This year will likely see the long-awaited trials for two former law enforcement officers who shot and killed Black men in two separate incidents in 2020.
The trial for former Franklin County Sheriff SWAT Deputy Jason Meade is set to start Jan. 29 in front of Judge David Young in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.
Meade pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and reckless homicide after he shot 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. six times as he entered his grandmother’s home in Columbus in late 2020.
Authorities said Meade was conducting a search as part of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force when he encountered Goodson, who was neither the suspect the task force was looking for, nor the subject of any investigation.
A trial for former Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy has been postponed several times as Coy undergoes treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Coy's trial is tentatively set to begin in October in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.
Coy pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, felonious assault and dereliction of duty for the Dec. 2020 fatal shooting of Andre Hill.
Body camera footage from the incident shows Coy firing his gun seconds after Hill turns around to face officers with a cell phone in his hand. Officers, including Coy, failed to administer aid to Hill for more than 10 minutes after he was shot.
Attorneys Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens represent both former officers.
Collins said the cases were slowed by pandemic backlogs and lengthy investigations.
“There was a long delay before the officers normally are actually even charged because it's a detailed investigation,” Collins said. “So that time frame sometimes takes a year, sometimes takes longer.”
He says the cases are not typical “whodunits.”
“There was a deadly force used. And whether it's not, if it's justified or not, that's the issue that goes there,” Collins said.
Collins and Stephens are also representing retired Columbus Police K-9 Officer Ricky Anderson, of Johnstown, who shot and killed 20-year-old Donovan Lewis immediately after opening a bedroom door while attempting to serve an arrest warrant in Aug. 2022.
Collins says that case is “in its infancy.” Collins expects a pre-trial in January, but said the case likely won’t see trial in 2024, though it could be possible in the last few months of the year.
