Former Columbus police officer Adam Coy to face trial in 2020 shooting of Andre Hill
Nearly four years after a Columbus police officer fatally shot an unarmed Black man inside a Northwest Side garage, jury selection in his trial is scheduled to begin Monday.
Former Columbus police officer Adam Coy, 47, is charged with murder, felonious assault, reckless homicide and two counts of dereliction of duty in the Dec. 22, 2020, shooting death of 47-year-old Andre Hill.
How did Andre Hill die?
Coy was the first officer to respond to a nonemergency noise disturbance complaint involving a vehicle running on and off for an extended period. Hill was with a vehicle in front a home on the 1000 block of Oberlin Drive. Coy and Hill talked and Hill went up into the unlit garage of the home when a female officer responded to the scene.
The two officers talked and were walking up the driveway about 2 a.m. when Hill came out of the garage holding his lit cellphone in his left hand and his hand in his right pocket. Coy points his flashlight into the dark garage with his gun drawn and suddenly shoots Hill several times. An autopsy found bullets struck Hill in the chest, twice in the right thigh and an additional time in the right leg.
Body camera footage showed the shooting. Although Coy did not have his body camera on at the time of the shooting, video without audio was captured through a 60-second look-back feature on the body camera.
The body camera footage shows Hill turning around on the right side of a vehicle inside the garage and taking four steps toward the officers. Hill, whom court records show was an invited guest at the home who had brought Christmas money to a friend, has a cellphone in his left hand and his right hand in a coat pocket.
Coy shot Hill as he approached the garage's entrance approximately 10 seconds after the encounter began. After the shots were fired, he turned on his body camera and captured audio. The additional footage from Coy and other officers who responded to the scene shows Hill received no medical attention for more than 10 minutes.
What charges is Adam Coy facing?
Coy is charged with murder, reckless homicide, felonious assault and dereliction of duty. The sentence for a murder conviction, the most serious of the charges, is life in prison without the possibility of parole for 15 years.
The murder, felonious assault and reckless homicide charges all pertain to the actual shooting of Hill.
There are two dereliction of duty charges — one for Coy not turning on his body camera before the shooting and one for not warning the female officer about the potential danger Coy believed Hill posed.
What has Adam Coy said about the shooting?
Coy has not spoken publicly about the shooting. In a statement after criminal charges were filed, Coy's attorney, Mark Collins, said Coy mistook a key ring in Hill's right hand for a revolver.
Collins said Coy provided more than two hours of interviews and cooperated with investigators.
"The Supreme Court has said the officers are allowed to make mistakes if the mistake is reasonable through the lens of a reasonable police officer," Collins previously told The Dispatch. "Adam Coy was mistaken. He thought the keys were a revolver, and he reacted based on his training."
What do we know about Adam Coy?
Coy was fired by the Columbus Division of Police less than a week after the shooting . His personnel records show more than 90 citizen complaints were filed against him during his 19-year tenure with Columbus police.
Those complaints included a 2012 incident in which Coy received a 160-hour suspension, and the city paid $45,000 to a man Coy had stopped for drunken driving. Previous reporting by The Dispatch found a cruiser camera had caught Coy "banging the driver's head into the hood four times" during the arrest, which was deemed "excessive for the situation."
Other complaints documented a history of Coy acting inappropriately when faced with stressful situations and not using de-escalation techniques.
Why has Adam Coy's trial taken so long to happen?
Coy's trial was postponed indefinitely while the former Columbus police officer underwent treatment for cancer.
His health is now considered good enough to undergo a trial likely to last two to three weeks.
How will the trial process work?
A special panel of jurors will be asked to come to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas on Friday to fill out questionnaires. Those questionnaires will include questions about any previous encounters potential jurors made have had with police and their exposure to media coverage of the case and others like it.
Beginning Monday, the formal jury selection process will begin with questioning by the attorneys. Once a jury of 12 is selected with at least four alternates, those jurors will hear opening statements and be taken to see the shooting scene. Opening statements could happen as early as Tuesday.
Testimony in the case is expected to come from other officers who responded to the scene after the shooting, as well as experts for each side in police use of force.
Coy is also expected to testify in his own defense.
Who are the attorneys for each side?
Coy is represented by Collins and Kaitlyn Stephens , who represent many law enforcement officers in Franklin County charged in criminal cases.
The Franklin County Prosecutor's office is back handling Coy's case through Deputy Chief Counsel Anthony Pierson and Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Renee Amlin.
Pierson had been the prosecutor to seek Coy's indictment while working for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's office. When Pierson returned to Franklin County in 2023, Yost transferred the case to the local prosecutor's office with him.
Pierson ran for county prosecutor in the Democratic primary in March, losing to Columbus City Councilmember Shayla Favor.
Judge Stephen McIntosh will oversee the trial.
What is the legal standard jurors will use in the Andre Hill trial?
Use of force trials for police officers are different than other murder trials in that they use a different legal standard.
Based on a Supreme Court decision in the 1989 case Graham vs. Connor, jurors are required to evaluate whether a police officer's use of force is "objectively reasonable" based on the knowledge they had at the time — without the use of hindsight.
The standard set by Graham vs. Connor also allows for an officer to use force if they feel a person poses a serious threat to the officer or others based on the totality of the facts and circumstances that existed at the time the force was used.
Another case, 2001's Saucier vs. Katz, allows officers to err in using split-second judgments required in many situations.
"Officers can have reasonable, but mistaken, beliefs as to the facts," the Katz decision says, if the mistake is reasonable in light of all other circumstances known to the officer at the time.
The jury hearing the case has to have a unanimous verdict and requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt for conviction.
Is there a civil lawsuit against Adam Coy or Columbus police?
Hill's family did seek damages from Coy and Columbus police. The city agreed to pay Hill's family $10 million as a result of Hill's death.
As part of the city's agreement with Hill's family, the gymnasium inside the Brentnell Community Center, located at 1280 Brentnell Ave., was renamed in Hill's honor.
Nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Dayton-based attorney Michael Wright represented Hill's family.
What has changed since Andre Hill's death?
Following Hill's death, City Council passed Andre's Law , which requires Columbus officers to have their body cameras on when responding to calls and to provide medical assistance until paramedics arrive at a scene. Officers who do not do so could be criminally charged.
Columbus police also upgraded their body camera system to include a two-minute look-back feature that captures audio and video. The cameras also utilize Bluetooth technology to automatically turn on when a cruiser's lights or siren are activated, a rifle or shotgun rack is released, a cruiser accelerates to a high speed or a cruiser is involved in a crash.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Adam Coy, former Columbus cop, to face trial in death of Andre Hill
