Ex-officer who mistook a Black man's keys and phone for a gun gets 15 years to life for murder
Race & ethnicity
Gun violenceFacebookTweetLink
Follow
A former Ohio police officer convicted of murder in the shooting of Andre Hill, a Black man who was holding a cellphone and keys when he was killed, was given a mandatory sentence Monday of 15 years to life.
Former Columbus officer Adam Coy shot Hill four times in a garage in December 2020, as the country reckoned with a series of police killings of Black men, women and children. He told jurors that he feared for his life because he thought Hill was holding a silver revolver.
Coy, who is being treated for Hodgkin lymphoma, told the court Monday he plans to appeal the verdict.
'I feel my actions were justified,' Coy said. 'I reacted the same way I had in hundreds of training scenarios. I drew and fired my weapon to stop a threat, protect myself and my partner.'
Prosecutors said Hill followed police commands and was never a threat to Coy.
In victim impact statements Monday, Hill's sisters and ex-wife described the 47-year-old as a gentle man who had never met a stranger. His grandchildren called him 'Big Daddy.'
Police body camera footage showed Hill coming out of the garage of a friend's house holding up a cellphone in his left hand, his right hand not visible, seconds before he was fatally shot. Almost 10 minutes passed before officers at the scene rendered aid.
Coy, who was fired afterward, had a lengthy history of citizen complaints, although most were declared unfounded. Weeks later, the mayor forced out the police chief after a series of fatal police shootings of Black people.
Columbus later reached a $10 million settlement with Hill's family, and the city passed a law requiring police to give immediate medical attention to injured suspects.
The local Fraternal Order of Police chapter said it would continue to support Coy, for both his sake and that of every officer who 'acts in good faith' under department protocols.
'While this incident was a heart-rending mistake, it wasn't murder,' said Brian Steel, president of FOP Capital City Lodge 9.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
Man allegedly screamed slurs at pair before stabbing woman: prosecutors
A Cook County judge on Friday ordered a Portage Park man held while awaiting trial on hate crime charges for allegedly stabbing a white woman whom he encountered on a Northwest Side street with a Black man. Prosecutors said Andres Stathoulopoulos, 20, approached the pair as they were headed into the man's home in Portage Park around 11 p.m. July 8 and began screaming threats and racial slurs at them. The man walked away to try to defuse the situation, prosecutors said, while the woman yelled at Stathoulopoulos to leave them alone. The man, who allegedly saw Stathoulopoulos holding a small knife, began to pull the woman away, but the woman suffered a deep cut on the top of her left wrist that needed four stitches. Stathoulopoulos now faces two hate crime counts and one count of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors didn't specify arelationship between the two alleged victims but said Stathoulopoulos had called the woman an '(expletive) lover.' Stathoulopoulos showed up on surveillance camera footage crossing the street toward the woman, they said, and was also captured walking away from the site of the alleged stabbing with a knife in his hand. Schiller Park police arrested Stathoulopoulos Wednesday in the western suburb, court records show. Judge Antara Nath Rivera on Friday afternoon ordered Stathoulopoulos held at his first appearance in the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on the grounds that he had allegedly been motivated to act out of 'racial hatred' and had a recent history of arrests and convictions. A search of Cook County court records didn't immediately return results for the criminal record Rivera referenced. He is next set to appear before a judge Aug. 6 in Skokie.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Execution of Tennessee inmate with heart device can go forward despite claims it may shock him
Tennessee can move forward with next week's scheduled execution of a condemned man with a defibrillator after the state's highest court ruled the heart device does not need to be deactivated before he is put to death. Lawyers for inmate Byron Black, 69, had argued to a Davidson County Chancery Court last month that the device, if not disabled, may try to restore his heart and prolong his suffering as he is executed by lethal injection. But the Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday reversed the lower court's ruling, finding that requiring the implanted heart regulating device to be switched off essentially amounts to a "stay of execution," which the chancery court does not have the authority to implement. The state Supreme Court justices, however, did note that there's nothing preventing the state and Black's legal team from reaching an agreement for a deactivation procedure to be done before his execution Tuesday morning. An implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD, is installed in a patient's chest to deliver electric shocks to those with dangerously fast heartbeats and helps restore a regular rhythm. Attorneys for Black filed a request Thursday to the state Supreme Court to temporarily halt the execution, writing that he could otherwise "be subject to the severe pain and suffering of having his heart repeatedly shocked back into rhythm during his execution." One of his lawyers, Kelley Henry, also said she is asking Gov. Bill Lee to grant clemency for her client so that "Tennessee does not move forward with this gruesome spectacle." She also argued that Black is intellectually disabled and that his execution would violate the state Constitution. Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6. Nashville police said that Black had previously threatened harm to Clay because she was considering ending their relationship, according to her sister. Black previously faced three execution dates but those procedures were delayed, in part, because of a pause in state executions in 2022 due to issues in testing its lethal injection drugs. Tennessee resumed executions in May under a new lethal injection protocol using pentobarbital, a sedative. State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement Thursday that he will "continue fighting to seek justice for the Clay family and to hold Black accountable for his horrific crimes." He added that the state's experts do not believe Black would suffer severe pain during his execution and also rejected the description of him as being intellectually disabled. In testimony last month before the Davidson County Chancery Court, medical experts for the state and Black argued over whether his ICD would, in fact, cause prolonged pain. "Mr. Black will not be feeling the shocks as he will be in a coma" brought on by the lethal injection process, testified Dr. Litsa Lambrakos, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. But Dr. Gail Van Norman, an anesthesiology professor at the University of Washington who specializes in heart surgeries, suggested otherwise. She testified that the use of a potent amount of pentobarbital, which can cause death from respiratory failure, could unnecessarily trigger Black's defibrillator. "ICDs sometimes deliver shocks when they're not needed," she said. "This is devastating to patients." Black's execution is slated for Tuesday at 10 a.m., barring any court intervention or a reprieve from the governor. As the legal process plays out, whether Black would even find a medical professional to disable his device is unclear. At issue is also the timing of when his device would be deactivated — his health could be at risk if it were done too soon and his execution was put on hold at the last minute. Previously, a Tennessee Department of Correction official said that Nashville General Hospital would participate in such a procedure. But hospital spokeswoman Cathy Poole said the facility "has no role in state executions." "The correctional healthcare provider contracted by the Tennessee Department of Correction did not contact appropriate Nashville General Hospital leadership with its request to deactivate the implanted defibrillator," she said in a statement. "Our contract with the correctional healthcare provider is to support the ongoing medical care of its patients," Poole added. "This request is well outside of that agreement and would also require cooperation with several other entities, all of which have indicated they are unwilling to participate." The American Medical Association's code of ethics says physicians should not be forced to determine a prisoner's competency to stand execution or treat an incompetent condemned prisoner "if such activity is contrary to the physician's personal beliefs." "As a member of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so, a physician must not participate in a legally authorized execution," the code says. While Black's case doesn't involve a doctor or hospital participating in an execution directly, the idea that the procedure is still part of the process would raise ethical questions for medical professionals, said Robin Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. Black's legal team also says he suffers from other physical ailments, including advanced dementia, brain damage and kidney disease. "I fear we are going to see many more of these situations as this population grows older," Maher said of death row inmates, who can spend decades behind bars appealing their cases before they are put to death. Restoring their health, either mentally or physically, only so they can be executed presents a further moral quandary, she added. "This is the kind of case in which the governor should issue a reprieve that would be the saving grace for Mr. Black," Maher said. This article was originally published on
NBC News
7 hours ago
- NBC News
Execution of Tennessee inmate with heart device can go forward despite claims it may shock him
