Kind of creepy knowing I probably shopped at some of the same places he frequented. Warner Robins is getting bigger, but at the same time, it's a small town where everyone knows everyone. I've since moved out of the area, but I always run into people that I know everywhere I go (when I'm back in town).
Originally Posted by Boston Babe 73
https://www.foxnews.com/us/georgia-m...x-beauty-queen
A Georgia jury on Thursday convicted a man accused of helping to conceal the 2005 murder of a high school teacher and onetime beauty queen and lying to law enforcement about her death.
Bo Dukes, 34, was convicted on two counts of making a false statement, one count of hindering the apprehension of a criminal, and one count of concealing the death of another. He is due to be sentenced at 9 a.m. Friday and faces up to 25 years in prison.
Dukes is the first of two suspects to stand trial in the death of Tara Grinstead, who was last seen alive in October 2005. Her fate was a mystery in her hometown of Ocilla, about 90 miles southeast of Macon, until Dukes and his best friend, Ryan Duke, were arrested in February 2017.
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/duke-...eYPKnhCYdc2HL/
Lawyers for a man charged with killing a South Georgia beauty queen are asking the Georgia Supreme Court to delay his trial in the 14-year-old case.
The murder trial in the case of Tara Grinstead is set to begin Monday. But in an emergency motion filed Tuesday Ryan Alexander Duke’s lawyers said they have been wrongly denied funding for expert witnesses needed to properly defend him.
“Everybody agrees he’s entitled to the experts but nobody wants to pay for them,” Ashleigh Merchant, one of Duke’s lawyers, said. Merchant and her husband, John Merchant, are representing Duke free of charge because he cannot afford an attorney.
Dukes was recently convicted at trial of making false statements, hindering the apprehension of a criminal and concealing a death. Duke is charged with her murder. The two allegedly disposed of Grinstead’s body by burning it in a pecan farm.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...court-75204816
Georgia's highest court heard arguments Tuesday on whether taxpayers should cover portions of the legal defense for a man facing trial in the 2005 slaying of a high school teacher whose disappearance remained a mystery for more than a decade.
Ryan Duke had been scheduled to stand trial on murder charges in April 2019 in the killing of teacher and beauty queen Tara Grinstead. The COVID-19 pandemic that's shuttered courtrooms statewide has contributed to the long delay. But it's rooted in an ongoing dispute over whether Duke is entitled to state funding.
Duke's attorneys asked the Georgia Supreme Court to overrule the trial judge, who twice has refused to provide the defense team with funding for expert witnesses in DNA, false confessions and psychology. Duke's lawyers argue he won't get a fair trial without them.
Tift Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Bill Reinhardt has ruled Duke gave up any claim to state money when he declined legal representation from public defenders in favor of private attorneys who took his case for free.
The Supreme Court didn't rule on Duke's request Tuesday. WMAZ-TV reported that two of the justices indicated questions about which defendants are entitled to taxpayer funding may be better suited for state lawmakers than for judges tasked with interpreting existing law.
“You can argue policy up and down, but it’s not going to change how I view a statute of the constitution,” Justice David Nahmias said.
Justice Nels Peterson seemed to agree.
“Absent a constitutional basis or a statutory basis, to tell the state they have to do something that’s good policy — that does appear to be an argument directed more toward the legislature,” Peterson said.
Grinstead was 30 in October 2005 when she disappeared from her home in Ocilla, about 185 miles (300 kilometers) south of Atlanta. A billboard with her photo and a tip line number loomed for years in the area, and hope remained that she would be found alive.
Her death was confirmed when Duke and another man were arrested in February 2017.
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified at a pretrial hearing that Duke confessed to killing Grinstead after breaking into her home to steal money for drugs. GBI agents have also said DNA matching both Duke and Grinstead was found on a latex glove discovered in her yard.
Duke's attorneys have said he made a false confession under the influence of drugs. They said in court filings that Duke was asleep at home when Grinstead was killed.
Duke's former best friend and co-defendant, Bo Dukes, was convicted in March of helping conceal Grinstead's death and was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. He told authorities he helped Duke burn her body in a rural pecan orchard.
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/tar...e-murder-trial
Tara Grinstead murder: Jury selection begins in Ryan Duke murder trial
Jury selection begins this week in the trial of a man accused of killing south Georgia beauty queen and teacher Tara Grinstead, nearly 17 years after she vanished.
Potential jurors will report to the Irwin County Courthouse Monday morning for a selection process the court believes could take a week and a half.
Grinstead, a former Miss Georgia contestant and high school teacher in Ocilla, Georgia, was reported missing in 2005. Authorities said she disappeared without a trace and enlisted the help of Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Family suspected foul play. Eventually the case turned into a homicide investigation, despite Grinstead?s body never being found, and two men were arrested.
