Ohio killer of 2 pleads not guilty to 2 additional deaths

MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio man sentenced to die for the kidnapping and killing of two women has pleaded not guilty to charges of slaying two additional women.

Death row inmate Shawn Grate was convicted in June of killing two women in 2016 whose bodies were found underneath piles of clothes in what was thought to be a vacant Ashland home.

The 42-year-old Grate was squatting in the abandoned house at the time of the killings.

Grate is also suspected of killing Candice Cunningham in June 2016 and Rebekah Leicy, whose body was found in Ashland County woods in 2015.

The Mansfield News Journal reports defense attorney Jeff Uhrich on Thursday entered a not guilty plea to multiple charges including aggravated murder and kidnapping on behalf of Grate.