Business Partner’s $100K Grudge Behind Double Murder: State

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: may you please report counts for the fence ladies and gentlemen of the jury good morning opening statement is a chance for the attorneys to address you directly and to preview for you the evidence that you're going to hear the judges the work concise I'm going to do my best but what you're going to find out is this was an investigation that spanned about five years so I'm going to try to summarize this evidence as best I can for you I'm going to ask you to stick with me in the morning of Tuesday September 21 2021 around 7:00 a.m. Belmont County 9-1-1 received multiple calls of a structured fire on Trails End Drive in Belmont Ohio one call came from a neighbor two calls came from employees of stone breakers garage which is across the street from where the fire was turned the callers weren't sure if anyone was inside what the situation was the employers from the employees from stone breakers went to the house two of the individuals got there they attempted to get access to the front door front door was locked they could see smoke inside couldn't make contact beat on the door pump their car horn got no response these two individuals then actually broke out one of the windows in the front of the house to again try to make contact no luck they then travel around to the back of the house where there's a door leading to the back yard and they found that door to be unlocked they open it the room is filled with smoke they can't see inside one of the individuals attempts to go in mr stone breaker himself and he can't make it more than a step or two because of how bad the smoke is john phillips who is another one of the employees who called 911 he's also a firefighter a volunteer firefighter in his spare time he comes around to the back and he's able to put on his hands and knees he crawls he has a flashlight on his phone enters the home and is actually able to find a deceased female in the house he drags her out sets her on the back porch it is clear and evident that she is no longer with us he then doesn't see anything else when he's in there so he doesn't go back in he waits for other firefighters to arrive multiple fire departments respond as well as the sheriff's office at this point jeremy rife captain at cumberland trail fire department will testify and tell you that he along with others enter the house as well when they enter the house he finds a male individual inside on the ground he drags that individual out and sets him on the back porch once again it is clear and evident that this individual is no longer with us they then turn their attention to putting out the fire eventually they're able to do so and because we know that we have two deceased individuals the bellmont county coroner is called in when she arrives she notices what she believes to be bullet holes on both victims in their head multiple bullet wounds at this point we're no longer talking about fire and somebody potentially dying as a result of the fire we're talking about murder the investigation shifts someone from the state fires marshall's office comes in and conducts an investigation looks around the house and he finds that there are actually four points where a fire was started or attempted to be started in the home one is a couch in the living room where our two deceased bodies were found a hallway closet is a second source of fire a master bedroom is a third source of fire and a fourth source of fire was the oven in the kitchen now that fire never ignited and you'll hear details about uh explaining what happened there but it was a potential source for fire you also hear testimony about how fire complicates a crime scene and what all occurs from that because you're talking about one the damage of the fire smoke do on their own you're talking about multiple individuals entering the home firefighters who try to put the fire out and then you're also talking about the water damage that's occurring so you hear testimony about how those things affect the crime scene affect collection of evidence things like that additionally i mentioned firefighters i mentioned state fire marshal sheriff's office corner bci is called and they're a bureau of criminal investigation they're a state agency and they investigate any crimes according to state property and in a case like this involving murder they are calling you investigate as well they take control of the crime scene to process it now in the days following this our two deceased individuals tom and angela struschen are taken for autopsy and in that process we learned that angela struschen was shot three times in the head we learned that tom struschen was shot twice in the head once in his upper right shoulder area in the back last week defense council told you there's not a question that a murder occurred and i agree with that there's no question here that these two were murdered the question is who did it who is responsible the