Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien called it a ‘’night of terror” for Reagan Tokes.
Prosecutors say the Ohio State Student was raped, kidnapped and murdered in February of last year by Brian Golsby, a convicted sex offender now on trial for Tokes’ death.
Golsby has pleaded not guilty but could face the death penalty if convicted.
On the second day of his capital murder trial, jurors were given a tour of seven locations that prosecutors say help chronicle what happened to Tokes on the night of her disappearance and death.
The jurors were shown the restaurant, Bodega, where Tokes worked along with where she parked her car in the Short North area – the same location where authorities say she was abducted.
Finally, during the “jury view” jurors were driven to Scioto Grove Metro Park, where police say her body was discovered.
Back in the courtroom Tuesday afternoon, jurors were shown graphic images of the crime scene Tuesday afternoon – including photos depicting Tokes’ gunshot wounds and the location in Scioto Grove Metro Park where her nude body was discovered last February.
O’Brien told jurors she suffered two gunshot wounds to the head.
The first person called to testify for the prosecution was Richard Bonner, a Grove City resident.
Bonner told jurors that he arrived at the Scioto Grove Metro Park in the afternoon of February 9, 2017. He pulled into the park because he had forgotten paperwork at a nearby coffee shop and wanted to turn around.
But something caught his eye.
“When I looked over to the right out of my side view mirror, I saw a person laying there… I thought it was a mannequin at first,” Bonner told jurors. “I saw blood. Dried blood coming from her nostrils. I knew that wasn't a mannequin.”
Bonner then spoke about how he called 911. A detective from the Grove City Police department later testified about how he responded and a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation testified that he took photographs of the crime scene.
Three of Reagan Tokes’ roommates later testified about the night she disappeared. Under direct question from the prosecution, all three identified a potentially key piece of evidence that they say belonged to Reagan Tokes – a black Kate Spade purse.
Prosecutors allege that Golsby gave that purse to a friend of his hours after the kidnapping, rape and murder of Reagan Tokes. Police later recovered the purse, which O’Brien showed to jurors Tuesday.
A plainclothes detective who asked that he not be videotaped for broadcast later spoke how detectives uncovered two cigarette butts – one in the back of Tokes’ car, and the other on the ground outside where the car was found. Prosecutors allege that the DNA from those cigarettes match Golsby and that Golsby’s DNA was also found on Tokes after a rape kit was performed during her autopsy.
That same detective later said Golsby made a partial confession to police:
“The first couple of hours he told us he had taken Reagan into her car and committed a robbery of her because he needed the money. And had taken her to some ATMs and then he said he left her naked in a field during a snowstorm.”
Reagan’s parents, who were present in the courtroom for Monday’s opening statements, did not attend Tuesday.