Friday in Jason Meade's trial: Emotions high as Casey Goodson Jr.'s autopsy photos shown
Closing out the first week of the murder trial of a former Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy, emotions ran high in the courtroom Friday when autopsy photos of the man he fatally shot were shown.
Jason Meade, 45, has pleaded not guilty to murder and reckless homicide charges in connection with the shooting death of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. on Dec. 4, 2020, at a home in Columbus' North Linden.
Meade has alleged through his defense attorneys that he saw Goodson drive by while waving a gun around and pointed it at Meade’s unmarked vehicle. Meade pursued Goodson a short distance and ultimately shot Goodson six times, five in the back, at a side exterior entry door to the kitchen of Goodson’s grandmother’s home. Meade’s defense team alleges Goodson pointed his gun at Meade again, prompting the officer to fire.
Autopsy photos shown
Goodson’s family sobbed and hugged each other in the small courtroom gallery when Gary Shroyer, a Franklin County special prosecutor, showed photos of Goodson lifeless on the autopsy table.
Tamala Payne, Goodson's mother, told The Dispatch Friday after the trial ended for the week that she previously saw a photo of Goodson after he died.
"But it was nothing like the pictures that I saw today, and it's not easy. It doesn't feel good at all," Payne said. "... Even though the pictures were hard to see, I just believe that Casey's truth will be told in the courtroom."
Dr. Anne Shepler, who was a deputy coroner in Franklin County when she conducted the autopsy on Goodson, testified that five bullets passed through Goodson from his back to his front. She said a sixth bullet passed “tangential” to his side.
"Some people call it a graze wound. I used tangential in this case," she said. "This wound is a little bit deeper. ... But it is still more superficial. It's not entering the body."
Mark Collins, one of Meade’s defense attorneys, called the side shot a “medium graze,” to which Shepler agreed.
On cross-examination, Collins got Shepler off the stand and asked her questions using his co-counsel Steven Nolder as a body to point at with a ruler.
Collins had Shepler confirm she would not be able to tell from an autopsy how a person was positioned when they were shot or their position in relation to the shooter.
After Collins, on redirect, Shroyer got Shepler off the stand again for a demonstration using a green pole and the storm door to demonstrate. Collins repeatedly objected. Judge David Young said he didn't know where this was going and eventually told Shroyer to move on.
FBI scientist testifies about door
Aimee Qulia, a physical scientist forensic examiner for the FBI, who examined the scene two weeks after the shooting, also testified Friday. She spoke about the storm door and how she could tell bullets passed through the storm door from the outside to the inside.
Qulia also said she could not determine where the storm door was at the time of the shooting but she could rule out that it was closed or open a full 90 degrees.
jlaird@dispatch.com
@LairdWrites
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Casey Goodson Jr.'s autopsy photos shown Friday in Jason Meade's trial
