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Greis guilty of murder in deaths of family of five in October crash; jury recommends 20-year sentence


By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor

It took a jury in Kenton County less than four hours to come back with a verdict of guilty on five counts of murder in the Daniel Greis trial Friday.

Daniel Greis remained stoic as the jury foreman read the verdict of guilty to five counts of wanton murder Friday. He broke down, however, when his wife took the stand and described how much his grandchildren would miss him while he is in prison. If Judge Patricia Summe accepts the jury’s sentencing recommendation, Greis will serve 17 year before he is eligible for parole (photos by Mark Hansel).

The jury recommended he be sentenced to 20 years on each of the counts, to run concurrently (at the same time). If Kenton Circuit Judge Patricia Summe accepts that recommendation, Greis will be eligible for parole after serving 85 percent of his sentence, or 17 years.

Greis, 58, had a blood alcohol content of .089, had marijuana in his system and was traveling 86 miles an hour on the wrong side of Staffordsburg Road when he struck a Honda Accord driven by Rodney Pollitt, Jr. in October.

Pollitt, 26, his fiancé, Samantha Malohn, 27, and their three children, Halieann, 9, Brenden, 8, and Callie Pollitt, 6, were all pronounced dead at the scene.

Summe instructed the jury that it could consider a charge of second-degree manslaughter if it determined Greis’s actions did not meet the threshold for the murder.

To reach a decision on a charge of wanton murder, the jury had to determine that Greis’s actions resulted in “circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.”

The jury determined that Greis’s actions on October 26, warranted the more serious charge.

Greis maintained a speed of between 83 and 86 miles per hour, according to data from a device used to measure speed, braking and other information inside the Honda Pilot, in the five seconds before the crash.

Defense attorney Stacey Graus talks to members of the Greis family following Friday’s guilty verdict.

He was traveling on the wrong side of Staffordsburg Road in a no-passing zone as he approached a blind rise on the two-lane road in Independence where the speed limit is 55 miles per hour.

He mashed the accelerator to the floor in the last three seconds before the crash and became airborne as he crested the hill, striking the Pollitt vehicle head-on in his Honda Pilot SUV.

Greis admitted to passing another car in a no-passing zone, just prior to the fatal crash and a witness testified he also went around her car and another vehicle just a few miles before that.

In his closing argument Kenton Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders said Greis’s actions that day demonstrated the extreme indifference to human life required to reach a verdict on the more serious charge.

“That’s what Daniel Greis did on Oct. 26, 2017, every time he passed a car on the wrong side of the double yellow line, he was playing a game with deadly consequences for other people,” Sanders said. “He was drunk, he was high, he was fatigued, he was speeding, (and) he was on the wrong side of the road.”

The jury could have recommended a sentence of anywhere from 20 year to 50 years, or life in prison, which would have put Greis in prison for up to 70 years, or the rest of his life.

Sanders had asked the jury to consider a life sentence, but said justice was served with the guilty verdict on the charges of wanton murder. He said two families were destroyed by the events of October 26.

With a photo of the Pollitt family in the background, Kenton Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders chokes back tears as he asks the jury to consider a sentencing recommendation of life in prison for Daniel Greis Friday (click to enlarge).

“The important thing is that Mr. Greis was held accountable for murder,” he said. “There was no excuse for his conduct.”

In a stirring closing argument, Sanders compared Greis’s actions to a game of Russian roulette, with his car as a gun. Sanders pointed his finger, saying “click” several times and adding that in Russian roulette, sooner or later, your luck is going to run out. In this case, Sanders said, it was the Pollitt’s luck that ran out.

“The person who puts the gun to another person’s head and pulls the trigger is guilty of murder. The person who pulls the trigger is responsible,” Sanders said. “It is time to hold the shooter responsible. His SUV was no different than a gun.”

In his closing argument, defense attorney Stacey Graus attempted to convince the jury that, despite the marijuana and alcohol in his system, Greis was not impaired. He also repeated Greis’s account of the events that afternoon in which the defendant claims a third motorist, Jesse Phillips contributed to the crash.

Greis claimed he attempted to pass the black pickup truck driven by Phillips, but the other motorist kept him trapped in the wrong lane. As he approached the blind rise, Greis says he sped up in a final attempt to get in front of Phillips but ran out of time and struck the Pollitt vehicle.

The trial included graphic images of the crash vehicles and of the injuries sustained by the victims, as well as detailed descriptions of the condition they were in when first responders arrived on the scene.

Vivian Cooper, Samantha Malohn’s grandmother, breaks down as she talks with reporters following Friday’s guilty verdict.

Graus said he didn’t know if that influenced the jury verdict, but said the crash was “the worst I’ve seen in 27 years of practice.”

“We convict on evidence, not emotion,” Graus said. “There are five people dead. That’s tough to overcome.”

He said he will weigh his client’s options and make a decision on whether to appeal after formal sentencing.

Prior to adjourning to consider a sentencing recommendation, the jury also heard from members of the families of the crash victims, as well as Greis’s wife and father.

Vivian Cooper, Malohn’s grandmother, broke down on the stand as she described her granddaughter and Rodney Pollitt as loving parents. She said the loss has overwhelmed the entire family.

“We’re all devastated,” she said. “I don’t know how I’ll be able to move forward past it.”

Greis’s wife Tammy described her husband as a loving, caring man who would do anything for his family.

“He has never hurt anyone or been in trouble with the law,” she said. “He is not a monster.”

Sanders also became emotional during his closing argument and again when he delivered a sentencing recommendation, after the jury reached its verdict.

He said later that he had never before cried in a courtroom, but he was overwhelmed by the impact of the crash on so many lives, including not just the victims’ families, but also the first responders and experienced investigators who worked the crash scene.

“Looking back in the back of the courtroom and seeing the Malohn and Pollitt families and trying to imagine the incredible pain they must feel at not just losing one loved one, but an entire generation; a whole family lost,” Sanders said. “There are no winners in this case. There is a guilty verdict.”

Judge Summe is expected to formally sentence Greis in about three weeks.

Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com


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