From [HERE] Prosecutors are dropping one of three charges against a white deputy before he goes to trial for a second time over a Black man’s death in 2020.

Jason Meade, who took disability retirement from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in 2021, was facing two counts of murder and one count of reckless homicide. A previous trial against him tasked a jury with determining whether or not he was justified in shooting 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. because he genuinely feared for his life.

However, a court filing on Friday showed that special prosecutors H. Tim Merkle, Gary Shroyer and Joshua Shaw are not going to pursue the same charges they did in a first trial against the ex-deputy, which ended with a deadlocked jury. The trio entered nolle prosequi for the first charge of murder, meaning they will no longer pursue it in court. Meade will instead face a single count of murder alongside the reckless homicide charge.

The government did not state why they made the request and Merkle said Monday that prosecutors would have no further comment on the motion.

Casey had just left an appointment at the dentist’s office and was bringing lunch back to his grandmother’s house when Jason Meade shot him six times from behind, killing him. Meade’s lawyer says the deputy fired when Goodson pointed a gun at him. Goodson’s family has said he was holding a sandwich, not a gun.

The complaint states in relevant part,

“a group of officers tasked to the U.S. Marshals were in the neighborhood to arrest someone that was not Casey and was in no way affiliated with Casey. Jason Meade was working with the task force as a member of their Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team (SOFAST) and as a member of their District Fugitive Task Force (DTF). The U.S. Marshals were heavily armed, and Jason Meade was not in uniform and was carrying a rifle.

The SOFAST and DTF did not find their target, however the target’s sister did encounter Meade when he and his colleagues raided her home. As she stated in a Facebook post, “#JasonMeade was already on bullshit before he left my house. Knowing I wasn’t dressed busted in my room knowing I was naked and we had a brief argument as he felt I had ‘plenty of time’ to get dressed. They were aware my brother was AT WORK. Truth be told, they shouldn’t have been on this street PERIOD. It was as simple as communicating with the parties involved.” The sister also later described Meade as a ticking time bomb who was extremely angry and aggressive when inside of her home.

The mission of SOFAST and DTF ended without apprehending their target, and the members of the team began to disperse.

Around this time, Casey had finished his appointment at the dentist. After leaving, Casey went to Subway to buy sandwiches for his family.

As Casey was returning home from Subway, upon information and belief, Jason Meade saw Casey and followed Casey back to his home.

Upon information and belief, Casey arrived home, parked, and exited his vehicle. He grabbed the bag of subway sandwiches, and began walking toward the side of the house to enter through the side door.

Casey was not committing any crime, was not suspected of committing any crime and did not present any threat to Meade or anyone else. He was simply attempting to enter his own home.

Jason Meade—armed with a rifle— targeted and hunted Casey, following him as Casey proceeded towards his house.

Casey proceeded to enter the side door of the house. The side door of the house is comprised of an exterior door with a metal-screen, and a wooden interior door with a lock. Casey opened the exterior door and used his keys to unlock the wooden door. As Casey unlocked the wooden door, Jason Meade opened fire. Casey was entering through the door when Jason Meade shot him to death.

Meade fired six bullets into Casey’s body with his rifle. Two bullets pierced Casey’s back, ripping through his body, bullet’s trajectory exiting through his chest, next to his heart.

Another bullet pierced Casey’s back, about six inches from where the first and second bullet pierced his body, exiting directly left to his chest.

Meade fired another bullet into Casey’s left-lower-back. Unlike Jason Meade’s first, second, and third bullet, the fourth bullet did not rip through Casey’s body. Instead, it blew a chunk of flesh off of Casey’s body.

Meade fired another bullet into Casey’s lower-right-back, ripped through Casey’s body up to Casey’s chest.

A sixth bullet entered Casey’s right buttock and remained lodged directly above his hip bone. At least three of the bullets flew through the metal screen, shattering the glass contained within the door.

Wound mapping provided Bauer Forensics demonstrates that Meade shot Casey all six times while Casey was facing away from him, entering his home.

Nine members of Casey’s family were in the house at that time but did not know that Meade was nearby. They did not hear any alleged orders or commands from Meade.

When Casey’s family heard gunshots and the glass in the metal screen door shattering, they ran toward the door to see what was happening. There, Casey’s family members observed Casey lying on the kitchen floor, bleeding to death.

While still in the house, an officer pointed his rifle at Tamala’s brother, who was holding his three-year old daughter and commanded them to “get out of the house before [he] shoots them too.”

Casey’s grandmother suffered a stroke that night, which caused her to fall and injure her head in her own home—the same place where Jason Meade shot her grandson in the back six times.

This shooting was unjustified, objectively unreasonable, and constituted excessive force, in violation of Casey’s constitutional rights.

Meade’s first trial ended in a mistrial in February when a jury couldn’t agree on a verdict, ending tumultuous proceedings that saw four jurors dismissed. His retrial is scheduled to start Oct. 31.

It wasn’t known Monday when a decision would be made on the dismissal request.

Meade testified that Goodson waved a gun at him as the two drove past each other so he pursued Goodson because he said he feared for his life and the lives of others. He said he eventually shot Goodson because the young man turned toward him with a gun.

Goodson’s family and prosecutors have said he was holding a sandwich bag in one hand and his keys in the other when he was fatally shot. They do not dispute that Goodson may have been carrying a gun and note that he had a license to carry a firearm. Although the Supreme Court has made it plain and ruled that individuals have the right to carry firearms on their person in public- in reality said rights only exist for white citizens are inapplicable to Black people. Here, note that the white journalist is impressed with just the fact that the Black man had a gun in his possession - not that he did anything with it dangerous - such as point it someone or shoot someone

Meade was not wearing a body camera so there is no footage of the shooting, and prosecutors repeatedly asserted during the first trial that Meade is the only person who testified Goodson was holding a gun.