Woman charged with reckless homicide in fiance's shooting

HARRISON TWP. — UPDATE @ 3:08 p.m. (July 26)

A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted Jessica L. Grieco on counts of reckless homicide, involuntary manslaughter and domestic violence in this case. She will be arraigned Aug. 1, and remains in custody.

EARLIER REPORT (March 2017)

Additional charges have been filed against a woman accused of shooting and killing a man she called her fiancé.

Jessica L. Grieco, 33, told a 9-1-1 dispatcher she accidentally shot her fiancé while attempting to unload a gun to prevent him from committing suicide
The victim, 32-year-old Peter Underwood, lived in the home on Claggett Drive where the shooting occurred
Additional charges filed against Grieco include two counts of murder, involuntary manslaughter, two counts of felonious assault and two counts of domestic violence.

Grieco appeared in court on March 31 for a hearing on the additional charges.

A judge set her bond at $50,000 cash or surety.

The court also ordered Grieco to submit a DNA sample. If she makes bail, she will have to submit to an electronic home detention program.

On Friday, Grieco waived a preliminary hearing scheduled for 4 p.m. the same day. This case is expected to move to Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

Grieco has a prior conviction for domestic violence in Butler County.

On March 24, Grieco appeared in Vandalia Municipal Court on a charge of reckless homicide, a third degree felony. She did not enter a plea and did not have a lawyer.

Grieco was arrested six hours after she frantically told a 9-1-1 dispatcher she accidentally shot her supposedly suicidal fiancé, she was arrested.

The next day, she was charged with reckless homicide.

Grieco called 9-1-1 at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and told dispatchers she shot Peter Underwood, 32, at their home on Claggett Drive in Harrison Twp.

“He’s shot in the chest. Get here now!” Grieco yelled. “He’s going to die!”

Underwood died of a shotgun wound to the chest, according to the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, which completed the autopsy Wednesday morning. The coroner ruled Underwood's death a homicide.

Grieco repeatedly yelled, “Oh my God!” and said: “I tried to unload it. It went off because he was trying to commit suicide earlier. I had to take a rope from him earlier,” she said in the call, which the Dayton Daily News obtained through a public records request.

The dispatcher told the woman to keep pressure on Underwood’s wound. At one point in the call, there’s a noise that sounds like dishes being knocked on the floor.

Grieco remains in the Montgomery County Jail.

“It’s totally shocking," said Shawn Kauffman, a neighbor in the area near Northridge High School. “This neighborhood is quiet.”

A woman later was seen crying in a police cruiser.

“You hear occasional arguments but you don’t think something like this is going to happen,” Kauffman said.

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