Jury deliberations to begin in murder case of former Columbus police officer who shot unarmed man

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The fate of a former Columbus police officer who fatally shot an unarmed arm in December 2020 is now in the hands of a Franklin County jury.

Deliberations are scheduled to begin Thursday in the trial for Adam Coy, 48, who is facing charges of murder, reckless homicide and felonious assault in the death of Andre Hill, 47. If convicted of murder -- the most serious charge -- Coy could face a maximum sentence of life in prison. The jury could choose to convict Coy on any combination of charges, or none at all. 

The jury will deliberate according to a schedule it sets, Judge Stephen McIntosh said Wednesday after closing arguments. NBC4 will livestream the reading of the verdict when it happens.

Use of force trials for police officers use a different standard than the typical murder trial. Jurors will not have to determine whether Coy killed Hill but rather whether Coy’s use of force was “objectively reasonable” for a police officer based on the knowledge he had during that time, without the use of hindsight. 

On Dec. 22, 2020, at about 1:50 a.m., Coy shot Hill four times while responding to a nonemergency suspicious vehicle call on Columbus’ northwest side. Coy fired at Hill after he began exiting a garage at Coy's request, with a lit phone screen held up in his left hand and his right hand at his side, not clearly visible due to a parked car.

While multiple officers began arriving at the scene about five minutes after the shooting, 10 minutes passed before Hill, who was later determined to be unarmed, was given any medical assistance. He died later at a hospital.

About one week after the shooting, Coy was fired from the force. In the following months, the city enacted Andre's Law, requiring officers to render medical aid to shooting victims. And the city also reached a $10 million settlement with Hill's family in a civil lawsuit that included renaming a community center after him in Teakwood.

In February 2021, Coy was charged with murder and felonious assault, before he was indicted on an additional charge of reckless homicide in April. In the following years, Coy's trial was delayed three times due to his battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Jury selection began on Oct. 21, nearly four years after the shooting.

During opening statements, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Renee Amlin revealed Coy and Hill had interacted before the shooting – a detail previously undisclosed. When Coy arrived at the scene, he approached Hill’s vehicle, which was parked on the street. Hill showed Coy a text on his phone and told him he was waiting to meet with someone. Defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens described Hill as “wide-eyed and jittery” during this interaction in her opening statement. 

Amy Detweiler, an officer who was the only witness to the shooting, testified that she never saw a gun or observed a deadly threat from Hill. The state also called other responding police officers.

Among the defense witnesses was Coy himself. After talking with Hill in his vehicle, he testified that he saw Hill walk up to a nearby house and “bang” on the front door, with no answer. Coy said Hill returned to his car and retrieved something. Hill began walking toward the house again when Coy asked him what was going on, but Coy said Hill did not reply and kept looking back at him.

Coy said as he approached the house, he saw a flicker of light from inside a dark garage. He got his flashlight out and observed Hill “crouched down” in the back corner, facing toward the house. Coy said he ordered Hill to “show himself,” claiming he did not have his weapon drawn. Detweiler, however, said she believed both of them had their weapons drawn when they decided to approach the garage. 

Coy said when Hill began walking toward him, he could not see Hill's right side. As Hill got closer, Coy testified he believed he saw a silver revolver in the right hand and thought he was going to die. Coy said that was when he drew his weapon and fired the shots.

As he recounted the events, he became visibly emotional and teary. Coy said as soon as he saw that it was a set of keys in Hill's hand and not a weapon, he knew he was mistaken and was horrified. He described the early morning hours of the shooting as “the worst night of [his] life.”

The defense also called upon two law enforcement experts, who testified that Coy acted in accordance with national law enforcement standards. The witnesses both conveyed that Coy had a duty to investigate the situation given previous “suspicious” behavior from Hill and that officers are trained to meet a perceived deadly threat with lethal force. 

The final witness was a policing expert called by the state for its rebuttal. He testified that regardless of Coy's suspicions, there was not sufficient evidence that a serious crime was about to take place. The witness also testified that deadly force by an officer is only appropriate when an individual poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to another person, and that Hill would not be reasonably perceived as having the ability or intent to do so at the time he was shot.