REMEMBER HIM??? SANDY

Grant’s trial postponed, will begin in two weeks
By Jon Johnson
Assistant Editor
Published on Sunday, October 19, 2008 5:14 PM MST

After more than seven years since the death of Faylene Eaves Grant by drowning in the bathtub at her Gilbert home, the first-degree murder trial against her husband at the time, Doug Grant, has been postponed again.

Legal motions and pretrial hearings by Grant’s defense and the state had tied up the court for the past three years since Grant’s indictment in 2005, but now the Maricopa County Superior Court has made its own motion to postpone the trial’s beginning until Oct. 27 at 10:30 a.m.

After several previous postponements, the trial had been set to begin Oct. 14.

Judge Margaret R. Mahoney stated the postponement was due to the court’s being in trial on another case.

Prosecutors allege Grant drugged his wife and either watched her drown or held her head under the water.

Grant’s defense vehemently deny the accusation and say she was already deceased when he found her in the bathtub.

The official Medical Examiner’s Office report states Faylene’s death to be from intoxication of the prescription sleepaid Ambien and drowning. It lists the manner of death as being “undetermined.” Blood tests revealed Faylene to have about five times the recommended dosage of the drug when she died.

Faylene was prescribed the Ambien along with other drugs, including the muscle relaxant Soma, by Chad White, a physician’s assistant and friend of Grant. White told Gilbert Police he prescribed the medication to Faylene to help her cope with ailments from a recent 60-foot fall from a cliff in Utah.

According to Gilbert Police reports, Grant said he pulled his wife’s body out of the tub and placed her on their bed the day of her death. He then called White, who called 911, and told the operator he was en route to the Grants’ home. White arrived before paramedics and told officers he attempted to revive Faylene with CPR and that she was lying on the bed when he arrived.

The prosecution has several theories of motives as to why Grant would have killed his wife. They say he received about $300,000 from Faylene’s life insurance policy and was afraid of having to restart child and/or spousal support payments in the event of a divorce.

Also, one month after Faylene’s death, he married 19-year-old with whom he had an affair during and between marriages to Faylene, according to court reports.

They also say he might have believed he was helping Faylene on her spiritual journey to heaven by assisting her to sleep in the tub.

At a recent pretrial hearing, the court denied Grant’s request to exclude evidence pertaining to some of his alleged extramarital af-fairs, membership in an LDS online dating service and a report from the Emergency Depart-ment Record of Valley Lutheran Hospital.

The passage is part of the “History of Present Illness” section of the hospital’s document and says that Grant states he fell asleep when Faylene took her medication and went into the tub. It says 30 to 40 minutes later, Grant went into the bathroom to check on her and found her underwater. He told the emergency room doctor he then pulled her out of the tub, took her into the bedroom and called White.

The case against Grant has so many oddities and twists and turns that his own defense attorney, Melvin McDonald Jr., has described it as being the “most bizarre case” he has ever been involved with.