Ryan Alexander Duke, 36, is charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, and concealing a death in connection with Grinstead?s disappearance.
A second man, Bo Dukes, was sentenced in 2019 to 25 years in prison for his part in helping conceal her murder.
The case has received national attention partly due to the being featured in the podcast, "Up and Vanished," and to the unlikely setting of the crime. Ocilla is located in rural south Georgia, about 180 miles south of Atlanta with a population of less than 4,000 people.The role of Bo Dukes
Bo Dukes liked to brag, his family said, and not all of it true. And it usually came when drugs or alcohol was involved, according to witnesses at his trial. But it still shocked many when they learned that Dukes had been talking about his role in the death of Tara Grinstead as early as 2006, just months after her disappearance.
In court, a buddy from Army basic training and a cousin both testified that Dukes confessed to his role in the crime.
Another decade went by before investigators were tipped off to this. Dukes would admit it again, this time to investigators in February 2017. The jury, during his trial, saw the tape of his confession. He told investigators his friend, Ryan Duke, told him he had accidentally killed Grinstead and needed his truck to transfer her body. He admitted to helping his friend burn the body until "it looked like it was all ash."
In March 2019, Dukes was convicted of helping conceal Grinstead?s death and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
During the sentencing hearing, Bo Dukes spoke directly to the victim?s family:
"To the Tara Grinstead family, I?m truly sorry. Your long suffering has been unimaginable. I failed Tara Grinstead, I failed her family, I failed the local community. And I hope these proceedings have given some closure to the many people hurt by my actions."
Dukes is not related to Duke, but the two were high school classmates.
According to arrest warrants, Duke climbed in through a window of Grinstead?s home with the intention of burglarizing it. He then crawled into bed with her and "used his hands in an offensive manner," the warrants continue. Investigators said Grinstead was strangled to death and then her body was pulled from the home.
Court documents reveal Duke contacted his friend Bo Dukes to use his Ford F-150 to take Grinstead?s body to a farm in neighboring Ben Hill County. Once there, the pair spent two days burning her body, according to court documents.
Burned fragments of human bones were found at a pecan grove in February 2017. During Bo Dukes trial, it was revealed that investigators found fragments from the hand, skull, and spine, as well as a tooth. Forensic experts testified they could tell the bones were burned due to the bluish-gray discoloration and the weight.
Duke was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, and concealing a death
Ryan Duke?s trial was scheduled to begin on April 1, 2019, but was delayed after the Georgia Supreme Court granted the defense?s appeal to have the state pay for expert witnesses and investigators. Attorney Ashleigh Merchant argued the state should provide funds even if she and her husband were representing him pro bono and not a state-appointed attorney.
Duke had fired his original public defender.
Duke?s attorneys said he had no money to pay for expert witnesses in DNA, false confessions and psychology. They argued he wouldn?t get a fair trial without them.
In February 2020, the court took up the case after Tift Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Bill Reinhard agreed to the appeal, after twice denying it prior. The court was posed the question:
"Did the trial court err in holding that an indigent defendant in a criminal case who is represented by private, pro bono counsel does not have a constitutional right or a statutory right under the Indigent Defense Act to state-funded experts and investigators?"
In an 8-1 ruling, the court said the private attorneys for Duke could seek to contract with a state agency to receive funding for expert witnesses. However, the court did not rule on whether Duke had a constitutional right to receive taxpayer assistance.
The case against Ryan Duke
A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified at a pretrial hearing that Duke "spontaneously and unsolicited" confessed to killing Grinstead after breaking into her home to steal money for drugs. GBI agents have also said DNA matching both Duke and Grinstead was found on a latex glove discovered in her yard.
Duke?s attorneys have said he made a false confession under the influence of drugs. They said in court filings that Duke was asleep at home when Grinstead was killed.
Duke?s former best friend and co-defendant, Bo Dukes, was convicted in 2019 of helping conceal Grinstead?s death and was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. He told authorities he helped Duke burn her body in a rural pecan grove.
It says her body was never found, but then they say they found bone fragments. Were they not able to test them?
Happy Birthday! I hid a dead body in your backyard to celebrate. Good luck finding it under the cement. You can only use a stick to look for it.
I had the same thought. Maybe because they were so burned they couldn't recover DNA?
https://newschannel9.com/news/local/...la-up-vanished
Juror kicked off jury as Grinstead murder trial heads into closing arguments
https://newschannel9.com/news/local/...la-up-vanishedJust as testimony concluded Wednesday in the Ryan Duke murder trial, one man was kicked off the jury.
