Franklin County jury finds Columbus man not guilty of fatal shooting of his wife in 2022
A Franklin County jury has acquitted a Columbus man of murder charges in connection with the fatal shooting of his wife last year.
Rodney Vanatta Jr., 55, of the city's Southeast Side, said somebody else shot 48-year-old Heidi Duda in the early hours of March 26, 2022. Late Thursday evening, a jury agreed and determined Vanatta was not guilty.
The couple was heading home and Duda was driving after they spent time drinking and playing pinball at a sports bar they frequented regularly, according to evidence presented at trial.
Duda was shot around 2:30 a.m. inside their van on Country Club Road, between Main Street and East Livingston Avenue on the city’s East Side. Duda was taken to Mount Carmel East hospital, where she was pronounced dead three days later.
Vanatta called 911 after the shooting and told the dispatcher, “Somebody just shot my wife.” He said someone in a tan hoodie in a gray or maroon vehicle bumped up against their blue minivan and shot his wife through the window.
He could not say which way the person in the other vehicle drove away.
Diane Menashe, one of Vanatta's defense attorneys, told The Dispatch that evidence shows about 90 seconds passed between when the couple left the bar and when Vanatta called 911.
"He wasn't the shooter and he was truly innocent and he's been incarcerated since March 26, 2022," Menashe said. "Now he can be with his boys again that needed him when their mom was killed."
Menashe said it was a case of "tunnel vision" and Columbus police failed to follow up on other suspects, including a man Duda was in a relationship with who had recently been released from prison for murder.
More court news: Tennessee man says he doesn't know why he fatally shot Columbus man to steal a car
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man found not guilty of fatal shooting of his wife in 2022
