Coy verdict marks first time officer convicted of murder in policeinvolved shooting in Franklin County
Nov 05, 2024
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A former Columbus Police officer is now convicted of murder, felonious assault and reckless homicide.
Adam Coy shot and killed Andre Hill in December 2020. The guilty verdict on all three charges was returned on Monday after five days of testimony and about 12 hours of deliberations.
What the jury did not hear in the murder trial of former Columbus police officer Adam Coy
This marks the first trial for a deadly law enforcement-involved shooting in Franklin County that has not ended in a mistrial or a not guilty verdict.
Capital University law professor Rob Barnhart said Coy's case proves there is the potential to find a 12-person jury in Franklin County willing to convict a police officer. He said he was surprised to see a guilty verdict returned on all three counts.
“So in cases where reckless homicide is on the table, you may think that jurors who might be squeamish about convicting a law enforcement officer might say, 'Well, we don't know if we want to say that he was trying to kill this person or wanted to kill this person, but we are willing to say that he should have acted better,'" Barnhart said.
There are currently three more trials pending in Franklin County for deadly law enforcement-involved shootings:
The second trial for former Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade, charged in the December 2020 shooting death of Casey Goodson Jr.
Retired Columbus Police Officer Ricky Anderson, he is charged in the August 2022 shooting death of Donovan Lewis.
The most recent is Blendon Township Police Officer Connor Grubb who is charged in the August 2023 shooting death of Ta’kiya Young and her unborn baby.
Barhart said although Coy's case doesn’t set a precedent for future cases, it could change the attorney’s tactics.
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“I guess if you're the state and you get access, you know, it's not always the same prosecutors, but you get access to those prosecutors and see if the jurors talk to them and see what worked," Barnhart said. "I mean, theoretically now, you've got a playbook that works and you can run it again. But you're also dealing with the same defense team that knows you're going to maybe run the same playbook and they can adjust accordingly."
The same defense team who represented Coy – Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens – are representing the law enforcement officers in the three pending cases. However, the prosecutors are different.