Jan. 31 (UPI) — The murder trial of a former Ohio sheriff’s deputy began Wednesday in the 2020 shooting death of Casey Goodson Jr., a 23 year-old Black man trying to enter his grandmother’s Columbus home.
Former Franklin County Sheriff deputy James Meade faces murder and reckless homicide charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
” Six shots in the back,” special prosecutor Gary Shroyer said in an opening statement. “All fired by the defendant into the back of Casey Goodson with no reasonable basis for the defendant to perceive a threat by Casey.”
Prosecutor Shroyer said Meade, who is white, shot Goodson in the back through a metal storm door with an automatic rifle. Shroyer said when Goodson’s body was found, his handgun was lying near his body in a cloth holster with the safety on .
He said Goodson was not holding his gun when Meade shot him.
Defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens said in her opening, “Now with the benefit of hindsight, nobody here in this courtroom is disputing how tragic the events were, on December 4, 2020. And it is not lost on us that somebody lost a life, somebody lost a son, a brother and a friend.”