Stanley's murder trial may finally come to fruition
Oct. 7—JEFFERSON — The murder case involving a Saybrook Township man accused of killing his estranged wife appears to finally be moving forward.
Jeffrey A. Stanley's pre-trial hearings and trial have been scheduled and rescheduled several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and problems transporting him to Jefferson, or even having his attorney visit him in a federal prison in Lewis Run, Pa.
Stanley is serving an 11-year sentence on federal child pornography charges.
On Sept. 29, Ashtabula County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Harris filed a judgement entry desiring to proceed with a status hearing slated for 9 a.m. Oct. 11 on the pending the criminal charges against Stanley.
Harris also ordered Stanley to be transported to Ashtabula County on or before Oct. 7 (today).
Stanley is charged in the death of Rand Hilal al Dulaimi, who went missing for two weeks before her body was found in a field on July 24, 2018, not far from Stanley's home in Saybrook.
Stanley faces two counts of murder, unclassified felonies; one count of felonious assault, a second-degree felony; tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony; gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony; and domestic violence, a first-degree misdemeanor, according to court records.
If convicted of all charges, Stanley faces life in prison, prosecutors have said.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Acquaintances have told police Stanley was abusive and Al Dulaimi filed for divorce in September 2017 with the help of the Legal Aid Society in Cleveland. Stanley was arrested days after her disappearance on a probation violation and has been incarcerated ever since.
The divorce was finalized the day after Al Dulaimi's body was found, according to court records.
According to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner, she died from neck compression and blunt force head injury.
The Ashtabula County Coroner's Office ruled her death a homicide Sept. 13, 2018.
Prosecutors have declined to comment on a potential motive for her murder.
According to the criminal complaint, Stanley was exchanging messages with another person and received images and videos of child pornography on his cell phone.
An unidentified woman contacted an Ashtabula County Sheriff's detective about the child pornography in October 2016 and again in February 2017 about a conversation between Stanley and another person about trafficking a 3-year-old Asian girl for sex, according to the complaint.
In March 2017, the woman gave detectives Stanley's phone.
Detectives turned the phone over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and on July 30 — less than a week after Al Dulaimi's body was found — the FBI got a search warrant for the phone and found 22 image files and six video files of child pornography.
Al Dulaimi, who came to the United States from Turkey after marrying Stanley and giving birth to their son, worked at Geneva Village Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation. She also was a biotechnology major and honor student at Kent State University Ashtabula.
After Al Dulaimi's murder, her son was in the custody of Ashtabula County Children Services and later adopted by a family.
