Griffin’s former best friend says he helped Griffin plan Strussion murder
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ST. CLAIRSVILLE - Andrew Griffin’s former best friend took the stand in Griffin’s double-murder trial Monday and testified that he helped Griffin devise the plan to kill Thomas Strussion.
Brett Cole testified Monday that he helped purchase the motorcycle Griffin allegedly drove to Belmont County to murder Thomas and his wife Angela Strussion, suggested the type of gun to use and tried to dissuade him from setting fires in the house. Meanwhile, Griffin’s attorney accused Cole of testifying solely to earn concessions to his life sentence for sexually abusing a child.
Cole spent much of Monday on the witness stand describing his relationship with Griffin, who he said he considered like a little brother, the alleged plan to commit murder and Griffin’s motivations behind the alleged crime.
Cole said Griffin told him that Thomas Strussion, his business partner in the Salsa Joe’s restaurant in Elm Grove, had tried to put a hit on Griffin. He said Griffin told him that Strussion had racked up a large debt with unsavory people and he tried to make it look like the debt was Griffin’s and not Strussion’s.
"He had talked about Tom trying to put a hit out on him, so it was pretty much a kill-or-be-killed situation," Cole said.
Cole testified that the plan was to just kill Thomas Strussion and not his wife. But when Griffin entered the home, both Strussions were there, Griffin started arguing with Thomas Strussion and ended up shooting both of them.
Cole testified on Monday that he purchased a 2005 Kawasaki Vulcan motorcycle from Cory White of Mineola, Texas, through Facebook Marketplace on Sept. 13, 2021. He said that he and Dalton Ray traveled to Texas to purchase the motorcycle with money given to him by Griffin.
He added that he then returned back to Oklahoma and stored the motorcycle first at his mother's house then at his grandfather’s house until Griffin took the motorcycle to Belmont County to murder the Strussions.
Cole said that Ray wasn't privy to the whole plan to kill the Strussions.
"He knew what Andrew was supposed to do, but he didn’t know all of the details," Cole said.
Cole then testified that, following the murders, he traded the motorcycle to someone for a used truck but took off the motorcycle's windshield, speakers, and a motorcycle helmet that he stored at the home of his grandfather, Jesse Babcock.
He then said that, while planning the murder, the duo decided that Griffin should use a .22-caliber revolver because it was quiet and effective. Cole said that it also wouldn't eject shell casings, so Griffin wouldn't need to worry about picking up the casings after the murders.
Cole said that he tried to talk Griffin out of burning down the home because it would bring first responders to the home quicker.
"It would bring authorities to the house faster,” Cole said. “The main thing is he likes to set everything on fire.”
He said Griffin ignored his advice and, once he arrived at the Strussion's home, he sat in the woods and watched the house for some time. Cole said that after killing the Strussions, Griffin tried to make the scene look like a robbery before trying to burn down the house.
Belmont County assistant Prosecutor Christopher Kinsler asked Cole if Griffin told him if he took anything from the Strussions’ home.
"He said that he found roughly $25,000 in one-dollar bills and an ammo box in a truck or a vehicle outside," Cole said.
During cross-examination, Griffin’s attorney Samuel H. Shemansky honed in on the deal Cole struck with prosecutors for his testimony. Cole is serving life in prison, after being sentenced in 2024 for sexually abusing a child in his care.
Shamansky said that Cole is only testifying to be transferred from an Illinois prison to one that is closer to his family.
Shamansky said that, when Belmont County Chief Det. Ryan Allar first asked Cole about potentially being involved in the murders, he said that he didn't know anything.
Cole pushed back on that accusation. He told Shamansky that he didn’t say that he didn’t know anything, but rather, he said “I don’t know nothing about that.”
"When I first spoke with them in Oklahoma, I said, 'I don’t know nothing,' which is a double negative,” Cole said. “If I don’t know nothing, I know something.”
Shamansky replied that after Cole said what he said, he then asked for a lawyer.
"That’s because you wanted to figure out how you could maybe improve your position and not have the whole rest of your life spent at the federal penitentiary and die there, right?" Shamansky asked.
Cole accepted an agreement for his testimony where he received immunity for his involvement in the plot to murder the Strussions in 2021.
As part of that deal, the state said it would try to assist in moving Cole to another federal prison. The state also put $300 in his prison commissary fund and gave his family another $250 to add to the fund.
Shamansky said Cole and Griffin “sat around the proverbial campfire” and discussed how they were going to kill somebody.
Cole once again pushed back, saying he never planned on killing anybody.
"Well, according to you, you made it all possible, right? By picking up a motorcycle, right?" Shamansky asked.
“Yes, sir," Cole responded.
Later in the day, Belmont County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Berhalter recessed the jury to bring Dalton Ray to testify. Ray currently is in prison for a 2025 conviction on felony of obstruction of justice. He was found guilty of lying to detectives in Oklahoma regarding the purchase of the motorcycle in the Griffin case.
While on the stand Monday, Ray invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Berhalter then told Ray that the state of Ohio granted him transactional immunity, but if he pleaded the Fifth, Berhalter would have no choice but to hold Ray in contempt of court and hold him in Belmont County Jail until the end of Griffin’s trial.
"You will have until the conclusion of this case to purge yourself from that contempt,” Berhalter said. “That is, if you change your mind before closing begins, if this trial is still occurring and you agree to testify, there will be no further finding of contempt. I will not impose any term of incarceration.
"If you decide not to purge your contempt, there’s going to be a holder placed on you,” he added. “You’re going to be returned back to the penitentiary upon the completion of that sentence. Based on that order, you’re going to be brought back to this court, and I will impose a sentence for contempt."
Also testifying Monday was Cole's brother Colton Karr, who discussed seeing the motorcycle following the murders. Karr testified that he saw Griffin and Cole removing the motorcycle's windshield before trying to sell the motorcycle.
Karr said that he told Griffin and Cole that he was interested in buying the motorcycle, but they they quickly shut him down.
"They said, 'you don’t want any part of this bike," Karr said.
Cole's ex-girlfriend Aimy Chase also testified Monday, saying she became aware of Cole and Griffin's plan after she saw that Cole had Griffin’s phone while Griffin was traveling to Ohio. That way, she said, it made it look like he was still in Oklahoma.
Chase said that on September 21, 2021, she found a second phone on the edge of Cole's bed. She testified that she asked Cole about it because she believed that he was cheating on her.
"He [Cole] said that Andrew’s business partner took his money, or something, and was threatening his family, and he [Griffin] was going to get him before he [Strussion] got him," Chase said.
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Tuesday.