‘I put him to sleep’: Ex-con faces murder charge in fatal downtown Columbus fight
David Brian Lucier was two days out of prison when he got drunk in downtown Columbus and killed another sometimes homeless man outside a First Avenue church, police said.
Then he walked to a Veterans Parkway gas station, bought a beer and told the clerk that he had been attacked and might have killed his assailant, a detective said.
When police later told Lucier they had found Willie Foster’s body outside Trinity Episcopal Church, he replied, “Good. I’m glad he’s dead,” Detective Ryan Vardman testified Monday in Columbus Recorder’s Court.
Vardman said that was one of several remarks Lucier made to investigators questioning him after the Sept. 30 incident the gas station clerk reported shortly after midnight.
After finding Foster dead, police tried repeatedly to get Lucier to detail what had occurred, the detective said.
“He would just continue to say that he was attacked,” Vardman said., He added that during the interview that Lucier also remarked, “I choked that SOB out,” and “I put him to sleep.”
The suspect also said he stood over the unconscious man and kicked him several times, Vardman testified.
He said Lucier described drinking at an outdoor Broadway concert before going to the church grounds to sleep, then being awakened by Foster attacking him.
Arrest after autopsy
Because Lucier claimed to have acted in self-defense, and the cause of Foster’s death was not immediately clear, police released him without charge, that night.
They questioned him again on Oct. 4, and got a report from Foster’s autopsy on Oct. 10, Vardman said.
The state medical examiner decided Foster died from strangulation that fractured his neck bone, and had trauma to his head and torso, including a three-inch laceration of his liver, Vardman said.
The examiner also saw that both of Foster’s feet partially were amputated, and learned the 44-year-old had a heart condition, which could have impaired his ability to fight back, the detective said.
Foster had been sleeping regularly near an air-conditioning unit outside the church, where investigators found his backpack and blankets, Vardman said.
Police decided to charge Lucier with murder after consulting District Attorney Stacey Jackson, and arrested the suspect on Oct. 13, the officer said.
“He stated the victim needed killing,” Vardman said of Lucier.
He told Judge Susan Henderson that Lucier had come to Columbus after being released Sept. 28 from a prison in Valdosta, but did not say what offense Lucier had served time for.
Henderson found sufficient evidence to send the case on to Muscogee Superior Court. Lucier, 59, is being held without bond.
This story was originally published October 16, 2023 at 11:31 AM.