belmont county sheriff's office and bci did his best they could with the scene and collecting evidence testing samples looking for dna looking for fingerprints all those attempts came up empty no no such luck i want to pause here and just tell you about tom and angela struschen and who they were a little bit angela struschen uh did not grow up in this area she grew up in the south educated went to college met tom they decided to move here tom is a businessman he's a restaurateur they were running two businesses at the time of their death salsa joe's in belmont ohio and salsa joe's in elmond growth ohio in addition to that angela also hugged down a full-time job she was more of the behind the scenes person with the businesses controlling a lot of books finances things like that tom was more of the face of the businesses he was you know president at the restaurants and dealt customers and things like that he was also assisted in cooking a lot of the food that was served throughout the course of this trial here and here's some things that may make you not like tom struschen he wasn't faithful to his wife and he wasn't the most honest businessman the most honest business partner you may not like him because of that and that's okay not liking him because of those things doesn't mean he should be murdered again our officers were running on every league they could they investigated multiple folks their investigation actually turned up two individuals who were actually extorting tom struschen for money those folks were prosecuted however they were cleared of any involvement in this situation they officers uh with our sheriff's department as well as bci as well as the fbi became involved they began looking at cell phone towers uh phone records uh seeing who was present or what phones were present at the scene at the time that we believed this to have occurred as you can imagine this location you'll see is right next to interstate 70. so these towers are picking up every car that's driving by it's uh processing a lot of people a lot of information they are sifting through this trying to make connections not getting very far at this point early on in the investigation andrew griffin is identified as a person of interest andrew griffin is from oklahoma he was in this area he met tom and into construction he became involved in their businesses and actually became a partner in running the sausage to his elm grove location when investigators first first looked at him they looked at his cell phone records they saw that his cell phone was in oklahoma at the time these events occurred based on that he was somewhat set aside they believed that that may have shown he wasn't here so he was set aside at that point nothing else was really pointing in his direction they continued investigating they investigated the entire rogues gallery of usual suspects in belmont county in the wheeling area and we're coming up in at a certain point in the spring of 2023 chief detective ryan allers says you know what i'm going to call this andrew griffin guy we're not getting anywhere he was a business partner he may be able to point us in the direction reaches out doesn't receive a response in june july 23 in this time frame detective allers learns from lisa bowler who is tom structure's sister you will hear testimony from her importance in that hey i heard that andrew griffin is missing in oklahoma detective allers looks into this and finds out yes in fact he is reported missing in oklahoma and the investigation indicates that he took a work truck and crossed the border into mexico and was not heard from anymore this piqued the investigators interest was at this time as well that they reached out to stacy griffin stacy griffin is the ex-wife of andrew griffin at the time july of 2023 they were estranged they reached out to her and speak with her and during this part of the investigation and speaking with her they learned that brett cold is andrew griffin's best friend you're going to hear a lot about brett cold in this trial uh he's not a nice guy he is currently serving a life in prison for child rape he's not somebody to like but he became somewhat of interest in this investigators subpoena his phone records to see where this leads fbi analyst brian warshalak looks at his phone records and you find something odd in looking at it something that doesn't look like everything else on the morning of september 21 2021 the same morning tom and angela were found he finds a strange number doesn't look like any other numbers calls brett colt and he calls him at 703 central time which would have been about an hour after the bodies were done this call was placed from jackson tennessee and it became somewhat something of interest it was 24 seconds in duration very short and analyst warshalak reached out to special agent brian lacy with the fbi agent lacy was the one looking at a lot of the cell phone tower information in this area says hey it might not be anything but check out this number this