COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Defense attorneys rested their case Tuesday in the murder trial for a former Columbus police officer who shot an unarmed man.
Adam Coy, 48, is facing charges of murder, reckless homicide and felonious assault in the 2020 death of Andre Hill, 47. Through Monday and Tuesday, his defense attorneys called a total of three witnesses to the stand, including Coy himself and two law enforcement experts.
Representing the state are Deputy Chief Counsel Anthony Pierson and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Renee Amlin of the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office. Coy’s defense team includes attorneys Mark Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens. The judge is Stephen McIntosh of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, and the jurors and alternates consist of seven men and nine women, with three being people of color.
Defense calls third witness
Collins called the defense’s third witness, retired Columbus police officer James Scanlon, to the stand. Scanlon has testified in multiple trials, including federal court cases, as an expert witness in law enforcement use of force.
Scanlon testified he believes Coy’s actions were consistent with federal and state law enforcement standards and training. He said Hill’s alleged behavior, such as acting dismissive and nervous during his initial interaction with Coy, would raise the alarm of numerous officers. Scanlon testified Coy had a “mandate” to investigate the situation after observing Hill walking in the area of a dark home, given his previous “suspicious” behavior.
Scanlon, who viewed the body camera video, then walked the jury through the moments when Hill began walking toward the exit of the garage. He testified Coy could not see Hill’s right side, which was blocked by the car in the garage, and once he cleared the vehicle, his “right arm was free and started to rise.” This, coupled with the glint of metal, is what Scanlon said Coy perceived as a deadly threat. Scanlon testified officers are allowed to make mistakes, as long as they are “objectively reasonable.”
What has happened at the trial so far
Jury selection began on Oct. 21, with the process taking a total of three days. On Wednesday, 12 jurors and four alternates were sworn in, then taken to view the scene where Coy shot Hill.
Opening statements took place on Thursday, with attorneys revealing that Coy and Hill had interacted before the shooting. When Coy initially arrived at the scene, he approached Hill’s vehicle. It was then that Hill showed Coy a text on his phone, and told him he was waiting to meet with someone. The defense claimed during this interaction, Hill was “wide-eyed and jittery.”
The prosecution called two witnesses to the stand Thursday. The man who called the police about Hill’s car was the first to testify, followed by Amy Detweiler, the officer who was with Coy at the time of the shooting. She testified that she did not see a gun on Hill or perceive a deadly threat.
Detweiler’s testimony continued into Friday, before the prosecution called both a responding Columbus police officer and medic to the stand to discuss what happened in the moments after the shooting. A crime scene investigator walked the jury through a plethora of crime scene photos, and a forensic pathologist discussed the injuries Hill faced as a result of the shooting.
On Monday, the defense called its first witness, an expert on police practices, to the stand. The witness, Kevin Davis, testified Coy’s actions – including choosing to investigate what Hill was doing and using deadly force when he perceived his life was in danger – were consistent with nationally recognized police practices.
The defense called Coy to the stand next, where he recounted the shooting from his perspective. He detailed behavior from Hill and circumstances leading up to the shooting that he found suspicious, as well as how he feared for his life when he mistook Hill’s keys for a gun. He described the early morning hours of the shooting as “the worst night of [his] life.”
The shooting
On Dec. 22, 2020, Columbus police received a nonemergency call reporting a suspicious vehicle in the 1000 block of Oberlin Drive on the northwest side of the city. Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force, and fellow officer Amy Detweiler responded to the report around 1:50 a.m., when they spotted an open garage and walked toward it with their flashlights on.
Hill, who was later determined to be a guest at the home, was in the garage. Body camera video shows he began walking toward officers with a brightly lit phone screen held up in one hand, while his other hand was at his side and not clearly visible. It was then that Coy shot Hill, striking him four times. Less than nine seconds passed from the time Hill was illuminated by a flashlight to when he was shot.
Coy did not turn on his body camera until after the shooting. Due to a lookback feature that retained the previous 60 seconds of video without any audio, the shooting was captured. However, what was said before shots were fired was not recorded.
During a later interview completed by the police department, Detweiler claimed that Coy asked Hill to exit the garage using a normal tone and Hill did not say anything in response, but turned and walked out of the garage. She revealed she did not see a gun or observe any threats from Hill but heard Coy yell, “There’s a gun in his other hand! There’s a gun in his other hand!” just before firing.
Multiple officers arrived about five minutes after Hill was shot, and roughly another five minutes passed before an officer gave Hill any medical assistance. He was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead at 2:35 a.m. No weapon was recovered at the scene. Approximately one week after the shooting, Coy was fired from the Columbus Division of Police.
In October 2021, Coy’s trial was set for March 2022. However, over the course of years, the trial has been delayed three times due to Coy’s battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He is now considered healthy enough to stand trial.