compiled by Patrick H. Moore
In a deeply disturbing recent murder story, a Pennsylvania resident, 20-year-old Nichole “Jade” Olmstead has chosen to plead guilty to first-degree murder in the brutal death of 20-year-old Brandy Stevens-Rosine, an Ohio college student who was beaten and buried alive in a shallow grave in rural Pennsylvania. This story is not for the faint-at-heart but makes compelling reading for anyone interested in delving into the cruel depths of human nature. Dave Lohr of the Huntington Post writes:
Nichole “Jade” Olmstead bragged about the torture and murder of 20-year-old Brandy Stevens-Rosine, an Ohio college student who was beaten and buried alive in a shallow grave in rural Pennsylvania.
Those and other details were released on Halloween, following a surprise decision by 20-year-old Olmstead, who had been fighting a homicide charge, to plead guilty to first-degree murder.
“Olmstead had a journal,” Crawford County District Attorney Francis Schultz told The Huffington Post on Monday. “She talked about the fact that using a shovel [to hit Stevens-Rosine in the head] was perfect — that she could see [Stevens-Rosine’s] skull and brains mixed in the dirt.”
Olmstead and her former lover, Ashley Marie Barber, yet another 20-year-old, were arrested last year and charged with one count each of criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, and tampering with physical evidence in the death of Stevens-Rosine.
Stevens-Rosine’s close friend, Krysti Horvat has stated that Olmstead and Barber were lovers and that the unfortunate victim, Stevens-Rosine, had once dated Olmstead.
The victim, Stevens-Rosine, who has been described as a popular sociology student at Youngstown State University in the Ohio city of the same name, is reported to have left her Beaver Township, Ohio, home on the morning of May 17, 2012, for an impromptu meeting with Olmstead. Although the two young women had broken up, they had maintained regular contact.
Dave Lohr writes:
The reason for Stevens-Rosine’s get-together with her old flame remains unclear. According to (District Attorney) Schultz, the young woman was lured by Barber and Olmstead for a single purpose.
“These two defendants … [had] plans to kill her once she was here,” Schultz said.
In any event, the evidence shows that Stevens-Rosine drove 75 miles northeast, across the state line into Pennsylvania, to a home owned by Barber’s parents on Drake Hill Road in Crawford County, where Barber and Olmstead had been living together.
Stevens-Rosine did not return from the visit and two days later, her family reported her missing. Six days later, on May 23, 2012, authorities found Stevens-Rosine’s partially decomposed remains in a shallow grave a few hundred yards from the residence.
The autopsy revealed that Stevens-Rosine had multiple injuries, from multiple objects, to a large percentage of her body.
At a preliminary hearing in July 2012, Pennsylvania State Police trooper Eric Mallory provided the following evidence:
Mallory alleged Olmstead said she hit Stevens-Rosine four or five times in the head, and could see Stevens-Rosine’s brain protruding from the gaping wounds. According to Mallory, Barber hurt herself head-butting Stevens-Rosine, and then repeatedly pounded the victim’s head against a stump.
According to Mallory, the women said they rolled the victim into a shallow grave they had dug prior to the assault. When they found Stevens-Rosine still breathing, the trooper said, they allegedly smashed her face with a large rock and poured water into her nose and mouth to drown her.
The autopsy report states that Stevens-Rosine suffered blunt force trauma, a skull fracture and 15 lacerations to the scalp. According to Erie County forensic pathologist Eric Vey, the immediate cause of death was suffocation from dirt in her airway. D.A. Schultz stated in open court that Stevens-Rosine had been buried alive.
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Lurid excerpts from Olmstead’s diary/journal were read into the court record at the hearing on Thursday. In changing her plea to guilty, Olmstead — who has clearly had plenty of time to think things over — admitted her role in the 2012 slaying and expressed remorse for her crime:
“[I am] truly and deeply sorry for what happened. Brandy did not deserve what happened to her,” Olmstead said in court.
Crawford County Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark Stevens sentenced Olmstead, without delay, to life in prison without parole.
Stevens-Rosine’s friend, Krysti Horvat, told HuffPost she is happy with Olmstead’s guilty plea.
“I’m glad she pleaded guilty and allowed Brandy’s family the slightest of relief to not have to go to trial twice … It’s not easy for me to give her credit for that, but her conscious [sic] must have come back to decide to plead guilty before trial … This might be the first sign of human behavior she’s exhibited since the planning of the senseless murder,” Horvat said.
Olmstead’s attorney, John Knorr, made a similar statement toHuffPost.
“She didn’t want to make Brandy’s parents go through the trial. There’s a lot of gory details that would have been very unpleasant, including autopsy photographs. She [also] recognized this [crime] has all of the elements of first-degree murder.
Attorney Knorr also said that based on her plea, Olmstead’s life sentence is not entirely written in stone.
“The present state of the law in Pennsylvania is that she is not permitted to have parole. However, the one thing we were able to accomplish is that we agreed that if there ever were a change in the law, she would have the benefit of being able to petition the court for a sentencing hearing, at which she could present mitigating factors that might result in something less than a life sentence.”
Thus, should the Pennsylvania law be changed, Olmstead would be able to request that the change, and any sentencing relief it might afford, be applied retroactively.
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Olmstead had been scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 12. Based on her guilty plea, the district attorney’s office withdrew all the other charges.
It remains unclear how Olmstead’s guilty plea will impact Ashley Marie Barber’s case. Contacted by HuffPost on Monday, her attorney, Robert Draudt, said he had no information to share. When HuffPost inquired about the content of Olmstead’s May 18, 2012 journal entry that was introduced into evidence at Olmstead’s sentencing hearing, Knorr declined to discuss it.
“It’s so heinous I’d rather not repeat it,” the veteran defense attorney said. “It certainly indicated, as of that day, a lack of remorse.”
Although D.A. Schultz has chosen not to release transcripts of Olmstead’s journal to the media, citing it as possible evidence at Barber’s trial, he did read certain excerpts from it for HuffPost on Monday including a description of how Stevens-Rosine sounded while drowning in her own blood. Olmstead also apparently recounted in writing how Barber allegedly held Stevens-Rosine down while Olmstead administered the brutal battering.
“[She wrote that the crime] is perfect,” said Schultz. “She said, ‘I don’t believe we will ever get caught.’ She [also] asks a question at the end: ‘Do I feel guilty?’ [To which she answered], ‘No, not an ounce. I am proud.’”
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Indeed, this story is not for the faint at heart. Yet, Olmstead’s journal excerpts provide a window into the dark recesses of the murderer’s mind. What has not yet been revealed is why did Olmstead and co-defendant Ashley Marie Barber bear such animus toward the victim, Brandy Stevens-Rosine. This information, however, may well be revealed in the still unreported portions of Olmstead’s journal.
I would think that this story — based on its lurid and compelling nature — is almost certain to ultimately re-surface as a book and/or movie.