BELMONT, Ohio (Court TV) — Prosecutors and the defense delivered their opening statements on Monday in the trial of a man accused of gunning down his former business partners and setting their house on fire.
Andrew Griffin, who was born in 1992, was charged with 14 felonies in connection with the deaths of 52-year-old Thomas Strussion and his wife, 49-year-old Angela Strussion. The couple was found shot to death inside their home, which had caught fire, on Sept. 21, 2021. The fire also killed the Strussions’ two dogs and a cat. Four years after the double homicide, authorities arrested Griffin in Hawaii and extradited him to Ohio to stand trial.
Andrew Griffin in court on Oct. 26, 2026 (Court TV).
Before opening statements, Judge Chris Berhalter agreed to dismiss some of the charges against Griffin in order to streamline the trial. Griffin is now on trial for two counts of aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated murder with a firearm and aggravated arson.
During his opening statement, assistant prosecutor Joe Vavra described the scene of the fire where the Strussions were found, saying the investigation “shifted” when it was discovered that both spouses had been shot. Prosecutors said Angela Strussion was shot “three times in the head” and Thomas Strussion “twice in the head, and once in his upper right shoulder area, in the back.”
Vavra acknowledged that jurors may hear information that could turn them against Thomas Strussion, but said Strussion was being extorted by some individuals.
Griffin was allegedly a person of interest early on, Vavra said, but due to his cellphone records showing he was in another location, he was “set aside.” After going through a “rogue’s gallery” of suspects, police turned their attention back to Griffin. But they could not reach him, and his sister told police that he was “missing in Oklahoma.”
Police started tracking a “mystery phone” that investigators eventually connected to Griffin. The so-called “mystery phone” was activated on Sept. 19, 2021, and stopped working on the morning of Sept. 21, 2021. During that same time period, Griffin’s phone placed “zero calls” until the afternoon of Sept. 21, 2021, when it made multiple calls and sent text messages.
Police learned three years after the Strussions’ deaths that the “mystery phone” was purchased at a Walmart and registered to a name in Tennessee that they could not find. The same name belonged to one of Griffin’s Facebook friends.
Griffin’s ex-wife later found a cellphone and a tracker in her car, which Griffin was known to drive, and turned them over to police.
Vavra said “money and revenge” were the alleged motives for Griffin to murder the Strussions after they shut down the business they shared and took him off their bank accounts. Griffin’s “surrogate grandfather” Arthur Cole told investigators he heard Griffin tell someone during a phone call, “Well, I had to go get my money and I killed two people.”
The defense’s opening statement by attorney Samuel Schamansky was brief. He called the case against Griffin “a case of innuendo” with “zero proof” and no evidence that Griffin was anywhere near the scene of the crime. He called the state’s witness testimony “bought and paid for” and provided by “two of the most unreliable characters you will ever hear,” describing Brett Cole, Griffin’s best friend, as “a child rapist” and Stacy Griffin as “an angry ex-wife.”
Griffin pleaded not guilty after a plea deal was unsuccessful.
