Shawn Grate

On March 1, 2019, Grate pleaded guilty in the murders of Rebekah Leicy and Candice Cunningham, and was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of Leicy, and 17 years to life for the other charges with the sentences running consecutively.

On September 11, 2019, Grate pleaded guilty in the murder of Dana Lowrey and was sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 16 years.

Grate's trial for the Ashland crimes began with two weeks of jury selection on April 9, 2018. The trial began with opening statements on April 23. On May 2, Grate pleaded guilty to 15 of the charges against him. On May 7, Grate was found guilty of murdering Stacey Stanley and Elizabeth Griffith. On June 1, Grate was sentenced to death. An initial execution date was set upon conviction for September 13, 2018, however the execution was stayed due to a pending appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court.

He was represented in court by court-appointed attorney Rolf Whitney, who entered a plea of not guilty on all charges on behalf of Grate. In a press interview Grate confessed to five murders. Grate's attorneys later filed a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. His trial date was set for November 6, 2017, and was later delayed to April 9, 2018.

After Grate gave details of the murders to two different news organizations while in custody, attorneys for the defense and prosecution jointly requested and obtained a gag order preventing Grate from communicating any further with the media. On January 6, 2017, a competency hearing determined Grate is fit to stand trial. An evaluation released March 6, based on a January 17 assessment to evaluate Grate's claim of insanity, declared that he was not insane at the time the crimes were committed. Grate's counsel then withdrew the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on April 7, 2017.

Grate led police to what he claimed was Cunningham's body in neighboring Richland County on the day of his arrest. Police found the body behind a house that had previously burned down. The Richland County Sheriff's office officially confirmed that the body found was Cunningham's on November 1, 2016.

Based on information supplied by Grate, police have reopened the investigation into Leicy's death. Her body was found in March 2015, and her death was originally ruled a drug overdose. Grate says he strangled her after she stole $4 from him in a bar.

Grate claims to have killed another woman who was found dead in Marion County, Ohio in 2007 who remained unidentified for 12 years. He has stated he believes her name was Dana. In January 2018, isotope analysis indicated she was likely from the southern United States. The victim was identified in June 2019 by the DNA Doe Project as Dana Nicole Lowrey, 23, of Minden, Louisiana. Lowrey had two daughters aged one and five at the time of her death and was separated from her daughters’ father.

Shawn Grate has also been charged in the deaths of his former girlfriend Candice Cunningham and Rebekah Leicy in neighboring Richland County, and has also been charged in the death of Dana Nicole Lowrey, 23, who died in 2006 and was found in 2007 in Marion County. In the second of two letters he sent to Cleveland news station WEWS (News 5 Cleveland) reporter Megan Hickey, Grate attributed his motives to "government assistance", writing that it took his victims' minds. "They were already dead, just their bodies were flopping wherever it can flop but their minds were already dead! The state took their minds. Once they started receiving their monthly checks". Grate claimed he once received a $197 food card and that he "never was able to receive any encouragement, though many bodies received 700".

Grate graduated from River Valley High School in 1995.

Shawn Michael Grate (born August 8, 1976) is an American convicted serial killer who was convicted on two counts of aggravated murder on May 7, 2018, in Ashland County, Ohio, pleaded guilty to two additional murders on March 1, 2019 in Richland County, Ohio, and who pleaded guilty to an additional murder on September 11, 2019 in Marion County, Ohio.