COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) 鈥� A jury began deliberating Wednesday in of a former sheriff鈥檚 deputy in Ohio charged in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr.
More than two years after a tumultuous first proceeding , 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鈥檚 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 .
Goodson鈥檚 family in 2024 reached a in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the county.
Meade鈥檚 defense team opted not to have him testify this time around. During his first trial in 2024, 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.
鈥淛ason had to decide, ladies and gentlemen, whether the gun he had already seen twice was going to be the gun that killed him,鈥� defense attorney Mark Collins told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday. 鈥淗e 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.鈥�
He said the jury must acquit.
Special prosecutor Howard Tim Merkle, a lawyer for the state, asked jurors, “Who鈥檚 got a motive here to deceive?鈥� He argued that the defense had failed to make its case that Meade was defending his life when he shot Goodson.
鈥淪o what evidence is there against the idea, the suggestion that Casey turned and pointed the gun?鈥� Merkle asked. 鈥淲e 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鈥檚 weapon was found under his body on his grandmother鈥檚 kitchen floor with the safety mechanism engaged.
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