Gregory Osie would be sentenced to death by the State of Ohio for the murder of David Williams
According to court documents Gregory Osie would break into the home of David Williams, who happened to be his wife’s business partner, and would stab him to death in order to cover up a theft
Gregory Osie would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Gregory Osie Photos
Gregory Osie Now
Number
A628383
DOB
08/18/1961
Gender
Male
Race
White
Admission Date
05/18/2010
Institution
Chillicothe Correctional Institution
Status
INCARCERATED
Gregory Osie Case
On February 14, 2009, appellant, Gregory C. Osie, stabbed David Williams to death in Williams’s house in Liberty Township, Butler County. Osie was tried by a three-judge panel, which found him guilty of aggravated murder with three death specifications and sentenced him to death.
{¶ 2} David Williams was a partner in a business venture called United Contractors Unlimited (“UCU”), which began in August 2008. Williams had provided $10,000 in seed money to get the business started and also served as a business mentor, providing his partners with advice on running a business. The other partners performed various jobs in the business.
{¶ 3} Williams’s partners in UCU included Robin Patterson and Nicholas Wiskur. Patterson was the office manager. Gregory Osie was Patterson’s boyfriend. Osie was not a partner in UCU but had been employed on one occasion to do a job for UCU. He was also hired occasionally to do “odds and ends type jobs” for David Williams.
{¶ 4} By February 2009, according to Nicholas Wiskur, UCU had nearly reached “the point of being defunct.” Wiskur testified that the partners held a financial meeting approximately every four weeks to go over profit-and-loss statements. At these meetings, the partners would “go over checks”; therefore, Wiskur knew that questions had been raised about certain checks.
{¶ 5} Wiskur decided to investigate one specific check: a check for $375, made out to and endorsed by Greg Osie, ostensibly signed by Robin Patterson, and dated December 26, 2008. This check had been cashed at a Marathon gas station. Because the account on which it was drawn had been closed, the check bounced. Based on his familiarity with Patterson’s signature, Wiskur concluded that the check was “obviously forged.” He called the Marathon station and discussed the matter with the owner. Wiskur subsequently discussed the matter with Williams.
The Events of February 13–14, 2009
{¶ 6} On February 13, 2009, between approximately 8:30 and 9:00 a.m., Wiskur went to Williams’s house. Williams was not home, so Wiskur phoned him, then decided to await Williams’s return.
{¶ 7} Before Williams arrived, Osie phoned Wiskur. Osie claimed that he didn’t know anything about the forged check. Wiskur informed Osie that the owner of the gas station had “unequivocally” identified Osie as the person who had cashed the check and that Osie’s act had been captured on videotape. Osie continued to deny that he had cashed the check. Wiskur told him: “It’s all going to come out, * * * if you did it or not. I guess * * * we’ll find out, and at that time, we’ll do the necessary actions * * *.”
{¶ 8} Eventually, Williams came home, and he and Wiskur discussed other matters. However, before Wiskur left, Osie phoned Williams. Wiskur was able to hear and recognize Osie’s voice on the other end of the line.
{¶ 9} Wiskur testified that the conversation was “[a]gitated and aggressive,” with “some name calling on both sides” and references to the theft of money and property. During this conversation, according to Wiskur, Williams said to Osie: “Well, you know, I just want to make this right. Robin won’t return any of my phone calls. * * * Well, I’m going to go to the police. I’m going to file charges. This needs to be taken care of.” At the end of the conversation, according to Wiskur, Williams “slam[med] the phone” down and said, “F you.”
{¶ 10} On the night of February 13–14, Tim Purvis, an acquaintance of Osie and Robin Patterson, was performing with a band at a local bar. Around 1:00 a.m., February 14, Purvis saw Patterson at the bar. Purvis finished playing at 2:00 a.m.; half an hour later, he left with Patterson. They reached Purvis’s apartment around 2:45 a.m. Patterson stayed until 9:00 a.m. She and Purvis sat and talked and had “a couple of beers.”
{¶ 11} While Patterson was at Purvis’s apartment, her phone rang between 10 and 15 times, beginning sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. Around 5:00 a.m., Purvis got a phone call from Osie, who wanted to talk to Patterson. Purvis handed Patterson his phone and went to the bathroom. He was able to hear most of the conversation, however. He described it as “a lot of arguing back and forth.”
{¶ 12} Around 5:30 or 6:00 a.m., Patterson received a text message that upset her. Purvis described her reaction: “She was very upset, pacing back and forth, crying. Just really distraught.” Purvis asked why she was upset, and she said: “Greg killed Dave.”
{¶ 13} Records of the Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company introduced at trial show that on February 14, 2009, between 3:07 a.m. and 8:45 a.m., 15 text messages were sent from phone number 513–746–1393 to phone number 513–746–8127. Cincinnati Bell records listed Osie as both subscriber and registered user for phone number 513–746–1393. Osie was also the subscriber for phone number 513–746–8127; the registered user of that phone was listed as “Robin.”
