A Summit County judge has upheld a jury's verdict, sentencing …
Posted: 10/15/2012
AKRON, Ohio - Jurors saw photos of X-rays, bullets and more during day two of Brogan Rafferty's trial in connection to the craigslist killings.
First on the stand was the general manager of the Best Western Hotel in Caldwell, Ohio. She identified the receipt of Ralph Geiger from Aug. 8, 2011.
Summer Rowley was next. She worked for Ralph Geiger and thought of him as a father figure. Rowley said Geiger had fallen on hard times and was living at the Haven of Rest, a homeless shelter in Akron. She remembers Geiger being excited about a farm job, which turned out to be phony, he found in southern Ohio.
An investigator for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation took the stand mid-morning. Steven Burke was called to investigate the shooting of Scott Davis in Noble County in early November. During the investigation, a fresh hole was dug near where Davis's hat was found.
Burke testified that the following day, investigators found the grave of David Pauley about a quarter mile away. During the autopsy, Burke said an X-ray of Pauley's skull showed a bullet.
Later in November, Burke said he was called back to the scene to search for another body. That's where he said the grave of Geiger was found.
During the autopsy of Geiger, a bullet could be seen in the X-ray of his skull.
Pauley's twin sister, Debra Bruce, testified that her brother was a great guy that would give you the shirt off of his back if you needed it. Bruce said Pauley found a job working as a farmhand on craigslist.
When she didn't hear from Pauley for several days, she became nervous because it wasn't like him to not call. After doing some of her own investigating, she turned to the Internet and found a story about a person shot in Noble County after responding to a job offer. She called authorities because the details matched her brother's story.
Testimony is set to pick up again Tuesday morning in Summit County Common Pleas Court.
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