Tennessee can move forward with next week's scheduled execution of a condemned man with a defibrillator after the state's highest court ruled the heart device does not need to be deactivated before he is put to death. Lawyers for inmate Byron Black, 69, had argued to a Davidson County Chancery Court last month that the device, if not disabled, may try to restore his heart and prolong his suffering as he is executed by lethal injection. But the Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday reversed the lower court's ruling, finding that requiring the implanted heart regulating device to be switched off essentially amounts to a "stay of execution," which the chancery court does not have the authority to implement. The state Supreme Court justices, however, did note that there's nothing preventing the state and Black's legal team from reaching an agreement for a deactivation procedure to be done before his execution Tuesday morning. An implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD, is installed in a patient's chest to deliver electric shocks to those with dangerously fast heartbeats and helps restore a regular rhythm. Attorneys for Black filed a request Thursday to the state Supreme Court to temporarily halt the execution, writing that he could otherwise "be subject to the severe pain and suffering of having his heart repeatedly shocked back into rhythm during his execution." One of his lawyers, Kelley Henry, also said she is asking Gov. Bill Lee to grant clemency for her client so that "Tennessee does not move forward with this gruesome spectacle." She also argued that Black is intellectually disabled and that his execution would violate the state Constitution. Black was convicted in the 1988 shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, 29, and her two daughters, Latoya, 9, and Lakeisha, 6. Nashville police said that Black had previously threatened harm to Clay because she was considering ending their relationship, according to her sister. Black previously faced three execution dates but those procedures were delayed, in part, because of a pause in state executions in 2022 due to issues in testing its lethal injection drugs. Tennessee resumed executions in May under a new lethal injection protocol using pentobarbital, a sedative. State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement Thursday that he will "continue fighting to seek justice for the Clay family and to hold Black accountable for his horrific crimes." He added that the state's experts do not believe Black would suffer severe pain during his execution and also rejected the description of him as being intellectually disabled. In testimony last month before the Davidson County Chancery Court, medical experts for the state and Black argued over whether his ICD would, in fact, cause prolonged pain. "Mr. Black will not be feeling the shocks as he will be in a coma" brought on by the lethal injection process, testified Dr. Litsa Lambrakos, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. But Dr. Gail Van Norman, an anesthesiology professor at the University of Washington who specializes in heart surgeries, suggested otherwise. She testified that the use of a potent amount of pentobarbital, which can cause death from respiratory failure, could unnecessarily trigger Black's defibrillator. "ICDs sometimes deliver shocks when they're not needed," she said. "This is devastating to patients." Black's execution is slated for Tuesday at 10 a.m., barring any court intervention or a reprieve from the governor. As the legal process plays out, whether Black would even find a medical professional to disable his device is unclear. At issue is also the timing of when his device would be deactivated — his health could be at risk if it were done too soon and his execution was put on hold at the last minute. Previously, a Tennessee Department of Correction official said that Nashville General Hospital would participate in such a procedure. But hospital spokeswoman Cathy Poole said the facility "has no role in state executions." "The correctional healthcare provider contracted by the Tennessee Department of Correction did not contact appropriate Nashville General Hospital leadership with its request to deactivate the implanted defibrillator," she said in a statement. "Our contract with the correctional healthcare provider is to support the ongoing medical care of its patients," Poole added. "This request is well outside of that agreement and would also require cooperation with several other entities, all of which have indicated they are unwilling to participate." The American Medical Association's code of ethics says physicians should not be forced to determine a prisoner's competency to stand execution or treat an incompetent condemned prisoner "if such activity is contrary to the physician's personal beliefs." "As a member of a profession dedicated to preserving life when there is hope of doing so, a physician must not participate in a legally authorized execution," the code says. While Black's case doesn't involve a doctor or hospital participating in an execution directly, the idea that the procedure is still part of the process would raise ethical questions for medical professionals, said Robin Maher, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. Black's legal team also says he suffers from other physical ailments, including advanced dementia, brain damage and kidney disease. "I fear we are going to see many more of these situations as this population grows older," Maher said of death row inmates, who can spend decades behind bars appealing their cases before they are put to death. Restoring their health, either mentally or physically, only so they can be executed presents a further moral quandary, she added. "This is the kind of case in which the governor should issue a reprieve that would be the saving grace for Mr. Black," Maher said.
