JEFFERSON, Ohio — Nearly five years after investigators say an Ashtabula County toddler was raped and murdered, the case is once again making waves in the far northeast corner of the state.
Friday, several dozen people held signs to protest the county prosecutor’s motion to amend charges against Joshua Gurto. He’s accused in the alleged rape and murder of Sereniti Jazzlyn-Sky Sutley in 2017.
“She was such a happy, beautiful baby,” recalled Lisa Butts, Sereniti’s grandmother.
On the morning of Oct. 7, 2017, investigators responded to an apartment on Clark Street in Conneaut for a report of an unresponsive child.
13-month-old Sereniti was rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead a short time later. A preliminary autopsy showed the child suffered blunt force trauma to the head and body.
“It’s been heartbreaking because it gets to the point where something might be done and then it gets taken from us,” said Lisa Butts.
Gurto, whose family says was Sereniti’s mother’s ex-boyfriend, fled the state shortly after the child’s death. His disappearance triggered a brief manhunt before he was found in Pennsylvania.
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“In my eyes, if you run, you’re guilty. You’re guilty of everything,” said Randy Butts, Sereniti’s great-grandfather.
In late 2017, a grand jury indicted Gurto with eight charges in the case, including two counts of aggravated murder, three counts of murder and one count of rape, felonious assault and domestic violence.
The toddler’s mother, Kelsie Blankenship, was also charged in her daughter’s death.
After Ashtabula County Prosecutor Colleen O’Toole took office in 2021, Blankenship agreed to a plea deal. She was sentenced to six years in prison for pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment.
RELATED: Conneaut woman gets 6 years in prison for death of her 13-month-old daughter
Evidence discovered during the toddler’s death investigation implicated Gurto in an unrelated rape and burglary. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to the charges in the case.
In late July, O’Toole filed a motion to drop all but one murder charge and the felonious assault charge in the indictment. She requested the murder charge be dropped to involuntary manslaughter.
The motion sparked outrage among Sereniti’s family members, who tell News 5 they were blindsided by the request.
“I was devastated because he needs to pay for what he’s done. And she needs to stand up and do what needs to be done,” Lisa Butts said.
Butts’ husband Eric Hook added, “Right when we finally feel like we’re going to get justice for Sereniti, when we get that sense of peace, it’s ripped from our hands.”
The prosecutor told News 5 there was insufficient evidence to convict Gurto on the more severe charges, but she could not elaborate because a previous judge sealed the record.
“We did a deep dive into the causes and accountability of the defendants,” O’Toole explained. “These are the charges that we feel, at the end of the day, can be supported beyond a reasonable doubt.”
She said the COVID-19 pandemic and inaction by the previous judge caused the case to languish for an extended period of time. She also pointed to the possibility of broader issues in how the case was investigated and processed.
“I believe the community at this point, being that they’ve been so traumatized, deserves some finality,” she said.
Many of the people at Friday’s protest were calling for O’Toole to be recalled.
“There’s enough there to prosecute it,” said family attorney Sean Martin. “It really is curious why it’s not being prosecuted the way it should be.”
He explained the family wants a resolution soon, but is willing to wait for the outcome they believe is fair.
“She just needs her justice so she can rest in peace finally,” Lisa Butts said of her granddaughter.
The prosecutor’s motion is currently pending.
Gurto’s trial is scheduled to start on October 3, 2022.
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