Reagan Tokes trial: Witnesses say Golsby admitted to murder

Matt Dorsey, Zach Varda
Mon, 12 Mar 2018 21:32:12 +0000
Campus, News, Online Exclusive, Web, brian golsby, Brian Golsby murder trial, featured, ohio state, osu, reagan tokes, reagan tokes murder, reagan tokes trial

Brian Golsby enters the Franklin County courtroom Monday Morning. If found guilty of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Reagan Tokes, he could face the death penalty.

When Jennifer Nickell and Brittney Stepp went to visit Brian Golsby in jail last summer, he told the two women that he raped and killed Reagan Tokes, according to their individual testimonies in court Monday.

Nickell, who has a 6-year-old daughter with Golsby, testified that Golsby told her during a May jail visit she made with Stepp, a close friend of her and Golsby, that he raped and murdered Tokes.

“I went to visit Mr. Golsby and I asked him, that I needed the honest answer as to this case or whatever and I said ‘Did you rape Reagan?’ He shook his head like this,” she said, nodding. “I started to cry. And I asked him if he killed her and he shook his head yes. I dropped the phone and I left the visit.”

The incident came after several months of visits in which Golsby denied committing the crimes to Nickell, claiming his friend T.J. had committed them, she said.

Nickell said she then went back to see Golsby in July to ask him why he did it, to which Golsby responded that he needed money.

“I wanted to know why,” she said, “because we have a daughter together and that could happen to her.”

Nickell’s testimony was followed by testimony from Stepp, who became visibly emotional while describing how her three children thought of Golsby as an uncle, her voice cutting off as she broke into tears.

Stepp, who said Golsby would call her “little sis,” visited him on her own in July, for the same reason as Nickell: to ask him why.

Stepp testified that it was during this July visit that Golsby verbally admitted to everything.

“I said ‘Please don’t tell me that you really did this,’ and that’s when he admitted to me what he did,” Stepp said. “He said he kidnapped her, he robbed her, he raped her and then he shot her and killed her.”

In accordance to similar testimonies given last week, both Nickell and Stepp said Golsby was driving Tokes’ car after Feb. 8, 2017 — the night she was kidnapped, raped and murdered. They said he did not have a car before that time.

Nickell and Stepp also said the car smelled of gasoline when Golsby showed it to them on Feb. 10, 2017. Golsby admitted to buying gas to try to set the car on fire in an interview with detectives which was shown to jurors last week.

The two women testified that Golsby claimed he had bought the car from T.J., a man Stepp said she had neither seen nor heard of until Golsby made the claim of buying the car from him.

The final testimony of the trial came from Deputy Coroner Donald Pojman, who performed the autopsy on Tokes’ body.

Pojman said the cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head. He said the manner of death was homicide.

Following Pojman’s testimony, the prosecution rested its case and the defense reiterated that it would not call any witnesses, effectively ending the testimony part of the trial. Closing statements are expected Tuesday morning, after which the jury will deliberate until deciding upon a verdict.

If found guilty, Golsby could face the death penalty.