A Partner Rode A Motorcycle In A Rain Suit To Kill And Leave No DNA, Prosecutors Say

Childhood friend Brett Cole testified he offered a practical tip for murder. If Andrew Isaac Griffin was going to ride to Ohio to get his money back, Cole said, he should travel by motorcycle and wear a Frogg Toggs rain suit, a lightweight cover that would keep blood off him and leave behind no DNA.

Prosecutors allege Griffin followed that advice to kill Tom and Angela Strushen, the couple behind the Ohio Tex-Mex restaurant Salsa Joe's, shooting them in their burning Belmont home on September 21, 2021, over a failed investment of more than $100,000. Griffin pleaded not guilty, but jurors deliberated about four hours before finding him guilty on all counts.

Firefighters found the Strushens already dead from gunshots when they answered the house fire. The fire, and the water used to put it out, destroyed much of the scene, and a prosecution expert testified that she could not isolate any DNA or fingerprints.

The motive, prosecutors said, began in January 2021, when Griffin started investing in Salsa Joe's. By August 2021, Tom told him the restaurant was closing because it was not profitable, with no talk of repayment, and the next day Griffin found he had been locked out of their shared bank account.

Investigators first set Griffin aside because he said he was in Oklahoma and his cell records seemed to support him. That changed in spring 2023, when he stopped answering a detective, Tom's sister Lisa Balog reported that he had driven his truck into Mexico and disappeared, and he was later arrested in Hawaii.

Prosecutors said detectives then subpoenaed Cole's phone and found a call from an unfamiliar number the day the couple were killed. Prosecutors said the number belonged to a burner phone they linked to Griffin, pinging off towers close to the Strushens' home. They also said Griffin had given Cole money to pick up a motorcycle weeks earlier, and highway plate readers caught that motorcycle heading toward Ohio just before the killings.

At trial, prosecutors played a videotaped deposition from Cole's elderly and ill grandfather, Arthur, recorded in summer 2025. The jury did not see Arthur in person. He is elderly and in poor health. He said he overheard Griffin tell Cole, "I had to go get my money and I killed two people."

Cole himself testified under an immunity deal and described what he said Griffin told him happened inside the house. He said only Tom was the target, but when Griffin entered and shot Tom, Angela jumped up and ran at him, so he shot her multiple times. He then asked Tom where the money was, Tom answered, "There ain't no money," and he shot Tom dead.

Defense lawyers described the inquiry as careless and argued Cole, who since the killings has been convicted of a felony and sentenced to three life terms for child sexual abuse, could not be believed. They argued there was no physical evidence tying Griffin to the scene and suggested Tom, who carried and showed off large amounts of cash, associated with shady people. The jury rejected that account, and Griffin is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1.