Flathead County Jury Delivers Guilty Verdict in Hit-and-Run Homicide Trial

A Flathead County jury on Wednesday convicted 49-year-old Jeffrey Scott Serio of deliberate homicide in the August 2025 death of 67-year-old Raymond Maurice “Mory” Grigg, whom he ran down with his vehicle in an Evergreen cornfield.

The verdict came in at about 6 p.m. following an eight-day trial and six hours of jury deliberation, with defense attorney Alisha Rapkoch requesting each juror be polled. Serio was remanded to the custody of the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.

Serio’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 26 at 10 a.m.

Flathead County District Court Judge Heidi Ulbricht presided over the trial, which began May 4.

Supporters of both the victim and the defendant were present in the gallery, including one of Serio’s family members, who leaned over the courtroom bench to quietly sob after the clerk read the verdict.

Closing arguments ended on Wednesday afternoon, with Deputy Flathead County Attorneys Amy Kenison and Ashley Frechette maintaining that evidence and testimony proved Serio was the original aggressor when he repeatedly trespassed, drove erratically on private property and provoked Grigg, who shot at his vehicle before the defendant ran him over on the evening of Aug. 19, 2025.

“The defendant purposely ran over Mory — and how do we know that? The defendant told you on the witness stand and he testified that he was not trying to miss him,” Kenison said.

Kenison argued Serio made a conscious choice to trespass on Grigg’s property, where he exhibited strange behavior while receiving help from the victim, who escorted him off the property by leading him over a barbed wire fence. Serio returned on foot, however, and again with his vehicle, which the prosecutor described as a “deadly weapon.”

Prosecutors said that although Grigg fired five gunshots at Serio in the moments before the vehicle struck him, the defendant was the initial aggressor when he drove his Toyota Sequoia on the property, actions they said provoked the “entire chain of events” that threatened the victim, granting him the right to brandish his firearm.

“And Mory — who had two more bullets in his gun, he didn’t get to fire those,” Frechette said. “Mory waited until the vehicle was 11-and-a-half feet away from him. He waited too long.”

Serio’s public defender maintained throughout the trial that Serio ran over Grigg in self-defense after the victim fired five gunshot rounds at the defendant, three of which struck his vehicle.

“Jeff is afraid,” Rapkoch said. “He’s being shot at — that’s an imminent threat. He doesn’t know where it’s coming from at first, but when he backs up and sees that threat, he reacts.”

Rapkoch said that although her client was driving on Grigg’s and the neighbor’s properties, he was unarmed and posed no threat to the residents. Instead of staying inside the safety of his home, Grigg went outside, advanced toward Serio and fired his gun, which surprised the defendant who then drove into him as he feared for his life.

“He wanted to end this,” Rapkoch said, referring to Grigg. “It wasn’t for an imminent threat. It wasn’t for an imminent fear.”

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