LEBANON — A Thorntown man has been arrested and charged in the September killings of two men and one woman in a Lebanon apartment, police said Wednesday.
Chad Grimball, 40, is accused of shooting Lebanon residents Grace Bishop, 19, Brannon Martin, 20, and Larry Stogsdill Jr., 42, on Sept. 8 in the 400 block of East Walnut Street.
Grimball was served an arrest warrant Wednesday at the Boone County Jail where he has been held since Oct. 7 on previous charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, according to a news release from the Lebanon Police Department.
Prosecutors charged Grimball with three counts of murder and one count each of carrying a handgun without a license, carrying a firearm without a license and unlawful possession of a firearm by a domestic batterer.
Boone County Prosecutor Kent Eastwood said in a statement that his office will determine in the coming weeks if it will seek sentencing enhancements, such as life in prison or the death penalty against Grimball.
According to a probable cause affidavit, around three weeks before the murder, Stogsdill told a family member he was scared after ripping off a drug dealer for $2500 worth of meth and then he was ripped off by someone else.
As the investigation continued, someone told police she saw Grimball in the apartment on the night of the murders. Witnesses who saw the man, later identified as Grimball, walking down the apartment stairs said he had a “cold” look on his face.
Cell phone records show Grimball’s phone appear to enter the proximity of the crime scene around the time surveillance video showed him walking towards and later away from the apartment.
The Boone County Coroner’s Office said in September that each of the three victims died of a single gunshot wound.
Police said Stogsdill was Martin's father, and Martin and Bishop were dating.
During an interview with police, Grimball said he has not had a gun since he was 20-years-old and “adamantly denied” ever being at the apartment where the murder took place.
Cigarette butts collected from the crime scene, including two from a kitchen ashtray, were DNA tested.
“The DNA profile is at least one (1) trillion times more likely if it originated from Chad Grimball than if it originated from an unknown, unrelated individual,” the affidavit read.
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