Jury acquits Columbus man of murder charges who also was charged in historic drug bust

Jordan Laird, Columbus Dispatch
·2 min read
Guy A. Andonian, 77, formerly of Columbus and now of North Carolina, is accused in an indictment of stealing more than $35,000 from VFW Post 4044 on Eakin Road between 2017 and 2019 through a check scheme.

A jury has acquitted a Columbus man who was charged with aggravated murder at the same time he was among those charged in a historic drug trafficking indictment of 79 people last year.

Michael A. Nichols Jr., 35, was found not guilty by a Franklin County Common Pleas Court jury of aggravated murder and murder in the shooting death of 30-year-old Billy Sanders in July 2021.

Separately, Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch found Nichols guilty of having a weapon illegally.

Nichols, who resided on Columbus' Northeast Side, is scheduled for sentencing on that charge on Dec. 14. He faces a minimum sentence of at least five years and three months in prison.

Nichols is still facing two other criminal cases, which include charges of engaging in corrupt activity and multiple charges of drug trafficking.

Keith Edwards, Nichols' defense attorney, told The Dispatch on Friday that he hopes to reach plea agreements in those cases soon so that Nichols can be sentenced for all three cases on Dec. 14.

Columbus police say Sanders was shot around 7:30 p.m. on July 20, 2021, near the intersection of Columbian and Sullivant avenues in the Hilltop neighborhood. Sanders died early the next day, July 21, 2021, at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.

Testimony from the prosecution's key witness against Nichols, who claimed to witness the shooting, did not match the actual injuries to the victim detailed in the coroner's report, Edwards told The Dispatch.

"He was lying and (authorities) could tell he was lying," Edwards said. "I told the jury, 'Who are you going to believe, this eyewitness they brought back from prison (to testify) or the coroner's report?'"

Assistant Franklin County Prosecutors Scott Smith and Carol Harmon, who tried Nichols on the murder charges and are prosecuting the drug cases, declined to comment to The Dispatch Friday.

The Franklin County Prosecutor's Office announced Nichols' indictments in February 2022 as part of the county's largest drug bust in recent history. Nearly $6 million worth of drugs were seized by multiple central Ohio law enforcement agencies as part of the investigation.

Authorities said Nichols and 78 others were part of a complex drug trafficking organization that was bringing large quantities of drugs— including cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl — to Ohio from outside sources in places like Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Some of Nichols' codefendants in the drug trafficking cases have reached plea agreements with prosecutors.

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man acquitted of murder, but drug trafficking charges pending