Three things we learned last week in Jason Meade's murder trial

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The murder trial against a former sheriff's deputy who fatally shot a Black man in 2020 is continuing on Tuesday after a surprise witness caused a delay.

Jason Meade is on trial for the death of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. in December 2020, where he faces two counts of murder and one count of reckless homicide. The trial is now in recess until 8:45 a.m. on Tuesday after prosecutors subpoenaed a last-minute witness.

Before the trial went on break, Meade's attorneys asserted he trailed Goodson when he saw him wave a gun while driving. He shot Goodson after he pointed his gun at Meade, his attorneys claimed.

Goodson's family, and the state, have argued that Goodson was not holding his gun, for which he had a concealed carry permit. He could not have been a threat, they've said, because his back was toward Meade when he shot him six times.

Here are three things we learned last week about the 2020 shooting before the hiatus.

Surprise witness located

Christopher Corne is scheduled to provide deposition testimony on Monday after he was subpoenaed by prosecutors as a last-minute witness, court documents show.

While both the defense and the prosecution had declined to comment, sources told NBC4 before Corne's name was released that the surprise witness was a driver who was near the intersection where Meade said Goodson waved and pointed a gun.

The address listed in Corne's subpoena belongs to a heating and cooling business in Groveport. Earlier in the trial, a woman who lived near the house where Goodson was shot testified that she saw a heating and cooling van parked outside her home. It is not clear if that van is connected to the Groveport company.

Corne is required to provide all GPS records and an employment file, the filing states. In addition, Meade’s attorneys filed a subpoena for Goodson's mother, Tamala Payne, and her civil attorney, Sean Walton, for all emails sent between them throughout the last six months regarding Corne.

It is unclear when Corne came forward and if he had any contact with Walton or Payne, who are also set to give depositions on Monday.

'He was going to shoot me,' Meade said

Meade testified for nearly four hours last week and described in detail the moments before he shot Goodson. While waiting at a red light, Meade said he saw Goodson brandish a gun in a "pumping" fashion and point it at another driver before pointing it at Meade.

"It was very clear," Meade said. "I could see the weapon in his hand."

He then turned his unmarked U.S. Marshals truck and trailed Goodson. Meade saw Goodson's car parked the wrong way in front of Goodson's grandmother's house, so he stopped several houses away. He got his bulletproof vest out of a locked vault in the back of his truck.

Meade claimed that when Goodson saw him with his vest on, he ran, with a plastic bag in one hand and a gun in the other. At that point, Meade said he assumed Goodson was eluding arrest, so he got back in his truck and sped toward the grandmother's house.

"I'm a law enforcement officer, it's my duty to respond. That's my job," Meade said. "Because the threat that he posed."

Once there, he began commanding Goodson to put his hands up and drop the gun, Meade said. Goodson had opened the metal storm door to the side of the house and was unlocking the door to enter the kitchen.

Goodson stepped into the house. His shoulders slumped forward, which Meade thought meant he was going to surrender. Then he said he saw Goodson, with his back still turned, point the gun back at Meade.

"I thought he was going to shoot me," Meade said. "I'm thinking, 'I don’t want to die.'"

Goodson was listening to music

The prosecution presented photos on Monday from an officer's body camera showing Goodson on the kitchen floor with an AirPod in at least one of his ears. Goodson was listening to YouTube Music with his AirPods, the detective who analyzed his phone data and Google account information testified.

He cued eight songs between noon and 12:19 p.m., right around the time he was shot. Under probing by the defense, the detective clarified that there was no way to tell from the data how loud Goodson's music was playing -- or whether he could have heard Meade's commands.

The AirPods, which jurors saw last week in crime scene photos, were not originally collected as evidence. A detective on the case, Dana Croom, testified under cross-examination Monday that such an omission would not necessarily mean that someone tampered with evidence -- that’s why scenes are documented extensively with photos.

Goodson's family and Walton shared the photo of Goodson's AirPods with NBC4 in September 2022, arguing the image proves the 23-year-old had no idea what was taking place at the time of his death.

"It's a picture of bloody AirPods that were recovered from the scene of Casey's murder," Walton said during the 2022 news conference. "That evidence is important because the public needs to know how heinous this crime was."