2017 | State v. Katrina Layton

Prosecutors gave Katrina Layton the "plea deal of a lifetime" for her role in the February 2017 death and dismemberment of 28-year-old Shannon Graves, said Graves' older sister Debbie DePaul.

But Graves' family claimed former assistant Mahoning County prosecutor Dawn Cantalamessa never gave them the opportunity to weigh in on that deal — nor were they told the deal would allow Layton to go free earlier than expected.

"She just really kept us in the dark and didn't tell us anything," DePaul told Mahoning Matters in a phone interview last month.

Layton's then-boyfriend Arturo Novoa pleaded guilty to killing Graves by striking her in the head with a hammer in her Mahoning Avenue apartment, then taking Graves' body to Layton's apartment along Shields Road. There, the 34-year-old Layton and 31-year-old Novoa dismembered Graves' body and used acid to dissolve her remains, before storing them in a freezer, according to reports.

Layton was arrested and booked into the Mahoning County Jail on July 20, 2017. Graves' frozen remains were found the following August at a Campbell home, according to WKBN. Some of her remains have yet to be found.

Though DePaul and her father Ronnie attended court hearings on the murder charges, DePaul told Mahoning Matters they initially were not approached by anyone from the county prosecutor's office or the victim services program, the latter of which usually operates as a go-between for authorities and crime victims or their relatives.

"Do I have to hire an attorney?" DePaul once asked a Youngstown police lieutenant overseeing her sister's case. "I don't have anybody who is here for us. … I didn't even know we had anybody that was on our side to be here in court."

Cantalamessa eventually introduced herself to the family but came off cold, DePaul said. The family tried passing new evidence they thought could help prosecutors, but couldn't get their attention, she said.

"[Cantalamessa], at that point, didn't want anything to do with us. She didn't hear what we had to say," DePaul said. "She didn't want to discuss the case with us. She actually told me it was none of my business. I went off on her and told her it was absolutely my business."

Cantalamessa denied she ever said that to DePaul. Though Graves' family told local reporters in April 2018 that they were never informed of Layton's plea deal, text message exchanges provided to Mahoning Matters show they were.

Prosecutors plied Layton with a plea deal, offering her probation in exchange for her testimony against Novoa. Layton initially faced a count of aggravated murder alongside Novoa, but that charge was dropped, leaving several counts of obstruction of justice and abuse of a corpse.

In fulfilling Mahoning Matters' records request, the prosecutor's office provided text messages from Cantalamessa to DePaul that show Cantalamessa told Graves' family that a plea bargain was imminent. Even so, Cantalamessa didn't offer any specifics on the deal or seek any input from them.

"We're pleading Katrina today to testify against Arturo," Cantalamessa texted DePaul on Feb. 9, 2018. "She will remain in jail until after the trial."

At the time, Novoa's trial date was March 5, but it was later continued. Layton was actually released March 28, jail records show, less than two months after her plea deal. DePaul says she was never told.

Those messages also show Cantalamessa agreed to meet with Graves' family about Novoa's case, but DePaul said that meeting never happened. The record of text messages provided by the prosecutor's office appears incomplete. Though DePaul said she could provide her own record of the exchanges, she was ultimately unable to produce them before publication.

DePaul said she learned about Layton's release after inquiring with Youngstown police, who later checked on Layton's incarceration themselves.

DePaul said she "went ballistic." She contacted the Ohio Attorney General's office, then filed a grievance with the Mahoning County Bar Association, searching for some kind of recourse. DePaul said Gains later urged Graves' family to drop the grievance against Cantalamessa, but they refused.

Soon after, Cantalamessa was removed from the Graves case and AG assistant special prosecutor Dan Kasaris took over, DePaul said. Mediation on the family's grievance stopped there as well. Kasaris' willingness to involve Graves' family in the investigation was "a breath of fresh air," she said.

Though the main condition of Layton's post-plea release barred her from contacting Novoa or anyone else involved in the case, authorities learned she had been smuggling notes to Novoa into the county jail, according to Vindicator archives.

That new evidence empowered prosecutors to revoke her plea deal. She was sentenced in January 2020 to 18 years in prison.

DePaul told Mahoning Matters she thinks the fact that Graves' family were never told one of the people involved in their daughter's death was free could be a violation of "Marsy's Law."

Marsy's Law offers the same rights afforded those accused and convicted of crimes to the victims of those crimes and their relatives. According to the Ohio Supreme Court, that includes the rights to offer input on plea bargains before they're struck and be informed of changes to an offender's status, among others.

Ohio's codified version of Marsy's Law, called the Ohio Crime Victims' Bill of Rights, was passed in November 2017 and took effect the following February, just days before Layton's plea deal, according to the Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center.

Novoa's case didn't go to trial. He ended up taking a plea deal more than a year later, in late May 2019, according to court records. He's currently serving a sentence of 48 years to life and could become eligible for parole in 2065, at 79 years old.

Layton is expected to be released from prison in 2037.

This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 3:52 AM with the headline "2017 | State v. Katrina Layton."