Jury selected in Warner murder trial
- Feb 12
- 5 min read
By DAVID PANIAN
ADRIAN — Jury selection in the Warner murder trial was completed Tuesday in Lenawee County Circuit Court after the case’s judge ruled on some requests from the attorneys.
The jury of 16 — four alternates are included to start the trial — was sworn in at about 11:50 a.m. Tuesday after about two hours of questioning from defendant Dale Warner’s lead attorney Mary Chartier and Lenawee County Prosecutor Jackie Wyse. Judge Michael R. Olsaver then adjourned the case until Wednesday, when he said some evidentiary matters would be addressed. Opening statements were expected to begin Thursday, Feb. 12.
Warner, 58, is charged with open murder and evidence tampering in the death and disappearance of his wife, Dee Warner, in April 2021. Dale Warner was charged in November 2023. Dee Warner’s remains were found in August 2024. They were inside an anhydrous ammonia tank that was on property the Warners owned about two miles from their home in Franklin Township. Dale Warner has maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings.
Before starting the second round of jury selection Tuesday, Olsaver addressed Chartier’s renewed motion from Friday to change the trial’s venue. As he did in May, Olsaver denied the request. He said that jurors simply being exposed to information about the case before the trial does not necessarily lead to an unfair trial. He said their experience in the first round of jury selection showed it was not impossible to find people who said they could be fair and impartial. He said that prospective jurors with opinions on Warner’s guilt were exposed, and the attorneys could use their peremptory challenges in the second round to excuse anyone for any reason.
In the first round of the selection process, the court started with more than 400 prospective jurors. Anyone who ever belonged to the “Justice for Dee” page on Facebook was excused as were anyone who said they think Warner is guilty. Others were excused if they had work or personal scheduling conflicts or expected to face financial hardship from being on the jury and not working for the trial’s expected duration. By the end of the day Feb. 5, they had 96 who had advanced and only seven who were not interviewed by Wyse and Chartier.
By Tuesday, the pool was down to 93. One prospective juror was excused due to a work conflict, another was excused after being injured when he fell from a tractor, and a third was excused after Olsaver considered his answers to questions about Warner’s guilt and decided the prospective juror would be unable to set aside his preconceived notion on guilt.
The second round of jury selection began with Lenawee County Chief Deputy Clerk Phyllis Escott drawing 16 names from the pool of 93 prospective jurors. The attorneys then asked questions of the group of 16 to further judge whether they could be impartial. Some of the questions were about their attitudes toward law enforcement and whether they would have difficulty hearing testimony about a homicide. Some were dismissed for cause after they reported discovering since last week that work, health or family matters that would prevent them from being on the jury for the trial’s expected duration of seven weeks. The attorneys then used some but not all of their peremptory challenges to excuse others.
The four extra jurors are there in case any of them have to drop out of the case for health or other reasons. If more than 12 jurors remain before deliberations begin, a blind draw will determine those who will be excused to set the 12 jurors who will decide Warner’s fate.
Olsaver ruled on two motions on Friday. In one decision, he denied a request from Adrian attorney Ashley Hanson-Grimes to seal records. Hanson-Grimes is representing Kevin Greca, a retired Lenawee County Sheriff’s Office detective who was the initial lead investigator on the case. He was taken into custody in December in Lucas County, Ohio, by U.S. marshals. The Lenawee County Prosecutor’s Office had issued a petition to have him brought to Lenawee County after being unable over the course of about eight months to serve a subpoena on him to testify during the trial. The hearing on that motion was closed to the public, and the nature of what Hanson-Grimes sought to seal was not revealed.
In another decision, Olsaver said a forensic scientist from the Michigan State Police can testify during the trial about the analysis she did of paint on the tank in which Dee Warner’s remains were discovered and paint found in a barn on the Warners’ home and farm property on Munger Road. Warner’s lead attorney, Mary Chartier of Okemos, argued that allowing testimony on the paint would be misleading to the jury because the prosecution can’t say for sure that the paint on the tank came from paint cans found in the barn because it was a common brand.
The tank had been welded closed and repainted, Dee Warner’s brother, Gregg Hardy of Tipton, said at the time her remains were found. He had suggested to Michigan State Police investigators that they check the tank.
Hardy was the topic of one of the motions that Olsaver told the parties he needed more time to consider before ruling. Lenawee County Assistant Prosecutor Dave McCreedy told Olsaver that past bad acts by Hardy that Warner’s attorneys want witnesses, including some Lenawee County sheriff’s deputies, to testify about are not relevant.
Chartier said the defense is allowed to examine how law enforcement conducted the investigation, including what investigators did and did not do. She said that law enforcement was aware of Hardy’s history of aggression but chose to focus on Dale as the suspect.
Hardy’s conduct — which Chartier said includes lying to the media, wanting to be present when police opened the tank in which Dee’s remains were found, and hiring a private investigator who put out what she called “misinformation” on YouTube — is relevant to Dale’s defense, she said. Past alleged behavior by Hardy that she wants to present to the jury includes trespassing on the Warner property, aggression toward Warner’s original attorney in the case and another person at the judicial building, and being banned from the John Deere dealership in Tecumseh.
Olsaver also told the parties he also needed time to consider whether to allow “other acts” and hearsay evidence the prosecution wants to use. Those acts include Dale electronically tracking Dee’s vehicle, cloning her cellphone and breaking into a safe she and her son used for work, and testimony from Dee’s massage therapist and others about Dee telling them that bruises she had allegedly were caused by Dale. The behavior was testified to during the case’s preliminary examination in Lenawee County District Court.
Chartier argued the behavior did not fit the description in the domestic violence statute for stalking or causing mental harm and happened too long ago to be relevant. McCreedy argued that some of the behavior continued into 2021 and the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in another case that a history of marital discord could be used in a murder case where a husband killed his wife.