Death of Casey Goodson Jr.: Testimony continues in Jason Meade murder trial
NBC4 is covering the murder trial of Jason Meade from gavel to gavel. Viewer discretion is advised. 4:20 p.m. update: Testimony for the day has finished. The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Monday.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Technical experts, including a medical examiner and FBI firearms specialist, testified Friday in the murder trial against a former sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a Black man outside his grandmother’s house in 2020.
Jason Meade, a former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy, is on trial for the death of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. Meade’s attorneys have asserted that Meade, fresh off an assignment with the U.S. Marshals Service, trailed Goodson after seeing Goodson wave a gun while driving. He shot Goodson after Goodson pointed his gun at Meade, his attorneys have claimed. Goodson’s family, and the state, have argued that Goodson was not holding his gun, and he could not have been a threat because his back was toward Meade when Meade shot him six times.
During a full day in court Friday, jurors heard from multiple technical experts who were involved in the investigation of Goodson’s death, including the medical examiner who performed Goodson’s autopsy, an FBI firearms expert who reconstructed the shooting, and a detective who documented and collected evidence from the scene.
Experts reconstruct the bullets’ paths
Dr. Anne Shepler testified about the autopsy she conducted on Goodson three days after he died. As she described Goodson’s injuries, and as the prosecution displayed images of Goodson’s body, several members of Goodson’s family began to hold each other and cry.
“That’s my baby,” Tamala Payne, Goodson’s mother, said.
The bullets struck Goodson’s heart, left lung, liver, kidney, small bowel, and several of the bones in his spine. The force of the bullets, fired from Meade’s automatic rifle, caused internal bleeding, including in Goodon’s spinal cord, and he likely breathed in blood, Shepler said.
All bullets entered Goodson from the right and back, traveling upward toward the left front of his body, Shepler testified. Under cross-examination, she clarified that she couldn’t determine where Goodson’s body was positioned when he was shot – including whether he could have twisted his torso toward Meade. She also could not determine how far away Meade was when he fired his gun.
Five of the six gunshot wounds were “atypical,” Shepler said, based on their large size and the fact that Goodson also had injuries from bullet fragments. The wounds indicated to her that Goodson was likely shot through another object
“Would you expect to see entrance wounds like that if they had gone through a storm door?” special prosecutor Gary Shroyer asked her.
“Yes,” Shepler replied.
Aimee Qulia, an FBI forensic examiner specializing in firearms and toolmarks, went to Goodson’s grandmother’s house on Estates Place two weeks after Goodson’s death to reconstruct the shooting. As special prosecutor Joshua Shaw showed her photos of the metal storm door – and, at one point, the door itself – Qulia confirmed what she wrote in her report from the shooting and what she told the FBI several months later: She identified the general trajectory of three bullets through the metal mesh of the door as traveling from left to right at an upward angle.
Qulia concluded the bullets shot into the kitchen from the outside by the way the metal door curled around the edges of the bullet holes. But, as she noted under cross-examination, she couldn’t say where Meade was standing when he fired the gun. She couldn’t make a number of other determinations, including how Goodson’s body was positioned when he was shot, or whether Meade moved while shooting.
And, as her report noted, she couldn’t exactly pin down how far open the storm door was when the bullets struck it. She was able to rule out it being fully opened or completely closed, however.
Defense attorney Steven Nolder highlighted the limitations of Qulia’s conclusions, including the fact that her examination of the scene happened two weeks after the shooting.
“Was the scene under the watchful eye of local law enforcement this entire time?” Nolder asked her. She said she didn’t know.
Crime scene investigator says he wasn’t instructed to take AirPods as evidence
Det. Sontino Williams, a crime scene investigator with Columbus police, was tasked with marking, photographing and collecting evidence at the scene. He was the last to testify on Friday.
The prosecution displayed several photos Williams took. In one, the AirPods Goodson was wearing when he was shot were laying on the kitchen floor, next to the durag Goodson wore. The durag was marked, and later collected, as evidence, but the bloody AirPods were not.
The detective leading the homicide investigation that night did not instruct Williams to document the AirPods, he testified. He took the unusual step to bring the lead detective back into the kitchen to confirm nothing else should be collected.
The prosecution has argued that Goodson would not have heard Meade’s commands because he was wearing the AirPods. Meade’s attorneys have argued that Meade had no way of knowing Goodson was wearing AirPods – all he knew was that Goodson had a gun.
Under cross-examination, Williams echoed another Columbus police officer’s testimony that a person could be a threat even with their back turned. A person with a gun would present an even clearer threat, considering they could shoot without turning around.
The prosecution will continue questioning witnesses at 9 a.m. Monday.
What happened earlier in the trial? Who will I see in the courtroom?
Jury selection began last Friday and spanned three days, starting with a 99-question form for prospective jurors to weed out biases or conflicts of interest. From a pool of more than 100 Franklin County residents, attorneys settled on a group of 12 jurors and four alternates.
Wednesday was a relatively short day in court, with opening statements in the morning and a jury trip to Goodson’s grandmother’s home on Estates Place in the afternoon. Jurors heard from Goodson’s grandmother, uncle and sister Thursday, who were all in the house when Goodson was shot, as well as a Columbus police sergeant who led the processing of the crime scene.
The prosecution showed also showed stills from body camera footage from a Columbus police officer who responded to the scene. The officer, who took the stand on Thursday, noted that Goodson could be seen with an AirPod in at least one of his ears.
Jurors also saw a social media post depicting Goodson, in a car, pointing his gun at the camera. Sharon Payne, Goodson’s grandmother, testified Thursday that she had been in the car with Goodson on at least once occasion when he placed his gun on the center console.
Meade spent his entire law enforcement career at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, first becoming a deputy in 2007. He left the force in July 2021 on disability retirement, five months before he was charged in Goodson’s death. He had been on paid leave since shooting Goodson.
The former Marine had been on the sheriff’s office SWAT team since 2014, according to his personnel file. He was previously a pastor at Rosedale Freewill Baptist Church in Irwin.
Representing Meade are three seasoned criminal defense attorneys: Mark Collins, Kaitlyn Stephens and Steven Nolder. Collins and Stephens have represented a swathe of law enforcement officials under prosecutorial scrutiny for their use of force, including former Columbus police vice officer Andrew Mitchell, who killed Donna Castleberry in 2018.
Presenting the state’s case are special prosecutors Gary Shroyer, Tim Merkle and Joshua Shaw, tapped by the Franklin County prosecutor’s office since it typically represents the sheriff’s office. Shroyer and Merkle have ample experience investigating officers who use deadly force — most recently, the duo are handling the murder case against former Columbus police officer Ricky Anderson, who killed Donovan Lewis in his bed in the Hilltop in August 2022.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV.