number that places call the brett cold seems odd let's look at it and lacy looks at it and finds that this phone number this phone was pinged off cell towers the cell tower's nearest dominated construction's house at the time we believe the murders occurred this phone now becomes the focus of the investigation they're able to subpoena all the records for this phone they find that this phone first registered first time ever registered with the cell phone tower in merriam illinois on september 19th 2021 at 5 48 p.m central time they then track the path of this phone this phone goes directly from merriam illinois to belmont ohio when it arrives at 3 43 a.m eastern time on september 20th 2021 this phone then continues hitting cell towers surrounding destruction's home the entirety of that day now we know from angela's instruction cell phone information that she was at home most of the day you'll hear lisa ballad testify to that as well she was actually with her at the house that day we know from the palm construction's phone records and other information that he was out and about he was at the saucer joe's own group location uh that evening of the 20th of september until about 10 pm phone data shows his phone now leaving that area heading home at about 10 30 pm his phone connects to his house wi-fi so we know that he is in the home we know that angela is in the home for the next about one hour all three phones are there hitting off these same towers until 11 37 pm that is when our mystery phone leaves leaves that house leaves that house leaves that area and immediately heads west on interstate 70 that phone is tracked on a path heading back to the state of oklahoma a path that evans show andrew griffin had utilized in the past that phone that phone is either turned off or shut off at 10 40 a.m central time in penton arkansas it's never used again that phone exists for about 40 hours it exists from 5 48 pm when it's activated on september 19th until it's turned off or dies on september 21 at 10 40 a.m it existed to travel from mary illinois to belmont county back towards oklahoma now benton arkansas is where it sucks off about 10 40. that is about three hours from andrew griffin's home in whitesboro oklahoma so if the state's theory means anything he should arrive back home at about 1 40 pm now i mentioned that phone had one purpose traveling to belmont county and then leaving i forgot about a second purpose because the second purpose was to call brett cole the morning that these murders occurred now brett cole's phone information shows that after receiving that call he made a couple calls he called amy chase and he called don brett we'll talk about that later as mentioned andrew griffin's phone was in oklahoma this entire time on september 19th it sneers home in whitesboro after the 19th it then travels to hugo oklahoma that's where brett cole is it then stays in and around that area until our mystery phone calls brett cole on september 21 and then it travels back into andrew griffin's phone to andrew griffin's phone in whitesboro it arrives there at approximately 10 a.m where it remains stationary inactive doesn't do much of anything until 1 48 pm central time when it starts making multiple calls to multiple individuals now you might ask what was andrew griffin's phone doing activity wise on september 19th and september 20th it wasn't doing much anything you'll see that on september 18th it was making a lot of calls a lot of activity on september 19th it placed zero calls on september 20th it placed zero fall on september 21 at 1 48 pm it begins making multiple calls now there's a few text messages in there and we'll hear about that we'll also hear that any calls coming into that phone for those two dates went completely unanswered they went to voicemails nobody picked up the phone nobody said hello going back to our mystery phone detectives looked at that tower that it hit in marion illinois noticed a couple areas of interest there was a cricket phone store there and there's a walmart there they reach out to cricket nothing there our detectives reach out to walmart and here they find where that phone was purchased they obtained a receipt for september 19th at 5 0 5 pm where a cell phone a phone card to put minutes on the phone and a portable charger were purchased with cash now they don't come upon this information until july of 2024 so we're almost three years removed from our murder they attempt to get video of this purchase in september of 2021 but they were told hey sorry that we don't have any more we don't keep our our video that long detectives are able to obtain the register registration information for this photo it was registered in the name of a james joden and given an address in knoxville tennessee detective out of the challenge of this address could not find anyone named james jody the charger that was purchased became a little interesting and our officers were able to identify and get a picture of it what it would look like in walmart's