Charges dismissed in random 2018 Columbus fatal shooting linked to second homicide
Absent some new development in the case, no one now will atone for the fatal shooting of a Vietnam veteran who was killed while sitting in his car in the garage of his Columbus home.
Prosecutors have dropped an involuntary manslaughter charge against Eric Randall Spencer in the April 28, 2018, death of 74-year-old William Ronald Meadows, found dead in the driver’s seat of his car.
Spencer was one of two suspects initially charged in Meadows’ death. The other, Raphael Antwan Raymond, was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor earlier this year, and released from jail.
Spencer will be sent to prison after pleading guilty to reduced charges in an earlier 2018 homicide, but he so far has not been held accountable in Meadows’ case.
Court filings show Senior Assistant District Attorney Peter Hoffman moved to have Spencer’s charges dead-docketed, and Superior Court Judge John Martin signed the order on April 26.
“It was dead-docketed based on the evidence and the ability we have to prosecute the case right now,” Acting District Attorney Sheneka Terry said Monday.
The charges may be revived if prosecutors decide to renew their effort, she said.
The shooting
Police had alleged Spencer and Raymond were in a car passing Meadows’ Alta Vista Drive home when they fired a pistol out the window to test it.
The bullet that hit Meadows in the head was not aimed at him, investigators said: It was among a barrage fired from the street, where police found nine 9-millimeter shell casings. Four bullets struck Meadows’ house as one came through the back window of his car and hit him behind his right ear, detectives said.
Neighbors found Meadows, an Air Force veteran of Vietnam, dead in his car the next day.
Spencer, who with his girlfriend was in the car with Raymond, claimed Raymond fired the gun out the car window, because Raymond was thinking of buying the pistol and wanted to make sure it worked, authorities said.
But police suspected Spencer also fired the weapon, as he photographed himself holding the gun and sent the photo to a friend at 4:02 p.m. that day, around the same time neighbors reported hearing gunfire, police said.
Officers initially charged Raymond with murder, and he was indicted and held in jail 1,311 days before pleading guilty in January to the misdemeanor of firing a gun on a public street. Sentenced to a year in jail, he was released with credit for time served.
That left Spencer the remaining suspect. He also had been indicted for shooting a gun on a public street, and for involuntary manslaughter by causing Meadows’ death while committing that offense.
But first Spencer was set for trial with four others charged 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.
The only conviction
Just before he went to trial in Denson’s death, Spencer negotiated a deal in which his murder charges were dropped as he pleaded guilty to armed robbery, using a firearm to commit a crime and being a convicted felon with a firearm. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, with 10 to serve and the rest on probation, and agreed to testify against his codefendants.
Spencer testified against them on March 24 and 25, but then recanted his testimony, claiming he had lied on the witness stand. After that, Senior Judge David Emerson ruled that the evidence against two defendants was insufficient to support the charges against them.
The judge dismissed charges against Tyree Jaquan Smith and Johnathon Lemorris Swift, and the jury on April 4 found the other two suspects, Dover Bartlett Coppins and Tommie Jamal Mullins Jr., not guilty of murder and armed robbery.
Spencer now is the only suspect who will serve prison time for Denson’s homicide.
Who shot Meadows?
In Meadows’ death, 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.
But 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.”
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 Raymond shot the gun from the front passenger’s seat, though that was not on the side of the car facing Meadow’s home.
A more likely scenario, Johnson said, 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.
Police said their investigation indicated either suspect could have fired the shot that killed Meadows: Spencer was driving the car, and the driver’s side of the car faced Meadows’ house, they said.
But Spencer and his girlfriend both claimed Raymond sat up in the open passenger’s side window and fired the pistol over the car roof at the victim’s home, so Raymond also could have shot Meadows, detectives said.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 3:06 PM.