Reagan Tokes trial: Prosecution pokes holes in Golsby’s account of Feb. 8 using GPS data of his whereabouts

Summer Cartwright, Owen Daugherty, Kevin Stankiewicz
Thu, 08 Mar 2018 23:51:37 +0000
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Richard Forney, a detective with the Grove City Police Department, walks the jury through Brian Golsby’s location from Feb. 8 to Feb. 11, 2017, based on the GPS ankle monitor Golsby was wearing at the time. Credit: Kevin Stankiewicz | Editor-in-Chief

After hours of interviews with Grove City Division of Police detectives following his arrest, Brian Golsby admitted to raping Reagan Tokes.

A condensed and edited two-hour version of the more than six-hour interview was shown to the jury Thursday as part of the prosecution’s case against Golsby, who is facing the death penalty if found guilty for kidnapping, raping and murdering the Ohio State student.

Golsby changed his narrative of Feb. 8, 2017, multiple times throughout his questioning, ending up with an account that is not clearly supported by GPS evidence obtained through a monitoring device Golsby wore on his ankle as part of his parole.

He originally admitted to detectives of kidnapping, robbing and leaving Tokes naked at Scioto Grove Metro Park, denying that he raped or shot her. However, after hours of interviewing, he admitted to raping Tokes, only after he began to detail another person’s involvement, someone he referred to as T.J. In his testimony, Richard Forney, a detective for Grove City Police and lead investigator in the Tokes case, said there is no evidence to support another person’s involvement in Tokes’ murder.

The fact Golsby, a registered sex offender, was wearing a GPS ankle monitor as part of his parole for a previously attempted rape has been invaluable to the prosecution’s case, allowing it to refute several claims Golsby made about the night of Feb. 8.

Forney detailed Golsby’s whereabouts Feb. 8, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on a COTA bus and ending the next day around noon. Forney said GPS data showed Golsby walking east from Neil Avenue on 12th Avenue on Ohio State’s campus. Golsby walked to North High Street, where he got on a COTA bus and headed downtown.

Golsby was in the 3rd Avenue area where he admits in the video interview to abducting Tokes between 9:42 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. Around 8:09 p.m., the GPS, which also tracks the speed of his movement, showed Golsby walking around in circles in the area near Bodega, where Tokes worked, for roughly one hour.

At 9:45 p.m., Golsby was moving 20 mph, a speed which proves he was in a vehicle, Forney said. He stopped at a Chase Bank at 10:02 p.m.

Brian Golsby listens to a witness testify in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas on March 8, 2018. Credit: Kevin Stankiewicz | Editor-in-Chief

At 10:14 p.m. his location was a Huntington Bank, where Tokes was photographed. The photo evidence was shown in court for the jury. At 10:18 p.m. Golsby was stationary in an alley for 12 minutes, a time prosecutors alluded to being when he raped Tokes.

Golsby was marked at two gas stations that night — a Sunoco at 11:12 p.m. and a Turkey Hill at 11:41 p.m. Nine minutes later, his location was Scioto Grove Metro Park, where Tokes’ body was found. He was there for about four minutes.

The GPS locations used by the prosecution consistently disproved portions of Golsby’s testimony to Grove City Police, specifically details involving the park where Tokes’ body was found. In his interview with detectives, Golsby said he went to the park twice, the first time to drop off T.J., before getting gas with Tokes and returning to the park with her.

GPS shows Golsby at the park only one time.

Golsby said he dropped T.J. off at The Continent, an apartment complex located off Route 161 on the north side of Columbus, after leaving Tokes at the park. GPS does not have Golsby at The Continent at any point the night of Feb. 8 or the following morning.

At around 12:16 a.m. on Feb. 9, GPS tracked Golsby to the apartment complex in which Hattisa Jackson, a witness who testified Wednesday that Golsby gave her Tokes’ purse, lives.

This GPS location matches with Jackson’s account to police Feb. 16 in which she said Golsby took her to McDonald’s in the early morning hours of Feb. 9. Golsby’s location that morning tracks him to a McDonald’s at 1:45 a.m. and 2:10 a.m. before returning to the complex.

Assistant Prosecutor Jim Lowe (right) looks at Matthew White, a firearms analyst for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, as he shows the jury on March 8 the revolver prosecutors say Golsby used to murder Tokes on Feb. 8, 2017. Credit: Kevin Stankiewicz | Editor-in-Chief

GPS also tracked Golsby to the 700 block of Oakwood Avenue, the location at which Tokes’ car was found.

It took several hours and trading information — detectives telling Golsby what they know in exchange for his admittance of detail — for Golsby to say where he stashed a revolver and two bullet casings from it. Tokes was shot twice.

The revolver and casings were found in two separate sewers in the residential area of North Linden.

Prosecution brought in Matthew White, a firearm examination expert with Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, to testify regarding the revolver investigators found and that prosecutors say is the murder weapon.

White confirmed in his testimony that the shell casings found were fired from the revolver, and that the revolver was fully operable

Grove City Police Sgt. Doug Olmstead was called to the stand by the prosecution Thursday afternoon to recount his discovery of the revolver.

Reagan’s father Toby Tokes, who has been at a majority of the trial thus far, was not present Thursday.

The trial will not take place Friday. It will resume Monday and the jury appears likely to go into deliberation Tuesday.