Channel 2′s Tony Thomas has covered this case from the beginning and was in the courtroom Wednesday when fellow jurors handed a complaint to the bailiffs that the one of their counterparts was caught sleeping during court on more than one occasion.
The man said he worked at night and was struggling at times to stay awake, so he was dismissed and will be replaced by one of the six alternates who’ve been listening to all the testimony.
The judge questioned another juror as well about snoozing on the job. She said her problems were only on Wednesday and she was allowed to stay.
It’s a critical time for the jury. They listened to the state’s final rebuttal witnesses Thursday.
One man told them how he heard Duke and Bo Dukes confess back in 2005 to killing Tara Grinstead.
“I asked them what happened to Tara and they said they had killed her and burned her,” witness Garlan Lott testified.
Duke is charged with murdering the former beauty queen and teacher, then enlisting the help of friend Dukes to burn her body.
Duke said Dukes is the real killer.
Duke said he only confessed because he was scared of Dukes.
“What was their reaction? They both kind of laughed but it was in an agreeable manner,” Lott said.
Closing arguments are set for first thing Thursday morning. Each side is being given two hours to make their case to the jury.
The courtroom was once again full Friday morning in Irwin County as the jury deliberates the fate of the man accused of killing Tara Grinstead nearly sixteen years ago.
Ryan Duke, a former student of Grinstead's, is pleading not guilty to malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, burglary, and concealing a death in connection to her death.
The past couple of days of the Depp vs. Heard trial were boring. I could see a juror nodding off after having to sit and listen to hours and hours of testimony. However, this juror worked nights; he should have never been on the jury.
This is an interesting article on the case.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tara-gr...CNI-00-10aaa3b
Tara Grinstead murder: Did authorities miss leads that could have potentially solved the case over a decade ago?
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...death-84860999
Jury finds man not guilty of murder in teacher's death
A jury on Friday found a man accused of killing a popular high school teacher who vanished from her rural Georgia hometown in 2005 not guilty of murder.
Ryan Duke had told investigators he killed Tara Grinstead and helped burn her body. But when he took the witness stand during his trial, he insisted he was innocent.
The jury acquitted Duke of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and burglary but found him guilty of concealing a death, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Grinstead's disappearance in rural Irwin County remained a mystery for more than a decade until Duke's 2017 confession.
He told Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents that he broke into Grinstead's home in October 2005 hoping to find money to steal to buy drugs. He was startled when Grinstead appeared behind him and he hit and killed her, he said.
Duke led investigators to a pecan orchard where he said he and a friend, Bo Dukes, burned her body. GBI agents testified at trial that Duke knew things about the case that had never been made public.
Duke's defense attorney, John Merchant, told jurors it was Dukes who killed Grinstead. Dukes was convicted in 2019 of helping move and burn Grinstead's body but was never charged with murder.
Duke testified that his confession was false. He said Dukes woke him up at the mobile home where they lived together in 2005 and said he had killed Grinstead and showed Duke the teacher's purse and wallet. Duke lied to investigators because Dukes had already killed one person and he was afraid, he testified.
Duke's murder trial opened last week, more than 16 years after Grinstead was last seen leaving an evening cookout in rural south Georgia. Grinstead, who taught history and was a former beauty queen, was just 30 when she disappeared.
Before Duke’s confession, her family held out hope that she might return home safe.
Though her body was never found, investigators matched Grinstead’s DNA to bone fragments recovered in the area where Duke told investigators he and his friend had burned her.
The jury deliberated Thursday afternoon and for about two hours Friday morning before delivering a verdict, the Journal-Constitution reported.
Duke is to be sentenced Monday. Grinstead's family asked for more time to prepare statements to read at the sentencing.
WTF
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...acher-85172073
Two weeks after a jury acquitted a south Georgia man of murdering a teacher in 2005 — but convicted him of a lesser charge — the man was indicted on new charges in a neighboring county.
A grand jury on Friday indicted Ryan Duke on six counts including concealing a death, hindering apprehension of a criminal, concealing facts and evidence tampering in the death of Tara Grinstead of Ocilla.Duke was acquitted of murder but found guilty of concealing a death in the Irwin County trial and sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison. Having already served five years in jail, Duke could serve five more years.
The new charges could add much more time onto Duke’s sentence. Building off his testimony at trial, he’s accused of concealing Grinstead’s body, moving her body, burning the body in the pecan orchard to keep officials from arresting Dukes and not telling officials where the remains were.
How does the guy who disposed of the body get 25 years and the killer gets 10? How did that jury not convict him? He confessed!
"The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin
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