Three weeks after a jury found Brian Friess, 37, guilty of murder, a Lucas County Common Pleas judge sentenced him Thursday to life in prison without parole.
Friess, of the 1200 block of Slater Street, was also convicted of aggravated robbery, kidnapping, and arson for the same November, 2019 incident, in which he robbed an Oregon woman at gunpoint before stabbing her to death and abandoning her body in a field.
The victim was Michelle Keagler, 30, and her family attended the sentencing with a victim’s advocate, Vera Sanders, who read aloud to the court a victim impact statement written by Ms. Keagler’s parents.
“Mommy died.”
That was how the statement began, and how Ms. Keagler’s 5-year-old daughter describes what happened.
“She does not understand why, and we have not told her how yet,” Ms. Keagler’s parents wrote. “She’s a very smart little girl who now realizes Mommy will not be back.”
Ms. Keagler’s two daughters were one and three years old when she was killed. Her youngest daughter, the statement read, never got a chance to form a strong bond with her mother.
The victim’s parents now have full custody of her two young daughters, raising them with the help of Ms. Keagler’s two sisters.
“Someday, we will have to gather the strength to tell both girls what really happened,” the statement read. “Someday, we will have to tell them that mommy was brutally stabbed to death by someone she was helping.”
While Ms. Sanders read those lines, Ms. Keagler’s father quietly sobbed. One of her sisters blotted her eyes with tissues.
“For all that Brian Friess has taken away from two innocent little girls when he ended their mother’s life, we feel that he should have his freedom taken away from him for the rest of his life,” the statement ended.
The prosecutor of the case, Michael Bahner, expressed his hope that the court would impose a sentence to ensure that Friess would “never see the light of day again.”
“I believe that the offenses are the worst of the worst,” Mr. Bahner said. “I believe that they deserve maximum punishment.”
Even after the prosecutor recommended a life sentence, even after Ms. Keagler’s family broke down, Friess continued to profess his innocence. His counsel, Joseph Westmeyer III, requested a sentence that would allow Friess to “rehabilitate himself” and re-enter society.
Judge Lori Olender, who presided over the trial, wasn’t having it.
“The facts of this case spoke for themselves,” Judge Olender said.
She noted Friess’s criminal history, which began when he was a juvenile with aggravated burglary, sexual battery, and drug trafficking. In 2005, he was convicted as an adult of aggravated robbery, and served 14 years in prison, being released in February 2019.
“You stabbed one of those victims while robbing them,” Judge Olender said. “That sounded familiar to the court.”
Nine months later, he stabbed Ms. Keagler 24 times in the stomach, chest, arms, face, and back.
Ms. Keagler’s body was found at about 8 a.m. on Nov. 9, 2019, near Kuhlman Drive and South Avenue. A passing truck driver noticed it and called 911.
Friess met Ms. Keagler on a dating app and subsequently borrowed money from her. He made plans to meet up with her on the night of Nov. 8 to pay her back, and told the court that she never showed up to the meeting.
However, video surveillance footage from a KeyBank ATM at South and Broadway showed Ms. Keagler approaching in her 2011 Chevrolet Equinox. She withdrew $300 from two bank accounts, and the video showed a shadowed man holding a gun at her side while she handed him the cash.
Footage from a nearby gas station showed the Equinox heading east. Phone records then placed Friess’s cell phone and Ms. Keagler’s cell phone together, near where her body would be found the next day.
“She thinks she’s meeting you to get some of that money back — she could probably use that money to help take care of her children,” Judge Olender said. “You take her against her will, force her to empty her bank accounts, and then you murder her in an extremely brutal fashion.”
Friess involved his brother and half-brother in an attempt to cover up the murder, and both were charged with obstructing justice. Chad Friess, 36, was sentenced to two years in prison in June, 2021, and James Haefner, 27, got probation.
On Thursday, Judge Olender handed Brian Friess a mandatory life sentence for the murder count, followed by two minimum 11-year sentences for robbery and kidnapping and an 18-month sentence for arson, all to be served consecutively.
After Judge Olender notified Friess of his right to appeal the decision, Mr. Westmeyer requested that Larry Gold be appointed as his appellate counsel, noting Friess’s intent to appeal. Judge Olender agreed.
“I’m gonna let the sentence speak for itself,” she said. “Although I know that this sentence is nothing that will bring Michelle back to her family, the court certainly hopes the family will find some small solace in this sentence.”
Ms. Keagler’s family did not wish to comment.
First Published April 14, 2022, 4:04 p.m.
