SENTENCED

endure ... the graphic details and images that are forever burned into our minds,” said Lisa McCrary-Tokes. “Most importantly, it doesn’t change that she wasn’t granted her last wish,’’ referring to Golsby’s account during his confession of how Reagan Tokes told him, “I just want to live.”

Toby Tokes, Reagan’s father, paused briefly when asked to comment about Golsby.

“He doesn’t exist to us,” Mr. Tokes said. “We give him no thought, no energy. He’s gone forever. He’ll have to live with what he did.”

The jury took about five hours to find Golsby guilty last week. Evidence against him included his DNA found with Tokes’ body and in her car; GPS data from an ankle bracelet that he wore from an earlier prison sentence and that tracked his movements; and a partial confession by Golsby during a Grove City police interrogation.

After he was convicted, jurors had to decide whether Golsby should be sentenced Reagan Tokes

to death or whether any of more than two dozen mitigating factors presented by the defense — including Golsby’s troubled, abusive childhood, him being raped at age 12, drug abuse and a lack of adequate mentalhealth treatment in and out of prison — outweighed the circumstances of the murder.

If jurors decided the mitigating factors meant he shouldn’t be sentenced to death, they had to decide whether his life sentence should include eligibility for parole after 25 or 30 years, or whether he should get life in prison without parole.

The 12-member jury needed to agree unanimously on any sentence.

One of the younger jurors, who didn’t want to be named, said the death penalty deliberations were respectful. Eventually, eight of the 12 jurors wanted a death sentence; two wanted life sentences; the other two were unsure. In the end, they all agreed on life without parole.

“I wanted life,” said the woman, saying that the cumulative effect of Golsby’s problems throughout life swayed her.

At the formal sentencing, Serrott added two additional life sentences for the rape and kidnapping of Reagan Tokes that preceded her murder. The three sentences will run consecutively, ensuring Lisa McCrary-Tokes answers questions after the man who killed her daughter was sentenced in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday. The family intends to work toward reforms in Ohio’s prison system.

Golsby dies in prison. Serrott also cited Golsby’s apology.

“You asked for mercy, sir. You showed none that night,” he said of Golsby’s two hours of terrorizing and then shooting Tokes twice in the head on Feb. 8, 2017, at Scioto Grove Metro Park in Grove City. “Your life got spared because of your childhood. Yet Reagan did nothing wrong whatsoever. She forfeited her life because of your background.”

Asked by Serrott to comment, Golsby said: “No your honor. Thank you.”

Golsby’s attorneys had said there was no excuse for his behavior, but argued that his life should be spared.

“The jury just showed me that there’s humanity out there,” said Diane Menashe, one of Golsby’s attorneys. “The system worked today. Someone fought for him (Golsby). Nobody had ever done that ... I think he feels how I feel, without the tears.”

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien had called a Golsby death sentence “the only appropriate punishment, for the benefit of society.” After the sentencing, O’Brien said he was satisfied that Golsby will never again be a threat to society.

“I don’t think we would have done, nor could have done, anything different than what we did do in this case,” O’Brien said.

Golsby remains under indictment for six robberies in German Village, including the beating and robbery of an elderly woman, that occurred while he wore the ankle bracelet that was not being monitored. Attorneys agreed that those cases now likely won’t be prosecuted.

Reagan Tokes’ parents say they want to remember Reagan’s life through their efforts to reform Ohio’s sentencing, probation and jail systems, and to promote justice in her name.

“We’re continuing to honor our daughter’s memory, the love and the light and the beauty that she was,” McCrary-Tokes said. “We’ve created a legacy for her through which we will help others. That is where we are focusing our energy.”