{¶ 14} At 3:07 a.m., a text from Osie’s phone to Robin’s stated: “Baby doll your dirt is ready to be over.” At 4:24 a.m., there was another text that said simply: “Job finished.” Other texts sent from Osie’s phone to Robin’s that morning included “Need help” at 4:35 a.m., “Baby talk 2 me” at 5:09 a.m., “Help please” at 5:25 a.m., “I need you i am afraid” at 7:30 a.m., and “Baby im worried please call” at 8:29 a.m.
{¶ 15} Business records of PNC Bank and United Dairy Farmers (“UDF”) show that on February 14, 2009, at 4:28 a.m., someone used David Williams’s Visa debit card to buy $27.01 worth of gasoline at the UDF in West Chester. Business records of PNC Bank and Meijer show that on February 14, 2009, at 6:24 a.m., someone tried to use the same card to make a transaction in the amount of $547.66 at the Meijer store in West Chester, but the transaction was declined for insufficient funds.
{¶ 16} At approximately 9:00 or 9:15 a.m., February 14, Donald E. Heis Sr., a mechanic at an auto body shop in West Chester, spotted a cell phone lying in pieces in the driveway of the shop as he was driving out on a wrecker call. About 15 minutes later, on his way back, Heis stopped and picked up the phone. Heis reattached the loose pieces of the phone and found that it worked. By examining the phone’s recent-call log, he obtained the phone number of Williams’s daughter, Heather Williams, and called that number to see whether she knew who owned the phone. Heis explained where he had found the phone and how he had obtained Heather’s number. Heather said, “Oh, it’s my dad’s [phone].” Heis told her that she could come by the body shop and pick it up.
{¶ 17} Heather then called two of her father’s friends and asked them to let him know where his phone was. She sent one of them to Williams’s house. There he found Williams’s body. Police were summoned, and the crime scene was processed.
The Crime Scene
{¶ 18} Williams was found lying on the living-room floor, bruised and blood-soaked. The body lay near a coffee table, where police found a wallet lying open, with business cards and various papers scattered around it. On a table by a recliner was a spillproof cup containing whiskey and a drinking straw.1 Williams’s television was missing from the entertainment center in the living room.
{¶ 19} In the kitchen, police found a set of knives in a wooden block on the counter. One knife from the set appeared to be missing, but was found in a kitchen drawer.
{¶ 20} Williams’s bedroom contained a safe, which sat atop a dresser. The safe was open, and papers and other items lay scattered on the floor in front of the dresser.
The Autopsy
{¶ 21} Dr. James Swinehart, a forensic pathologist employed by Butler County, performed an autopsy on Williams’s body on February 14. Dr. Swinehart noted that Williams had suffered “five distinct stab wounds clustered basically around the left nipple area.” Several of these wounds had perforated Williams’s left lung, collapsing it. Dr. Swinehart measured 700 cc of blood in the left chest cavity. Williams had also sustained five stab wounds to the abdomen, one of which damaged his liver and gall bladder.
{¶ 22} Finally, Williams’s throat had been slashed. Dr. Swinehart identified “two large incised wounds of the anterior neck.” The more serious of these wounds was 5 and 3/4 inches long; it penetrated Williams’s larynx with a “through and through” wound and exposed his windpipe.
{¶ 23} Dr. Swinehart concluded that Williams bled to death. Based on the temperature of Williams’s body at 8:00 p.m., February 14, Dr. Swinehart was able to estimate that Williams had died in the early morning of February 14, sometime between midnight and 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. Given the large amount of sudden blood loss, Dr. Swinehart opined that Williams would have died within 15 minutes.
{¶ 24} Finally, Dr. Swinehart had a comprehensive toxicology screen performed, which revealed that Williams had a postmortem blood-alcohol level of .160 percent.2
Osie’s Arrest and Interrogation
{¶ 25} Investigators from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office determined that Osie was a suspect. Four detectives went to his address in West Chester to talk to him. They knocked on the door of his apartment, but no one answered. As the detectives were leaving the apartment complex, they noticed a red truck in the parking lot with its headlights on. Osie drove a red truck. The truck “peeled out” in reverse. The detectives pursued the truck in their vehicles and were able to block its departure. When the driver of the red truck identified himself as Osie, the detectives handcuffed him and drove him to the stationhouse.
{¶ 26} At the station, the detectives placed Osie in an interview room, where they administered Miranda warnings and proceeded to interrogate him.
{¶ 27} Osie initially told detectives that Williams had attacked him. According to Osie, Williams accused Patterson of stealing from him and said that “he was going to go press charges against her.” Osie claimed that after he told Williams, “[Y]ou got to have proof before you do something like that,” Williams became angry. Osie said that he started to leave, whereupon Williams got out of his chair, picked up a knife and came at Osie.
{¶ 28} Osie claimed that he pushed Williams back into his chair, but Williams got up and attacked him again. Osie then grabbed Williams’s hand, “kind of turned it into him,” and stabbed Williams with the knife while Williams was holding it. In Osie’s account, Williams pulled the knife out of his body and attacked Osie yet again. The knife “went back in him again, the way that I had his hand.” Then, Osie claimed, he panicked and went home. Osie claimed that when he left, he did not even know that Williams was dead.
