Griffin headed to trial in double murder case
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Attorneys on both sides of the double murder case of Andrew Isaac Griffin said no plea agreement was reached before the Friday deadline, so Griffin will go to trial next month for the deaths of Thomas and Angela Strussion.
Griffin appeared in front of Belmont County Common Pleas Judge Chris Berhalter for a pre-trial hearing Friday afternoon. He is accused of the double homicide of his Salsa Joe’s Restaurant business partner, Thomas Strussion, and his wife, Angela Strussion. The couple were murdered in their Trails End Drive home near Belmont in 2021, along with their dogs.
Berhalter on Friday asked Belmont County assistant prosecutor Joe Vavra and Griffin's attorney Kate Clark of the Samuel H. Shamansky Law Office if a plea deal had been made and both attorneys said no. Berhalter then adjusted the start date of the trial to Oct. 26. It had been scheduled for Oct. 19. Berhalter said that jury selection will take place at 9 a.m. on Oct. 21 and 22 at Belmont College.
Following the jury selection, both sides will offer an opening statement, then the jury will go to the Trails End Drive home for a jury view.
Berhalter asked Clark if Griffin would like to be present at the jury view. Clark said that for the purpose of the record she would like to ask Griffin to answer if he would like to attend the jury view.
"Mr. Griffin, we’ve had the opportunity to explain the jury view to you. That’s going to happen in this case. Is that correct?" Clark asked.
Griffin answered that her statement was correct.
"And it is your wish, after speaking with us and being advised of how that process works, that you do not need to attend that jury view, correct?" Clark asked.
Griffin again answered, "That’s correct."
Berhalter then asked both Clark and Vavra if they have reached an agreement of what they would like the bailiff to present to the jury during the jury view.
"We have been discussing that, and we will work to provide an agreed instruction to the court as soon as possible," Vavra said. "If for some reason we cannot agree, we will notify the court, and at that point, if the court wishes, a hearing can be conducted if necessary."
Clark then told Berhalter that she was in agreement with Vavra. Berhalter then said that Friday was the deadline for entering both new discoveries and new exhibits.
"There were some physical items recovered in the state of Texas. Those physical items are under custody of the sheriff’s department. Photographs of those items were taken and provided to defense counsel. This is not necessarily new information. The fact that they were recovered is new, but the fact that they existed at some time is not new. So that has been provided," Vavra said. "There were some photographs that were provided as well from the crime scene that were taken by the sheriff’s department that had not previously been provided. This is not something that the state tends to use, it’s duplicative of other photographs that already were provided, but that is, I guess, a new item that was provided to council. But other than that, there have been no other new discovery."
Berhalter asked Clark if she had been provided all of the discovery from the state which she confirmed that she has. He then asked her if she has any new discovery to be presented which she replied that she does not.
Berhalter asked if the state has any new exhibits to be presented to the court.
"As we discussed in chambers, the state has today prepared to hand the court to defense counsel a number of binders that contain exhibits. We have worked through 155 exhibits to this point, and that is not just exhibits 1 to 155. Many of them have multiple parts, so it is much more than just 155 items. We are prepared to hand that over today," Vavra said. "There are roughly 10 to 15 more potential exhibits that we have not been able to finalize in providing this form."
He added that the state spoke with Clark on Thursday regarding the issue and came to the agreement of asking the court for an additional week to file the remaining documents.
Clark agreed to Vavra's proposal and Berhalter granted Vavra's request allowing the state until Oct. 2 to file the remaining exhibits.
A final pre-trial hearing is set for for 11 a.m. Oct. 9 in Common Pleas Court.