State rests its case against Ryan Duke in murder of Tara Grinstead

OCILIA, Ga. — Prosecutors have rested their case in the murder trial for the man charged in killing a south Georgia teacher and beauty queen.

The state wrapped up its case against Ryan Duke on Monday after five and a half days of testimony.

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Duke’s defense lawyers are arguing there hasn’t been enough evidence that he killed Tara Grinstead and want the judge to toss out the case.

The state’s final witnesses focused on potential prints at Grinstead’s house and the search for bones in a wooded area where Duke confessed to burning Grinstead’s body.

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Jurors one by one looked at the some of the bone fragments found at the burn site, the fragments wrapped inside plastic bags.

Prosecutors brought in a human bone expert from Texas who had examined the bones but couldn’t identify if they specifically belonged to Grinstead.

“Is there any way to know if the bones we have looked at belong to one single person?”

“It does not,” Romy Franco said.

“The data was just too damaged and degraded to report any … for us to report any viable results,” Franco said.

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The defense’s case may be short with as few as three witnesses.

The defense is expected to try and call Bo Dukes, the man they finger as they real killer, to the stand. He’s expected to plead the fifth and refuse to testify because of other outstanding charges.

Jurors hear taped confession from Ryan Duke saying how he killed Tara Grinstead Ryan Duke sat without outward emotion as the jury watched the video and audio recordings from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation from 2017.

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