website if you were to look it on the purchase is that way now talking about stacy griffin again ex-spouse of andrew griffin she will testify she will testify regarding some comments uh made during the marriage between she and mr griffin she will testify that once she began talking to officers they asked her to keep an eye on her things she will testify that in a car that she possessed that had previously been used by mr griffin she found a cell phone and a tracking device she turned those over to our officers you will find that the cell phone belonged to brett cole you will find that the tracking device was used to track tom structure's vehicle in the months of may and june of 2021 i mentioned the charger being of interest detective allard reached out to miss griffin and said hey can you keep an eye out for a charger affordable phone charger didn't show her a picture of it didn't tell her how it looked nothing like that she takes a look there's a hold of them says hey wait i found one takes a picture picture picture of it sends it to him same exact charger purchased in mary illinois make model looks the same she provided to detective allard we have it in evidence it's something you'll be able to see and look at in the more recent past you'll hear some testimony from miss griffin that there were some moves things being boxed up not finding things right away you'll hear some testimony from her that recently this past summer she found a couple more cell phones gave them to our detectives our detectives searched them were able to establish that they belonged to mr griffin prior to the murder so they were older phones just sitting around the house however one item of interest from these folks when the detectives looked it up as they found that mr griffin had a facebook friend by the name of james jody Now, we know the path of our phone travel. We don't know how it was traveling. Was it in a truck? Was it in a car? What was the situation there? We turn back to Brett Cole. In searching him, our detectives applied for search warrants to Facebook. They find Facebook messages in an exchange on September 13th of 2021, about a week prior to our murders, between Brett Cole and Corey White. Corey White lives in Texas. He is advertising and selling a motorcycle. There's some talk between the two of them about price. They settle on $3,000. Brett Cole asks him specifically in this text exchange or Facebook exchange, will it make a long trip? Corey White responses. Oh yeah, it's in tip top shape. That day, November, I'm sorry, September 13th, 2021. Brett Cole and another individual, we soon learn as Dal Gray, travels to Corey White's home in Texas to purchase this motorcycle. While Brett Cole is there physically, the phone records show that Andrew Griffin and he spoke four times on the cell phone. Through a part of this, Mr. Griffin's bank records will come up. They were subpoenaed as well. You will hear and see that on August 31, he withdrew $5,000 cash from the bank. You will hear that the sale of this motorcycle was $3,000 cash on September 13th, 2021. Mr. White is a cautious man. He took photographs of the individuals, Mr. Ray and Mr. Cole with the motorcycle loading it on, loading it up when they took it out. You will see the registration that was sent out for this vehicle to transfer the title. You will see that the transferee of the person it's going to has sent out somebody named James Fisher from Mississippi. Investigators were never able to confirm whether that person exists. The phone number written down on that document is the exact same phone number that Andrew Griffin had at the time, except one digit was changed. The title was never transferred. That bike remained in McQuarrie-Wenstain for quite some time after these events. I mentioned Dalton Ray. He is present when this bike is purchased. He's mentioned as being around Mr. Cole at the time this was going on. Detectives made attempts to reach out to him. They were not successful. You will hear about that. However, they did confirm that in Andrew Griffin's bank records, there were multiple checks written out to Dalton Ray. So we know they knew each other. We know Mr. Ray was around. Now, turning back to our motorcycle and our cell phone. Detectives knew the path of travel and they knew the times that this motorcycle was hitting cell phone towers on its travel. And you're going to see all this information. They attempted to get some kind of photograph or video of this motorcycle. And again, given the passage of time, they knew this was going to be a challenge. Then we're coming up in. [00:27:10] Jeremy Rife: They located a toll bridge that goes from Indiana to Kentucky. They knew the time that the motorcycle should be traveling. If you want someone in that area on September 19, 2021. [00:27:30] Speaker 1: In August of 2024, they subpoenaed records from Riverland. That's who controls these cameras and processes the installation plates that are in. Because you're going to learn that that's what they're looking