More than four years will have passed before accused murderer Grayden Denham will stand trial for the deaths of four of his family members.
During an appearance in Platte County Circuit Court last week, Denham’s two-week jury trial was rescheduled for May 2020. The trial has been rescheduled several times since Denham was charged with 12 counts in 2016. Most recently, it had been scheduled for October.
Platte County prosecutor Eric Zahnd has stated his office plans to seek the death penalty in the case.
Denham is accused of the 2016 murder of four of his relatives and arson of the family home in Edgerton.
Grayden Denham
The charges against Denham, which were filed after a grand jury indictment, include four counts of first degree murder and four counts of armed criminal action in the Feb. 19, 2016 homicides of his sister Heather Ager, 32, his three-month-old nephew Mason Schiavoni, his grandmother, Shirley Denham, 81, and his grandfather, Russell Denham, 82. Denham is also charged with felony arson for destruction of the family home, a felony for tampering with evidence and a misdemeanor for animal abuse. The felony charge of stealing his grandparents’ vehicle also remained on the indictment.
The four victims and the accused were residents of the same house at 4170 Buena Vista Road in Edgerton, although Grayden Denham has been called only an occasional occupant.
When authorities responded to reports of a house fire at the home on Feb. 19, they found four victims shot with the bodies still burning outside of the house. Three of the victims were found in the front yard, while Russell Denham’s body was located near an outbuilding with a red plastic gasoline container found nearby. A family dog was also found shot and burning at the scene.
Authorities apprehended Denham two days later while he was walking naked in Seligman, Ariz. They also located a brown 2012 Nissan Versa at a nearby hotel. The vehicle, belonging to Russell and Shirley Denham, was discovered missing during the fire/homicide investigation. Denham was not a registered guest at the hotel, and authorities also found a pile of clothing outside of the vehicle.
Denham was charged in Platte County with the theft of the Versa, which when it was found bore Oklahoma license plates taken from a rental car. He remained in custody in Yavapi County, Ariz. until an extradition process on that theft charge brought him back to Platte County.
Denham remains in custody at the Platte County Detention Center on a $4 million cash-only bond. The delays are in part due to an ongoing feud between Zahnd’s office and Denham’s defense attorney, John O’Connor. O’Connor sought to have Zahnd and his staff disqualified from the case — twice — but a March 13, 2018 order issued by Jackson County judge John Torrence denied O’Connor’s request. Currently, although O’Conner and his brother Patrick O’Conner are still listed as co-counsel, Denham is represented by Kansas City attorney Patrick Berrigan and a public defender.
In September 2016, Zahnd’s office offered Denham a plea deal, to which no response was filed. Instead, O’Connor filed the first motion to disqualify Zahnd’s office.