Jury deliberations begin in murder retrial of former Ohio deputy who fatally shot Black man

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the murder retrial of a former sheriff’s deputy in Ohio charged in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr.

More than two years after a tumultuous first proceeding ended in mistrial, Jason Meade is once again awaiting a jury’s verdict. The former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy and Baptist pastor, who is white, is charged with murder and reckless homicide for shooting Goodson, who was Black, five times in the back as he tried to enter his grandmother’s house in December 2020.

Goodson’s death, one of several involving Black people killed by white Ohio law enforcement officers over the previous decade, came at the end of a year in which mass protests swept the nation over the murder of George Floyd.

Goodson’s family in 2024 reached a $7 million civil settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the county.

Meade’s defense team opted not to have him testify this time around. During his first trial in 2024, Meade testified that he pursued Goodson after he waved a gun as the two drove past one another, fearing his life and the lives of others were in danger. Meade said he eventually shot Goodson because he turned toward him with a gun.

“Jason had to decide, ladies and gentlemen, whether the gun he had already seen twice was going to be the gun that killed him,” defense attorney Mark Collins told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday. “He had no pause button. He had no crystal ball. And he had no duty to wait for the first shot. The law does not require perfection from our law enforcement officers. It requires reasonableness.”

He said the jury must acquit.

Special prosecutor Howard Tim Merkle, a lawyer for the state, asked jurors, “Who’s got a motive here to deceive?” He argued that the defense had failed to make its case that Meade was defending his life when he shot Goodson.

“So what evidence is there against the idea, the suggestion that Casey turned and pointed the gun?” Merkle asked. “We can start with he’s got six shots in his back. They’re not in his front.” One of the six shots was in Goodson’s side.

There is no bodycam video of the shooting, and prosecutors have repeatedly asserted that Meade is the only person who testified Goodson was holding a gun. His family and legal team have said he was holding a Subway sandwich bag in one hand and his keys in the other when he was fatally shot. They do not dispute that Goodson may have been carrying a gun but note that he had a license to carry a firearm.

Goodson’s weapon was found under his body on his grandmother’s kitchen floor with the safety mechanism engaged.