Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Prosecutors say the personal recognizance bond that allowed Katrina Layton to remain free should be revoked because she has violated its terms.

She violated terms of bond by having communications with Arturo Novoa in telephone calls he has made from prison.

Layton, 36, was released on bond after pleading guilty to tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice and abuse of a corpse in 2018 and agreeing to testify against Novoa in the murder and dismembering of Shannon Graves, 28.

Judge Anthony Donofrio of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court will rule on the bond matter and several other motions later. Another motion is that her guilty plea be vacated because she lied to investigators.

Novoa, 33, was sentenced to 48 years in prison in June for conspiring with others to murder Graves and hide her body in a freezer in Campbell.

Layton admitted to witnessing the murder, allowing Graves’ body to be dismembered in Layton’s garage, and to helping move the body.

Youngstown police detectives and the coroner say Graves was killed at her Mahoning Avenue home when she was struck in the head several times with a heavy object.

Dan Kasaris with the Ohio Attorney General’s office, special prosecutor in the case, asked for Layton’s previous $1 million bond to be imposed.

A filing states that Layton “has made direct communications with Novoa through the use of her disabled son’s phone and on at least a dozen calls [Layton] has used her disabled son to relay messages to Novoa through prison calls, including but not limited to, a marriage proposal, a marriage acceptance, case discussion, witness discussion and other matters.

The calls began Oct. 19, according to a printout Kasaris provided for Thursday’s hearing.

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