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Prosecutors: Woman lied in freezer case
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Prosecutors with the state attorney general’s office are asking a judge in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to vacate a plea and sentencing agreement for a woman who confessed her role in the death of Shannon Graves, who was killed, dismembered and stuffed in a freezer.
Assistant Attorney General Dan Kasaris also asked Judge Anthony Donofrio on Tuesday to reinstate a $1 million bond for Katrina Layton, 35, because she has not been truthful.
Layton pleaded guilty Feb. 9, 2018, to charges of obstruction of justice and abuse of a corpse for the death of Graves, who was found in July 2017 in a freezer in a home in Campbell.
Police believe Graves was killed in February 2017 in her Mahoning Avenue apartment after being struck in the head by a heavy object. Her body was dismembered and soaked in acid before it was placed in the freezer in March 2017.
Layton was originally charged with aggravated murder along with Graves’ boyfriend, Arturo Novoa, 33, but prosecutors recommended probation when she gave her plea on the grounds she cooperate. She was released on bond after her plea and giving a statement.
Novoa is still in the county jail and two others have been charged with Graves’ death since she entered her plea.
Kasaris said in a motion prosecutors have evidence Layton lied to them and that she had still been communicating with Novoa through notes smuggled to him in the jail.
Another term of her plea was that Layton not contact any defendants or witnesses in the case.
Kasaris said in his motion investigators believe Layton has been lying to authorities based on evidence on her Facebook page, through the letters written to Novoa, interviews with other witnesses and unspecified evidence from her cellphone.
Kasaris said some of the things Layton was untruthful about include: authorities believe Layton was present when Graves was slain; helped to move Graves’ body into her own garage; she knew the body was being kept in a freezer; she helped Novoa with the cleanup after Graves was killed; and that she had been in contact with Novoa as recently as Feb. 14 of this year.
At the time of her arrest, prosecutors in municipal court said Layton had assumed Graves’ life up to driving her car and taking care of her dog.
The attorney general’s office became involved after members of Graves’ family were upset with how the county prosecutor’s office handled the case and filed a complaint with the county bar association after Layton made her plea.
After Kasaris took over, two other people, Andrew Herrmann and his wife, Michele Ihlenfeld, both 28, were indicted for engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and other charges for hiding evidence of the death.
Trial in the case is set for Monday.