A 28-year-old Texas man, Valerian O’Steen, was sentenced to death for the 2022 murder of 26-year-old Marissa Grimes, his ex-girlfriend, a mother of two. After he beat and tortured her to death, O’Steen stuffed her in a crawl space, living on top of her for 10 days before the gruesome discovery.
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According to a release issued by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, O’Steen was sentenced to death on Monday, September 22.
“This is not a place for mercy,” Assistant District Attorney Allena Bangs told the jury. “That is not what we dispense. In this courthouse, we administer justice.”
The incident occurred back in 2022. By January of that year, Grimes had been involved in an abusive relationship with O’Steen for a brief period of time. At the time, he had threatened to kill her and refused to let her leave his house for days.
Eventually, Grimes texted his father, leading to the police intervening. O’Steen was arrested at the time and charged with domestic violence. After he bonded out of jail, he was ordered to stay away from Grimes and wear a GPS ankle monitor.
This angered O’Steen, prosecutors said, and while he wanted the charges dropped and his ankle monitor removed, he also expressed his desire to kill Grimes.
A Final Goodbye
Grimes, fearing for his life, followed her family’s advice to move to West Texas. However, before she was able to do so, she started communicating with O’Steen again, even seeing him despite the court’s orders.
Eventually, it was time for her to move. She packed her belongings in a U-Haul and paid O’Steen a final visit to say goodbye. Then, Grimes and O’Steen visited a neighbor, who saw the now-death row inmate with a gun. She was never seen alive again.
Grimes’ family reported her missing, and her U-Haul was found abandoned a mile from O-Steen’s house. Local police executed a search warrant and found Grimes’ decomposing body wrapped in blankets and a tarp. Her body had been placed in a crawl space beneath O’Steen’s residence.
ADA Bangs told the court that Valerian O’Steen lived in the house for 10 days. Meanwhile, Grimes’ body rotted in the crawl space.
Authorities found that Grimes had suffered excruciating injuries. She had a broken arm, nose, and ribs, alongside two black eyes and lacerations to her head. She had bruises across her body, and her hair had been chopped. The medical examiner ruled her death to be a homicide, with the cause of death listed as blunt force trauma to the head.
Prosecutors said that O’Steen had beaten and tortured Marissa Grimes to death.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, you can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. You can also chat with a representative at thehotline.org​ or by texting “START” to 88788.