[chris]

Heidi L. Grant was convicted of murdering her husband, Christopher S. Franklin, 47, in Antwerp, Paulding County, Ohio, and sentenced to 18 1/2 years to life.

Grant lived with Franklin. On January 12, 2022, she told his brother that Franklin had resumed drinking and stayed that night with the brother and his wife. They testified that she was angry, asked when it was okay to kill somebody, said she would not let another man take what she had worked for, and made clear Franklin had not been violent with her. At 7:27 a.m. on January 13, 2022, Franklin called 911, saying Grant had hit him on the head twice with a table leg, he had grabbed his daughter's bat and told her to go, and she had left. About a minute later, Grant asked a friend to lend her a gun for a concealed carry class. He lent her a 9mm pistol in Hicksville, and she drove home.

Grant testified at trial that Franklin came at her with the bat and the gun went off. She kept firing until he fell, then fired a final shot as he lay on the floor so he would die and be spared pain. The coroner found ten gunshot wounds and recovered six bullets. Within minutes, the Antwerp police chief arrived about the 911 call. Grant told him there had been no domestic violence and Franklin was drunk and passed out. She then dragged the body to the basement, wrapped it in plastic and hid the gun. Over the next two days, she bought concrete and blocks and built a vault around the body. She cut out the carpet and threw it in a dumpster. Franklin's brother reported him missing on January 21, 2022. In a written statement to an Antwerp officer, Grant said Franklin had vanished the previous Sunday while she took his daughter to a softball game.

On the evening of January 22, 2022, the chief asked Grant to come to the Antwerp police station to help find Franklin. Her interview with him and a second officer was recorded on video. She helped build a timeline for about 50 minutes. At about 9:27 p.m., the chief told her several statements contradicted the investigation and pressed for the truth. Shortly afterward, she said she had shot Franklin and hidden his body in the basement. From about 9:47 p.m., she described the shooting for about 15 minutes, maintaining self-defense and saying, "I'm not a murderer." An officer patted her down at 10:01 p.m. At 10:19 p.m., she was read her Miranda rights and signed a waiver. She then wrote a statement and drew diagrams of the house and basement. Officers recovered the body and gun where she described.

A Paulding County grand jury indicted Grant on February 11, 2022, on aggravated murder and murder, each with a firearm specification, and tampering with evidence. The trial court suppressed her spoken statements between about 9:27 and 10:19 p.m. but allowed the written statement and diagrams. At her jury trial on October 18 to 20, 2022, Grant testified and claimed self-defense. The court instructed on voluntary manslaughter but declined a self-defense instruction. On October 20, the jury found her guilty of murder with a firearm specification and tampering with evidence, and not guilty of aggravated murder.

On November 28, 2022, Judge Tiffany Beckman sentenced Grant, then 48, to 15 years to life for murder, a mandatory one year for the firearm specification and 30 months for tampering, all consecutive. The total sentence was 18 1/2 years to life, with 310 days' jail credit.

The Third District Court of Appeals affirmed on August 7, 2023. It held that Grant was not in custody until 10:01 p.m. and that the evidence, including her account of the final shot, showed she had not acted in self-defense in firing it. No further appeal has been reported. As of November 1, 2026, Ohio corrections records list her at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, with an expected parole eligibility date of July 18, 2040 and a parole board review in June 2040.

[chris]

Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.