Suspect pleading in murder trial linked to another fatal Columbus shooting
The suspect who pleaded guilty in a 2018 murder case going to trial this week in Columbus is charged in another fatal shooting that same year.
Murder charges against Eric Randall Spencer Jr. were dropped Monday as he pleaded guilty to armed robbery and two gun offenses in the April 6, 2018, death of Branden Denson, gunned down at a Buena Vista Road Pizza Hut where robbers took 16 pounds of marijuana from his Jeep.
Spencer also is a suspect in a second 2018 shooting that was thought to be random, a case in which another man had been charged with murder, before he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, court records show.
That man was Raphael Antwan Raymond, who spent years in jail before his plea deal this past January.
2018 killing of William Meadows
Police had alleged Raymond randomly fired a pistol from a car going down Alta Vista Drive when one of the stray bullets hit 74-year-old William Meadows.
Meadows, shot behind his right ear while sitting in the driver’s seat of his car, in his garage, was found dead the next day.
At Raymond’s preliminary hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court, detectives testified he was in a car with two others, passing Meadows’ home about 4 p.m. on April 28, 2018, when he tested a Canik 9mm pistol by shooting out the window.
Raymond tested the gun because he thought the weapon’s polymer frame felt like plastic, an officer said. Police found no evidence anyone in the car knew Meadows.
One of the three people in the car was Eric Spencer.
Police initially charged Raymond with felony murder based on his allegedly causing Meadows’ death while committing the felony of first-degree criminal damage to property.
On Dec. 17, 2020, a grand jury indicted him for malice murder based on the allegation his killing Meadows without provocation was evidence of an “abandoned and malignant heart.”
The grand jury also indicted both Raymond and Spencer for involuntary manslaughter, allegedly for having killed Meadows while firing a gun on a public street, and for firing a gun on a public street, the misdemeanor offense that backed the felonies.
Raymond’s malice murder charge could have meant a life sentence. The penalty for involuntary manslaughter, for causing a death while acting illegally, is one to 10 years in prison. Firing a gun on a public street is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison.
Raymond pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor.
Murder charge dropped
This past Jan. 25, his murder and involuntary manslaughter charges were dropped. After he pleaded guilty to shooting on a public road, visiting Senior Superior Court Judge Gary McCorvey sentenced him to 12 months.
Given credit for time served, Raymond, now 30 years old, was released. Arrested for murder June 25, 2018, he had spent 1,311 days in jail.
Now one suspect remains in the random shooting that killed a Vietnam veteran sitting in his car on a Saturday afternoon: Eric Spencer.
Spencer still faces the charges on which he was indicted: involuntary manslaughter and shooting on a public street.
His attorney, Susan Henderson, said she was never told why Raymond’s case came to that conclusion.
“I don’t how Raymond pled to a misdemeanor,” she said Tuesday. “It’s an open case, and it’s been handled by several DAs.”
Raymond’s attorney, Anthony Johnson, said accounts of the shooting Spencer gave police made no sense.
Johnson said Spencer, Raymond and Spencer’s girlfriend were in a 2017 Hyundai Veloster the girlfriend had leased, and Spencer was the one buying the gun. Spencer texted a photo of the weapon to a friend within minutes of the shooting, the attorney said..
But Spencer blamed Raymond for Meadows’ death, first claiming Raymond fired the gun while driving the car, then telling police Raymond shot the pistol while sitting in the front passenger seat, Johnson said.
For that to match the trajectory of the bullets, Raymond would have had to fire the gun out of the driver’s side window, from the front passenger seat, pointing the pistol across the driver’s seat as the car traveled down Alta Vista Drive, Johnson said.
“It’s not realistic,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
A more likely scenario is that Spencer fired the pistol to test it, because he was the one thinking of buying it, and Raymond had teased him, telling him the gun was not worth the price, Johnson said.
When Assistant District Attorney Breanna Foster was assigned the case and examined the evidence, she agreed to Raymond’s plea deal, the attorney said.
Johnson gave her credit for resolving it.
“She took a fresh look at it,” he said, of his client adding, “Had it not been for Breanna Foster, he probably still would have been in jail.”
Foster could not immediately be reached Tuesday. Her boss, Acting District Attorney Sheneka Terry, declined to comment, except to say of Spencer’s manslaughter charge, “It’s still pending.”
Johnson said the case shows Spencer is not a reliable witness: “He is not a credible dude at all.”
Expected to testify
Now Spencer is expected to testify against his codefendants in this week’s trial over Denson’s 2018 shooting and robbery.
In a deal to secure his testimony, he pleaded guilty Monday to armed robbery, using a firearm to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm. Senior Superior Court Judge David Emerson sentenced him to 25 years in prison, with 10 to serve and the rest on probation, following the terms of a deal Henderson made with prosecutors.
One condition of his sentence is that he testify truthfully at trial.
Should he testify, he will be subject to cross-examination by defense attorneys for his four codefendants. They will try to challenge his credibility, invoking other cases in which he was involved.
In a pretrial motions hearing Tuesday, they said they will question Spencer about Meadows’ death.
Here are the other suspects’ names, charges and attorneys:
- Dover Bartlett Coppins, 27, charged with murder, armed robbery, using a gun to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm. He is represented by Shevon Thomas.
- Tommie Jamal Mullins Jr., 28, charged with murder and armed robbery. He is represented by Stacey Jackson.
- Tyree Jaquan Smith, 24, charged with murder and armed robbery. He is represented by William Kendrick.
- Johnathon Lemorris Swift, 30, charged with murder and armed robbery. He’s represented by Michael Eddings.
Asked to outline the evidence as Spencer pleaded Monday, Terry said the suspects had planned to meet Denson at the Pizza Hut to buy the marijuana with counterfeit money.
Police have said Denson waited 10 to 20 minutes in his Jeep before four people in a rented car pulled up about 10:30 p.m. Three people got out the car, grabbed Denson’s duffel bag of marijuana and shot him three times in the back, leaving him dead in the driver’s seat, detectives said.
Denson, 32, also was known by the rap name “Billion Dollar BD.”
During a 2018 preliminary hearing for Mullins in Columbus Recorder’s Court, Detective Robert Nicholas testified the suspects met with Mullins before the shooting, so that he could assign each a role in the scheme.
The suspects again met with Mullins after the robbery, and Mullins divided the marijuana between them, and congratulated Coppins for having fired the fatal shots, Nicholas said.
This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 5:00 AM.