COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former Columbus Police Officer Adam Coy pleaded not guilty Friday in the fatal shooting of Andre Hill, a 47-year-old Black man. Coy's bond was set to $3 million and he was arraigned on felony charges, including murder.
Coy, who attended through video from jail and remained mostly silent, has also been ordered to have no contact with Hill’s family, officers, and other potential witnesses.
Mark Collins, Coy’s defense attorney, attempted to have the bond set between $25,000 and $250,000, arguing Coy isn’t a flight risk and said “he’s not a threat.” Collins also added Coy believed he saw a gun in Hill’s hand and thought there was a burglary. Authorities found no weapon at the scene. According to Collins, when Coy found out it was not a silver gun but in fact a silver keychain, he threw up.
Anthony Pierson of the Special Prosecution Division, who presented the case to the grand jury, argued for a higher bond saying the evidence calls for it.
“We just don’t believe it’s a reasonable bond,” Collins rebutted. He said now that the case is indicted, they plan to file a discovery, which means that both sides would be able to exchange evidence.
“We have a timeline of what occurred, and it’s been corroborated,” Collins said. “So, yes, there were two to three interactions. Our client gave Hill a verbal command of what to do. Mr. Hill did not respond. So, again, you have to understand, in these types of cases, it’s not just this video that people are seeing. It’s the two to three minutes of what happened prior to that.”
Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump is representing the Hill family, but Co-counsel Michael Wright was present in court Friday. After the arraignment, he said he has faith in the jury.
“We believe that prosecutors are going to do their job, and we’re hopeful that the jury will come to the correct decision. I mean, everyone’s seen the tape. Everyone knows that this should not have occurred and that Andre Hill should still be alive and still be with us,” Wright said.
Crump said Thursday the indictment is a good first step, but more needs to be done.
“I want to say to the Attorney General just because there was an indictment, we still expect, based on this evidence, for you to get a conviction,” Crump said.
Hill’s sister, Shawna Barnett, agreed.
“We don't want any excuses. We want Adam Coy convicted of all the charges. No partials. We want all the charges,” Barnett said.
It’s likely Yost and the defense will have a hard time getting all charges, if history is any indication. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice, less than 50% of on-duty, officer-involved shootings that include murder charges are convicted.
A grand jury indicted Coy, a 19-year veteran of the force, on murder, felonious assault, and two counts of dereliction of duty Wednesday, according to documents. Coy fatally shot Hill, a Black man, on Dec. 22. Hill was in the garage of a friend’s home after dropping off Christmas gifts when Coy encountered him.
Amy Deitweiler, another officer on the scene, said Coy yelled twice Hill had a gun in his hand, and then shot him multiple times. Coy, along with other officers at the scene, failed to render aid for approximately 10 minutes.
Following the arraignment of former Columbus Police officer Adam Coy, whose bond was set at 3 million for felonies including murder, Coy’s attorney Mark Collins says he’s going to try to fight that amount down. @SpectrumNews1OH pic.twitter.com/cLzhHTGleG
— Pete Grieve (@pete_grieve) February 5, 2021
Authorities said no weapon was found at the scene, and that Hill was holding a cell phone in his left hand.
Coy's legal team is arguing Hill was allegedly holding a silver keychain in his hand, which hasn't been proven by evidence.
Crump and Andre Hill’s family held a press conference Thursday, responding to the indictment. The family said they are "relieved," but won't be satisfied until the charges are upheld.
“The reason they are not satisfied is because we know, based on what has happened before in America that when a white police officer kills a Black person that does not guarantee a conviction," said Crump.
The two charges of dereliction of duty relate to Coy’s failure to turn on his body camera and failure to make Detweiler aware of a threat if he thought he saw a gun, according to documents. The family’s attorneys said they believe the charges mention Coy’s failure to render aid, but relevant documents were not available on that matter as of Friday.
Collins said he understands why people were concerned about the body camera footage, but said it doesn't mean Coy is guilty.
“They see that small snippet of the video and they say, ‘Geeze, how could this happen, the person was unarmed?’ And I get that, and I respect that, and I hear them,” he said. “The jury potentially has to look at all these other circumstances, and then they'll hear from a use of force expert who will say whether they believe this was a reasonable action based on experience training and the circumstance, or not.”
After Coy failed to turn his camera on, Columbus City Council passed Andre's Law Monday, which mandates officers to turn on their body cameras in a long list of situations. It also mandates officers render medical aid, whether there was an accident or if it was from use of force.
Hill's daughter, Karissa, called for the legislation to prevent the situation from happening again.
"He was my gentle giant. I'd call him my rock. He was my support. He was my best friend," Karissa Hill said at his funeral.
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Karissa was the one to call for legislation mandating body cameras be turned on.
Hill’s sister Shawna Barnett said Wednesday was the first good day for her family since her brother was killed.
“We're happy, I mean it made my day yesterday,” she said Thursday morning.
But Barnett said her family’s long legal journey is just beginning.
“We're here for the long run, however long it takes. For my brother, we owe him that,” she said. “We don't want any excuses. We want Adam Coy convicted of all charges.”
Because of a 60-second “look-back” function on the cameras, the shooting was captured on video, but the look-back function does not capture audio, officials said. Coy activated his body camera after he had shot Hill.
Crump said he has a strong case even without audio — the video captures it all, he said. And Crump said Detweiler will be a key witness: She was right there with Coy and didn’t feel the same level of threat, Crump said.
“The thing that we are fortunate for is that there was another police officer on the scene, who had the same vantage points as well. She didn’t feel threatened. She didn’t feel that she had to use excessive force. She didn’t didn’t feel that she had to shoot this man, because it was a 311 call,” he said.
According to Detweiler’s interview with investigators, Coy called out, "There's a gun in his other hand. There's a gun in his other hand,” court documents showed.
Officials said they had an eye on Coy even before the shooting due to the lengthy history of complaints in his personnel file.
In Dec. 26 termination proceeding documents, then Police Chief Thomas Quinlan, who was ousted by Mayor Andrew Ginther when he lost confidence in the chief’s ability to implement reforms, revealed Coy had been put on performance improvement plans.
"Officer Coy has been counseled, trained and mentored perhaps more than any other officer on use of audio and video recording equipment, use of force policy and expectation, and been subject to performance improvement plans. Officer Coy's use of force was not objectively reasonable; he did not use trained techniques, did not use his BWC properly, and did not render medical aid. Officer Coy's handling of this run is not a 'rookie' mistake as a result of negligence or inadvertence, but the decisions made and actions taken were reckless and deliberate."
Jamilah Muhammad and Olivia Wile contributed to this story.