for. It is explained to our detectives that we don't have any motorcycles at this time. [00:27:55] Jeremy Rife: If the license plate was obscured or hidden, we wouldn't have picked it up anyway. [00:28:04] Speaker 1: And our system would have gotten critical. We don't have anything to do with it. That was the status quo until January of 2026, this January. Our detectives began talking to a Karen Nakomas. [00:28:21] Jeremy Rife: This is a different person, a fresh head of eyes. She looked. The license plate might not have been read. But if there's footage, it still exists. [00:28:38] Speaker 1: It's just in a different place than they were looking before. She is able to look back and find in their storage that at 10:52 p.m., a motorcycle and a rider and a helmet cross that bridge in this photograph. We have that photograph. You will see that photograph. You will be able to look at pictures of that motorcycle. And compare it to pictures of the motorcycle that Corey White sold to Brett Cole. And you will find that. [00:29:20] Jeremy Rife: Now. The Oklahoma area at the time that these murders occurred. [00:29:29] Speaker 1: We also found that. There was one bank transaction. On his banking account. His credit debit card. That occurred. During this timeframe as well. September 20th, 2021. There was a purchase at a Shell gas station in. Hugo, Oklahoma. [00:29:51] Jeremy Rife: Now. I mentioned Amy Chase before. She was someone saying with him off and on. [00:30:08] Speaker 1: At his home in Hugo, Oklahoma. Along with Don Ray from time to time. She's going to tell you that at the time that we're talking about. She caught Brett Cole with two phones. As his girlfriend at the time. She. Kind of panicked. What the heck. You know. What's the second phone for? Are you stepping out on me? What's going on here? She confronts him about that. And. And she learned that Mr. Cole had two phones, because one belonged to Brett Griffin, the detective Andrew Griffin, otherwise Andrew Griffin was in Oklahoma. He had Andrew Griffin's credit debit card at the time, and used it to make a purchase at a gas station in Cugo, Oklahoma. At this point, Amy Chase is also interested in attorney detective, so they look at her phone records. They find her phone activity during this time and confirm that she was in and around Cugo, as expected. You will also hear testimony that her phone and Mr. Griffin's phone were in the same locations around Cugo at the time. You will hear her testimony that she didn't see Andrew Griffin during this time, but his phone was there. He just wasn't. You will hear specifically that her phone and Andrew Griffin's phone were hitting off a tower near a farm and feed store in Grant, Oklahoma. You will see at the same time there was a purchase at Grant, Oklahoma, made by Brett Cole, who signed the credit card receipt with his name, and you'll see the exact time that that occurred. So, Brett Cole was there, and Amy Chase was there, and Andrew Griffin's phone was there. So, Manson Brett Cole told you that you're in your law about it. In December of 2024, you'll hear he was in federal prison in Illinois at the time serving his life sentence. Our detectives were able to secure and bring him back here, and he spoke to our detectives. You're going to hear that he was given immunity to give information. You're also going to hear, again, he's already doing life in prison. You're also going to hear that our investigators indicate while he may have no evidence indicates he ever left the state of Oklahoma. Now, one of the things Mr. Cole mentions to our defendants is that, hey, that motorcycle helmet, I still have it. It's at my mom's house in Oklahoma. Sure enough, detectives secure a motorcycle helmet from Brett Cole's mom's house in Oklahoma. Once they receive it, they send it to a place called Pure Gold Forensics in California to see if there's any evidence, any DNA, anything that it might link. They can talk to an investigation. They send their results to Cyber Genetics, which is another DNA place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And Cyber Genetics will confirm that Mr. Griffin's DNA was found inside that motorcycle helmet. Now, you may be thinking, why would Mr. Griffin do this? What's the motive? I mentioned before, when Mr. Griffin came here from Oklahoma, he met Tom and Angela and struck up a relationship, decided that he was going to go into business with Tom and Angela. They signed a written agreement on March 17, 2021, indicating that they are 50/50 partners with Salsa Joe's Owned Grove. Prior to that, in January of 2021, Mr. Griffin's bank record said that he wrote a check to Tom and Angela's business, AJF's holdings, about $10,000, which was deposited into the Belmont, the Belmont Salsa Joe's location. So that's his initial investment. From March of 2021 to July of 2021, Mr. Griffin invests another roughly $96,000 in AJF holdings, the Salsa Joe's Owned Grove location. As far as getting money out of that business during this timeframe, zero. No