{¶ 29} The detectives asked Osie why he had sent Patterson a text to the effect that she didn’t “have to worry about Dave no more” if he was unaware that Williams was dead. Osie explained that this was intended “[t]o let her know that I kind of beat Dave up and stabbed him.”
{¶ 30} The detectives continued to confront Osie with inconsistencies in his story and inconsistencies between his story and the evidence. As they did so, Osie’s story changed. After admitting that he “kind of beat Dave up,” Osie denied beating Williams, admitting only that he had “punched him one time.” Osie then amended that to “[o]ne or two times maybe.” Then he claimed that he had not punched Williams with his fist, but had hit him with an open hand. Finally, he admitted punching Williams in the face.
{¶ 31} Osie initially claimed that he stabbed Williams only twice, and he denied cutting Williams’s throat. When detectives pointed out that there appeared to be four to six stab wounds, Osie said he didn’t know whether anyone else was in the house when he left, implying that someone else might have inflicted the wounds after Osie left. Osie later suggested that Williams might have inflicted some of the wounds on himself. Still later, Osie admitted stabbing Williams “probably four to five times,” but denied cutting his throat. Finally, however, Osie admitted that he cut Williams’s throat after stabbing him.
{¶ 32} Osie denied taking Williams’s cell phone or television, and he denied taking the knife from the house, claiming that he had left it in Williams’s body. He also denied removing anything from Williams’s safe.
{¶ 33} Eventually, Osie admitted that he took keys from Williams’s jacket, then went into the bedroom, opened the safe, and scattered its contents. He admitted that he took the knife with him when he left. He also admitted taking Williams’s cell phone, which he threw from his truck window on his way home, and Williams’s TV, which he took in order to make the crime look like a robbery. He claimed that he drove home, changed clothes, then drove to Cincinnati. There he discarded the TV in a dumpster, then threw the knife into the Ohio River.
{¶ 34} After this interview, Detective Melissa Gearhart learned about Williams’s tremor disorder. This called into question Osie’s claim that Williams had assaulted him with a knife, so Gearhart interviewed Osie again.
{¶ 35} In this second interview, Osie’s story was that he and Williams got into a scuffle, during which Osie punched Williams a few times. Then Osie went into the kitchen, Williams followed him, and they struggled again. During the second struggle, Osie grabbed a knife. Williams backed away from Osie into the living room. There, Osie stabbed Williams in the chest. Williams fell to the floor, and Osie stabbed him a few more times. Then, motivated by anger, he cut Williams’s throat, but only once.
Osie’s Statements to His Cellmate
{¶ 36} Donald D. Simpson Jr., an acquaintance of Osie’s, was Osie’s cellmate in the Butler County Jail from February 15, 2009, until Simpson’s release in April 2009. A “couple of weeks” after moving in, Osie began to discuss his case with Simpson. During that time, according to Simpson, the two talked about Osie’s case “pretty much every day” until Simpson’s release, because “that’s all [Osie] pretty much had to do.”
{¶ 37} Osie told Simpson that he had been charged with the murder of David Williams, and “it all stimulated [sic] over Greg’s girlfriend, Robin Patterson.” Simpson testified: “Greg had told me that David Williams was pressing charges on Robin Patterson for stealing around $18,000.” Osie told Simpson that Patterson had used payroll checks to steal the money and that she asked him to persuade Williams not to press charges.
{¶ 38} According to Simpson, Osie also gave him an account of Williams’s murder. Osie told Simpson that before he went to Williams’s house, he and Patterson had spent all day getting high on cocaine. Osie told Simpson that he arrived at Williams’s house around 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. Osie began by trying to talk Williams out of pressing charges. But during the conversation, Williams indicated his intention to press charges against Osie for the check cashed at the Marathon station. At that point, Osie told Simpson,
the conversation had got heated and * * * he had punched Dave, and then it just happened that, I mean before he knew it, he had got the knife and stabbed him. He had stabbed him like four or five times in the chest, and that then when he was laying there, that he freaked out, and so he had rushed down and took the knife and sliced his throat.
{¶ 39} Osie told Simpson that he “had tried to make it look like a break-in.” Osie told Simpson that he took a flat-screen television and a credit card and also removed checks from Williams’s safe. Osie said that he had tried to purchase gas with the credit card. He also had gone to Meijer and tried to buy a diamond ring for Patterson, but the card was declined. Simpson testified that Osie never told him that before arriving at Williams’s house, he had intended to harm Williams or steal anything.
{¶ 40} According to Simpson, Osie had been calling and writing Patterson, but Patterson refused to take Osie’s calls or answer his letters. Shortly before Simpson’s scheduled release, Osie asked him what his plans were; Simpson said that he was going back to Kentucky. Osie asked him to “stick around for a couple of days and do him a favor.” Osie wanted Simpson to “find the murder weapon and place it in Mrs. [Robin] Patterson’s car.” Osie described the weapon as a 12–inch hunting knife. He told Simpson that he had thrown it from the window of his vehicle and gave Simpson directions for finding it.3