Grimball calls himself as first defense witness in triple murder trial

Aug. 26—Triple murder suspect Chad Grimball called himself to the stand as his first defense witness Friday.

Larry 'Beeker' Stogsdill Jr., 42; his son, Brannon Martin, 20; and Martin's fiancé, Grace Bishop, 19, were shot to death in Beeker's apartment Sept. 8, 2021. Beeker's girlfriend was reportedly the first to find the bodies and call for help.

The trial began Monday, and the prosecution rested Friday morning. Grimball moved to have the case dismissed but Superior Court II Judge Bruce Petit denied the motion.

Grimball is representing himself after firing his court-appointed attorney.

Grimball admitted Friday to visiting the apartment where the victims were found and said he, not Kandy Wampler, was the first to find their bodies. But he never called for help for them.

Grimball also claimed a man whom no other witnesses saw there that day, and whom he never mentioned to investigators, was still in the apartment when Grimball stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. When he returned, Grimball said, the victims were dead and the unidentified man was gone.

Grimball agreed on cross examination that previous evidence had established the gun used in the murders was one Alicia Duff bought at the Frankfort Rural King the same day he bought ammunition and targets there. As a previously convicted felon, Grimball was not allowed to own a firearm. Duff has been charged with providing a firearm to an ineligible person who receives the firearm and uses it in a murder.

Earlier testimony revealed that Grimball shot at targets at a rural home on Ind. 39, north of Lebanon, before the murders. Police found shell casings and ammunition boxes still outside of the home after the murders. DNA evidence linked Grimball to shell cases found outside the rural home and to those near the victims' bodies.

Grimball claimed Duff sold the gun a few days before the murder, but said he did not know who bought it.

Duff testified this week that Grimball left the apartment where the murders had occurred and got into her car Sept. 8, 2021. She said he pulled the gun out of somewhere and dismantled it as he drove, throwing pieces of the .40-cal handgun out of the window all along the roads. The murder weapon was never found.

Grimball told Morris that Duff was mistaken in saying he had the gun that day.

He and Duff went to the Thorntown Marathon station where they were both employed after leaving Beeker's apartment at 403 E. Walnut St., Lebanon. They got a sandwich at the Subway restaurant there. Video surveillance showed Grimball reaching over the counter and grabbing something he then used to wipe his shoes. Grimball testified that Duff had spilled soda on his shoe, but Prosecutor T.K. Morris suggested he was wiping away blood.

Grimball said he could have left the bloody shoe prints found in the apartment when he checked on the bodies, but he no longer has the $200 tennis shoes that were new at the time and doesn't know where they went or when.

Earlier testimony indicated Duff burned his clothes from that day in a fire pit in the yard of the Thorntown home where they rented a room. She burned the clothes he wore at the apartment and those he changed into after they returned to Thorntown, Morris said. The entire fire pit disappeared after that, and the homeowner doesn't know where it went.

Grimball said didn't call 911 to get help for the victims because, "I freaked out by what I seen," and his cell phone was malfunctioning and left behind in Thorntown. He also didn't call for help when they reached Thorntown. He later told a detective he wasn't in Beeker's apartment that day and they wouldn't find cell phone records to place him there.

He told Morris he left the apartment quickly because he worried he'd be implicated in the murders. Morris asked why Grimball thought that, when he shouldn't have known at that time what weapon killed the victims.

Grimball has listed more than 100 potential witnesses, although the prosecution has challenged the relevance of many. Grimball followed his testimony with that of a childhood friend, who was being held in the Boone County Jail at the time of the murders and reportedly ordered Grimball to kill two of the victims.

Testimony is expected to resume Monday morning.