FILE - In this Dec. 31, 2020, file photo, Andre Hill, fatally shot by Columbus police on Dec. 22, is memorialized on a shirt worn by his daughter, Karissa Hill in Columbus, Ohio. Former Columbus Police officer Adam Coy was charged with murder in the shooting death Andre Hill, a Black man. Assistant Attorney General Anthony Pierson filed a motion Wednesday, July 14, 2021, opposing Coy's request for the trial be moved to another county in order to convene a fair and impartial jury. (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins, File)
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio police officer who shot and killed Andre Hill will stand trial next spring, a judge decided Monday.
Hill, 47, who was Black, was fatally shot by Officer Adam Coy, who is white, on Dec. 22 as Hill emerged from a garage holding up a cellphone. Coy has since been fired from the Columbus police department.
Coy, 44, has pleaded not guilty to murder and reckless homicide. Franklin County Judge Stephen McIntosh set Coy's trial for March 7.
In August, McIntosh denied a request by Coy's attorneys to move the trial out of concern that extensive local and national publicity - including news coverage, posts on social media and billboards around Columbus - would make it impossible to assemble an impartial jury for Coy in Franklin County.
McIntosh sided with prosecutors, who argued there was no reason to believe that people elsewhere were less likely to have read about the case than were Franklin County residents.
In May, the city reached a $10 million settlement, the largest in Columbus history, with Hill's family.
This undated photo provided by the Franklin County, Ohio, Sheriff's Department shows Adam Coy, a former Columbus Police officer who was charged with murder in the shooting death of 47-year-old Andre Hill, a Black man. Assistant Attorney General Anthony Pierson filed a motion Wednesday, July 14, 2021, opposing Coy's request for the trial be moved to another county in order to convene a fair and impartial jury. (Franklin County Ohio Sheriff's Department via AP, File)
The Associated Press
Fired Columbus, Ohio police officer Adam Coy, right, photographed through plexiglass courtroom barriers erected to help slow the coronavirus, stands during a Franklin County hearing as defense attorney Kaitlyn Stephens checks her notes, on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in Columbus, Ohio. Coy, 44, has pleaded not guilty to murder and reckless homicide charges in the Dec. 22 shooting of Andre Hill, a 47-year-old Black man shot as he emerged from a garage. Judge Stephen McIntosh set Coy's trial for March 7. (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins)
The Associated Press