GUILTY MI - Tara Grant, 34, slain, dismembered, Washington Twp, 9 Feb 2007

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Please forgive me i9f there is already a thread for this case. I couldn't find it. This happened near my home so I am interested. Jury selection started on Sept 27th.

Jury selection under way in Grant trial




By MATT DECEMBER
Source Staff Writer


The initial step in the Stephen Grant murder trial got under way Nov. 27 as more than 400 potential jurors were summoned to the Macomb County Circuit Court. Grant is being tried for the murder and dismemberment of his wife, Tara Grant, last February. The jury selection process is projected to last a week.

“They summoned 500 jurors for this,” said Phil Frame, Macomb County spokesman. “They qualified 417. That is an enormous number for a trial.”

Each juror was asked to fill out a more than 20-page questionnaire with a broad range of questions.
“It asks for personal history, education, employment, certain personal information, interests, military history, law enforcement and judicial contacts,” said Frame. “It also asks about their feelings on the criminal justice system as well as prior jury service. It’s a pretty broad questionnaire.”


http://www.sourcenewspapers.com/stories/120207/loc_story5001.shtml
 
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — A man accused of killing and dismembering his wife closed his eyes as a sheriff's department official read aloud in court a note allegedly written to the defendant's two children while he was on the run.

"I know you don't understand what happened to mom," Macomb County sheriff's Sgt. Jeffrey Budzynowski recited during testimony Friday at Stephen Grant's murder trial.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316884,00.html
 
Stephen Grant's voice was calm and steady as he described how he killed and dismembered his wife.

He praised detectives for being so nice. He asked which body parts they still needed to find. He laughed about whether a store clerk might suspect he was making crystal methamphetamine with the coffee filters and rubber gloves he bought while on the lam from police.

These are among the statements Grant made to police during more than three hours on March 4, two days after investigators found his wife's torso in his garage. The statements were played Friday for jurors in Day 5 of the first-degree murder trial.

A transcript of the statement was released to the news media in the summer -- but Friday was the first time the audio was made public. As Grant described strangling and dismembering his wife, he was calm:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071215/NEWS04/712150328/1001
 
No matter how defense lawyer Gail Pamukov worded the question Thursday, she could not get Macomb County's medical examiner to say that it took anything less than 3 1/2 minutes for Tara Grant to die.

The significance? The faster she died, the less time it took her husband, Stephen Grant, to squeeze the life out of her after she went limp from unconsciousness.

And the longer he squeezed, the harder prosecutors can argue that he had plenty of time to think about what he was doing as he strangled his then-unconscious wife -- one of the requirements in proving the slaying was first-degree murder.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071214/NEWS04/712140339/1001/NEWS
 
http://www.clickondetroit.com/grant/14906731/detail.html

Grant Convicted Of 2nd-Degree Murder In Death Of His Wife


POSTED: 1:04 pm EST December 21, 2007
UPDATED: 7:06 pm EST December 21, 2007



MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. -- Stephen Grant has been convicted of second-degree murder for killing and dismembering his wife, Tara. The second-degree conviction means the jury decided the murder was not premeditated.
That same man tearfully stood before TV cameras and repeatedly denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance, then slipped away to Michigan's remote northern wilderness as police searching his home found her torso, was found guilty Friday of killing her.
article_discussion.gif
SoundOff: What Do You Think Of The Verdict?
Local 4's Hank Winchester Blogs From The Courthouse

Grant looked intently at the jury as the verdict was read, but displayed no outward emotion.
His sister and Tara Grant's sister also showed little emotion when the decision came down Friday afternoon.
Local 4 reported the jurors did not make eye contact with Grant as the judge read the verdict.
Grant faces life in prison but could be eligible for parole.
Tara Grant's sister, Alicia Standerfer, addressed the media after the verdict was reached.
"Obviously, if we would have come back as first degree, we would never have to think of it again," said Standerfer.
"We thank God a portion of this nightmare is complete with the conviction of Stephen Grant."
Prosecutors were seeking a first-degree murder conviction, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
"From day one I thought it was first-degree murder and there is nothing in this trial that has made me change my mind," Macomb County Prosecutor who tried the case, Eric Smith said in a news conference after the verdict was reached.
 
Monday, February 4, 2008
Grant flirted with mom who stabbed daughters to death
Attorney for Tara Grant estate says he exchanged letters with inmate who stabbed her two girls.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080204/METRO/802040456/&imw=Y

Grant was convicted in December of strangling and dismembering his wife, Tara.
"In one of the letters, Grant tells Kukla he wants to get her in a broom closet," said Simasko, who represents Tara Grant's estate. "In the letters, there are lots of smiley faces, winks and 'LOLs' (laughing out loud)." (much more at link)

WS's thread about Kukla:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46789

:sick:
 
it is amazing that he is so driven by whatever that he is writing sexually suggestive notes to multiple women incarcerated for child murders? And now the detectives have a necrophilia rumor to try and investigate?

Good Lord...
 
I know we have threads on both somewhere, just wasn't sure where to post this. I don't know why, but this interested me. Not sure how I feel about it, just as I"m unsure if as well as WHY it's such a big media deal, but thought I'd get some feedback from my friends here and maybe I"d be able to work out what isn't making sense to me?

Refresher, Stephen Grant, is the man from Washington Township, Michigan, who had a quarrel with his wife, and ended up killing her, dismembering her, and dumping her in a park close to his home. He led on the media and public that she had taken off. A body part(s) were found during a "warm up" day, by someone taking advantage of the weather. That spurred a search of his home. They found some parts of Tara. Stephen took off, led to a manhunt and he was recovered in Michigan's upper peninsula stumbling around. He has been in custody, has been tried and convicted.

Jennifer Kukla, is a woman From Clinton Township, Michigan, who supposedly heard voices, and murdered her two daughters, as well as the family pets, by stabbing them repeatedly. She has been tried, found mentally ill and has been sentenced.

Anyways, this is a 33 page pdf of their "love notes" I haven't read them in their entirety yet, after the 2nd page, I felt seriously disturbed that I was reading what seemed to be such "private" material (and nothing is really mentioned on those pages)

http://www.clickondetroit.com/download/2008/0205/15223562.pdf


Which is why I don't understand my feelings? I mean how much do we read here from newslinks and such? Blogs, diaries, journals, etc etc. And it's NEVER bothered me, but this time around? I feel like I"m being "naughty" and "snooping"? Anyone have any ideas what could be triggering this?

Sorry for the rambling - just trying to sort all of this out for myself =)
 
I saw this on the news...
kinda reminds me of Diane Downs and Randy (somebody) cannot remember his last name, but anyway they supposedly sent many "graphic" sex-related mails to one another.
I think the Randy guy was the "I-5 killer" if I am not mistaken. Anyway, regardless, this info came from the book about D.D titled "Small Sacrifices" by Anne Rule.
 
In county jails, it is common for the male and female inmates to write letters back and forth. Whether out of bored, situation, environmental factors, or not; many do it. Once they get into state prison they cannot send a letter to another prison so they usually have someone on the outside do it for them.
As for the necrophilia, my guess is he is either bragging to impress the women, or an even sicker than we thought.
 
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