A Texas man was sentenced to death this week for the brutal murder of a young mother found buried in a crawl space beneath his house days after she disappeared.
Valerian “Will” O’Steen, 28, was convicted of the murder of 26-year-old Marissa Grimes in February 2022 at the end of a lengthy trial in Tarrant County, the county district attorney’s office said.
“We are all made in God’s image,” the victim’s father, Daryl Grimes, told O’Steen after his sentencing. “You had no right to take away my daughter’s life.” pic.twitter.com/GtgYhKMQ5Y
— Tarrant County DA (@TarrantCountyDA) September 22, 2025
O’Steen had been arrested in January 2022 for holding Grimes, the mother of two young children, prisoner in his home at gunpoint for several days and threatening to kill her but was released on a $5,000 bond and ordered to stay away from her, as CrimeOnline previously reported.
Grimes’ family persuaded her to move away from the area, and she loaded up a U-Haul but stopped at O’Steen’s home to say goodbye on February 12, 2022. A neighbor saw him threaten her with a gun, and she was not seen alive again.
Prosecutors said O’Steen beat Grimes to death, wrapped her body in blankets and a tarp, and put it in the crawl space beneath his rental home until her decomposing body was found after her family reported her missing on February 16. The U-Haul was found abandoned a mile away, Grimes’ purse still inside.
“He dug her a shallow grave and lived above her for 10 days,” prosecutor Allenna Bangs told the jury.
Grimes had a broken arm, nose, and ribs, two black eyes, and multiple cuts and bruises to her head, arms, hands, and fingers.
“She was beaten to death,” prosecutor Peter Gieseking said. “She had been tortured.”
District Attorney Phil Sorrels praised the work of investigators and prosecutors on the case but said nothing about O’Steen being released on a miniscule bond just weeks before he killed his victim.
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[Featured image: Valerian O’Steen/Fort Worth Police Department]
