This month, an Ohio family will gather for their fifth holiday season without Casey Goodson.
The 23-year-old was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy while trying to enter his home on Dec. 4, 2020, in Columbus in Franklin County. He was holding keys to the front door in one hand and a bag of Subway sandwiches in the other.
Despite settling their wrongful-death lawsuit last year, the family may be hitting a legal roadblock. In court documents filed on Dec. 1 this year, attorneys for the former sheriff’s deputy, Michael Jason Meade, put the judge and prosecutors on notice that they will present a self-defense and justification case in his second trial. Jury selection starts on Jan. 26, 2026, according to online records with the Franklin County Clerk of Courts.
At the time of the shooting, Meade, a 17-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, was searching for a fugitive when he said he saw Goodson with a gun, and opened fire after they exchanged words, police said. Goodson was shot five times in the back.
Prosecutors in the first trial in 2024 revealed during opening statements that a gun was found at the scene, but in the kitchen with the safety on. Goodson was licensed to carry a firearm.
The incident was not captured on a body camera.
Capital B emailed Sean L. Walton, an attorney for the Goodson family, and Meade’s defense attorneys on Monday for comment but had not received a response from either as of publication.
Goodson’s nine siblings will gather in a Franklin County courtroom in the coming weeks as Meade raises a stand-your-ground defense in his second murder and reckless homicide trial in connection with the case.
Under a state law enacted in 2023, once an individual accused of a crime asserts a self-defense claim, prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect was not acting in fear for their life or otherwise justified in using deadly force. That law was not used during Meade’s first trial in February 2024, which ended in a mistrial. But now that Meade has formally raised self-defense, the court has ruled that prosecutors must turn over more than just police reports for discovery, according to the four-page notice. They are required to disclose any evidence — including notes or information from witness interviews — that could support Meade’s claim or that the state plans to use to challenge it.
Civil and legal advocates previously told Capital B they were concerned the stand-your-ground law could be misused in cases involving deadly force, shifting the burden in a way that could make acquittals or lesser sentences more likely.
David Singleton, executive director of the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, told Capital B in 2023 that since Ohio became the 36th state to implement a stand-your-ground statute, it has been a “headache for prosecutors across the state,” making it a challenge “to hold people accountable who use deadly force when really they shouldn’t.”
In July 2024, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners voted to approve a $7 million settlement to resolve the civil claims against the county. This settlement is “in no way an admission of liability on the part” of anyone involved in Goodson’s death, “including but not limited to” Meade, according to the resolution obtained by The New York Times. Goodson’s family agreed in December 2024 to dismiss their federal civil rights lawsuit against the accused shooter and the county that hired him, according to online records.
Now the Goodson family will have to wait for a jury’s verdict next year to determine Meade’s criminal liability. If convicted, Meade could be sentenced to life in prison.
Meade was originally indicted on two counts of murder in December 2021. One of the murder charges was dropped by prosecutors, according to court records. After two weeks of testimony, the judge declared a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. It was a 9-3 decision to convict Meade for the murder of Goodson, Walton told Capital B in 2024.
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