An Ohio jury convicted a former Franklin County, Ohio sheriff’s deputy of reckless homicide in the 2020 killing of a concealed carry holder who was shot as he was entering his home, but deadlocked on a more significant charge of murder.
This was the second trial for Jason Meade after a jury also failed to come to a unanimous verdict in 2024, which led to a second prosecution for the death of Casey Goodson.
Goodson was shot and killed in December of 2020, and Meade never disputed that he pulled the trigger. Instead, the longtime law enforcement officer, who had 17 years with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department at the time of the shooting, alleged that Goodson waved a gun at him while driving by the deputy and other officers, including federal marshals, who were in Goodson’s neighborhood to look for a fugitive.
In Meade’s account, he pursued Goodson to a home, and fired at the 23-year-old as he was walking up the stairs at the back of the home because Goodson turned around with a gun in his hand. Goodson’s family (and prosecutors) maintained that he was returning home with several sandwiches in a bag in one hand and his keys in the other when he was shot and killed. A pistol belonging to Goodson was found in the kitchen of the home after the shooting, but its never been clearly established whether Goodson was displaying the firearm or had it in his hand when he was killed.
Goodson’s family received a $7 million settlement from Franklin County in 2024, but the county did not admit any liability on the part of anyone involved in Goodson’s death, including Meade.
Goodson’s family has argued that he was profiled because of the color of his skin, and the lawsuit alleged that “the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office failed to investigate claims of unreasonable force against Black residents and failed to properly train deputies on firing guns at civilians, ‘particularly at African Americans.’”
Since there is no bodycam footage to prove or disprove either Meade or the family’s version of what happened in the moments before Goodson was shot, I’m not particularly surprised that two juries have now failed to come to a unanimous agreement about whether Meade’s actions constituted murder. The lesser charge of reckless homicide, which carries the potential for three years in prison, is defined as “recklessly causing the death of another.”
Without sitting through either trial, it’s difficult for me to say whether or not the jury made the right call, but I wonder if the fact that five of the six shots that Meade fired struck Goodson in the back had any bearing on the verdict. Meade, who did not testify during the second trial, previously said that he fired at Goodson after he turned around with the gun in his hand.
I’ve covered this case since the shooting, and I’ve spoken with folks who support Meade’s version of events as well as those who believe that there was no reason for Goodson to have been shot and killed. I honestly have no idea who is right, but the jury heard days of testimony in support of both the prosecution and defense, and if they concluded that Meade’s actions were reckless, I’ll accept their judgement.
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