Former deputy convicted of reckless homicide in Casey Goodson Jr. killing

An ex-deputy has now been convicted for killing an unarmed Black man who was simply delivering sandwiches to his grandmother. A Franklin County jury found Jason Meade guilty of reckless homicide in the shooting death of Casey Goodson Jr., then deadlocked on the murder charge and forced a mistrial on that count.

Goodson was 23 when he was shot and killed on Dec. 4, 2020, in Columbus, Ohio, as he was entering his grandmother’s home. Prosecutors said he had just been to a dentist appointment, was listening to music on his AirPods and was carrying a bag of sandwiches when Meade opened fire. Goodson was not the target of the operation Meade was part of that day.

Meade, a former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy, was working with the U.S. Marshals Service in a search for a potentially violent fugitive when he shot Goodson. He did not testify at trial and had pleaded not guilty. The retrial began on April 23, 2026, after an earlier trial ended in a mistrial, and the jury returned its partial verdict on May 7, 2026, convicting Meade of reckless homicide but not reaching agreement on murder.

The case has become one of the most closely watched police-shooting prosecutions in Ohio, sharpened by the broader scrutiny that followed George Floyd’s death in 2020. In Franklin County, it has sat alongside other high-profile use-of-force cases, including the killing of Andre Hill, where a former Columbus police officer was later convicted of murder. Together, those cases have kept pressure on how deadly force is reviewed and prosecuted in Columbus and across Franklin County.

Goodson’s family also reached a $7 million civil settlement with Franklin County in 2024 over the shooting. The criminal case began with a Franklin County grand jury indictment on Dec. 2, 2021, on two murder counts and one reckless homicide count, and Meade’s conviction now leaves the reckless-homicide finding as the most decisive outcome in a case that has haunted North Columbus for more than five years.