withdrawals, no draws, nothing. Now, he did receive about six or seven paychecks. He was a manager at that business, so he was getting a weekly paycheck for about seven weeks, $1,000 a week for that. But as far as actually getting investment back, none. You will learn that Salsa Joe's Owned Grove was open from about mid to late May until the time of Tom and Angela's passing. And then, in that timeframe, the business took in about $90,000 in cash sales. There were other sales, credit card sales, things like that, things like that. Cash that came into that business. You will find that Tom Strushan is the one who controlled the cash that came in. And you will find that at the time Andrew was involved in the business, zero cash went into AGS holding accounts. So, from about the 4th of July 2021 until the August 2023 of 2021, Mr. Griffin was not present here. He was leading down south of Oklahoma. And during this time, the business, you know, wasn't doing very well to begin with. During this time, it got even worse. When Mr. Griffin returns, he has a meeting on August 23 with Tom Strushan that the business has told, "Hey, we're done business. We're going to shut this place down. We're done. We're not making any money." So, he offers to buy him out and say, "Hey, I'll buy it." Mr. Griffin offers to buy him out and keep the business going. And it's told no. Not an option. The next day, August 24, Tom and Angela Strushan take him off the AGS holding his account without telling him. We know this because Mr. Griffin calls Don Juan Savings Bank with this account and says, "Hey, what the heck? I can't get access." And it's told by Pam McKenna, "I don't want to say it as well. You got to talk to them about it because they're the ones who took you off." A few days later, he returns to Oklahoma. So, at this point, he's contributed about $106,000 to this business. And it's received nothing on his return, save $7,000 in income for getting the man. So, that's what we're talking about here today. Money and revenge. Now, I'm going to present to you some other witnesses from Oklahoma, some other acquaintances of Mr. Griffin. They're going to talk to you about discussions they had with him about these murders. And you're going to hear some phone calls, some wiretaps, because at one point, our officers secured a wiretap warrant for Mr. Griffin's phone. You're going to be able to hear his own comments and statements on his wiretaps. One individual that you're going to hear from from Oklahoma is Arthur Cole. Now, Arthur Cole, as elderly, he's not in health. Physically, he's not going to be able to be here. And we took his deposition prior to this trial last summer in 2005. And you're going to be able to watch him. You're going to be able to look at him. He sat in that chair there and testified and was cross-examined. Arthur Cole is Brett Cole's grandfather. He's also served a grandfather to Andrew Griffin. He looked at Andrew as a grandson and looked at him as a grandfather. His wife, Arthur Cole's wife, actually assisted when Andrew's mother, Andrew Griffin's mother, gave birth to him. She was there in the room and helped him. That process happened. When they were growing up, he was always around. Arthur Cole raising my grandson. Arthur Cole will talk about how there were two different versions of Andrew. There was a version of Andrew prior to the time he spent in Beaumont County. And there was a version of him after he returned. And how different that version was. You're also going to hear that at one point, Mr. Griffin came to pick Mr. Cole up to drive around. This is something we did all the time, get in the car, drive and talk. Go to different hunting locations and things like that. On this particular occasion, Mr. Griffin was on the phone talking to somebody. And Arthur, I believe he was talking to Brett Cole, his grandson. And Arthur overheard the conversation. And he heard Andrew Griffin say, Well, I had to go get my money and I killed two people. After that conversation, Mr. Cole instructed Mr. Griffin that he was no longer welcome to his house. That he was not to come around. He'll tell you that Mr. Cole did, or did Mr. Griffin did come around a couple days later. To tell him goodbye. And it was shortly after that, that Mr. Griffin left the area and appeared to go to New Mexico. You will hear more details about that and how he was eventually returned from Mexico. You will not delve into that now. So at the start of this, and somewhat last week, we talked about there's no question these murders happened. The third question this house was set on fire. The question is who did it. The state's going to present a lot of evidence, a lot of witnesses, a lot of undisputed data information. These cell phones, houses, and things like that. That information, plus what are the coaltellers you hear, is enough for you to convict Mr. Griffin of murder. I think what you're going to find out at the end of the day is the state's going to give you a lot more than that. Thank you.