COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Opening statements began Thursday in the retrial of a former Ohio sheriff’s deputy charged with murder and reckless homicide for killing a Black man who was shot multiple times in the back while entering his grandmother’s house.
The shooting of Casey Goodson Jr. by former Franklin County Deputy Jason Meade, who is white, led to protests in Columbus and lingering questions, in part because the sheriff’s office didn’t equip its deputies with body cameras or dash cameras.
Meade faced the same charges at his first trial. The judge in that case declared a mistrial in 2024 after the jury couldn't agree on a verdict.
Attorney Howard Merkle, a special prosecutor for the case, recounted events that he said led up to the shooting, and urged jurors to consider the evidence he said proves Meade’s use of force was unreasonable.
“The evidence will show that on December 4, 2020, the defendant shot Casey Goodson Jr. six times in the back, killing him,” he said.
“At the time, Casey had entered his house, was carrying a bag of Subways and was listening to YouTube music on his AirPods,” Merkle said.
Meade testified in the first trial that Goodson waved a gun at him as the two drove past each other and that he pursued Goodson because he feared for his life and the lives of others. He said he eventually fired as Goodson entered his grandmother’s home because the 23-year-old man turned toward him with a gun.
Defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens said the now-retired deputy feared for his life in the confrontation with Goodson, and said officers do “not have to wait to be shot at in order to protect themselves.”
“The evidence will show that Jason Meade was justified, a justified tragedy,” she said.
Meade had been searching unsuccessfully for a fugitive that day as part of his work for a U.S. Marshals Service task force. Goodson was not the subject of the fugitive search, and the Marshals have said Meade wasn’t performing a mission for them at the time.
Goodson’s family and prosecutors have said Goodson was holding a sandwich bag in one hand and his keys in the other, having unlocked the front door, when he was fatally shot. They did not dispute that Goodson may have been carrying a gun, which he had a license to carry, but prosecutors have noted that Meade has been the only person to testify that Goodson was holding a gun.
Goodson’s weapon was found on his grandmother’s kitchen floor with the safety mechanism engaged.
Jurors in the previous trial deadlocked after one was dismissed during testimony and replaced by an alternate and three others were dismissed and replaced during deliberations, forcing the panel to restart deliberations multiple times. Court officials did not say why the jurors were removed.
