with the case.
Novoa and Layton conferred with their lawyers when they were brought into the courtroom for several moments until each lawyer asked for a waiver form for their clients, who are being held in the county jail on $1 million bond each since their arraignments last week in municipal court.
The body was found after people who were holding the freezer for Novoa, because he was having electrical problems in the home where it was stored, became suspicious because it had been locked for several days. They managed to find a way to get it open and look inside.
When they found the body, they notified police immediately.