COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new witness in the murder trial for ex-deputy Jason Meade was called up to the stand Tuesday morning to speak about what he saw the day of Casey Goodson Jr.’s fatal shooting.
Christopher Corne, who has been working in HVAC at Franklin Heating Cooling and Refrigeration for the last 10 years, was out on a service call on Case Road on Dec. 4, 2020 – the day Meade fatally shot Goodson.
Prior to Corne's testimony, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David Young told the jury that a separation of witness order was issued for this case. The judge explained the purpose of the order is to not allow witnesses to hear the evidence and testimony of others.
Corne was not on the prosecution's original witness list and the judge told the jury that he came forward after watching portions of the testimony from local media coverage and live video of the trial. The judge told the jury Corne posted several statements about the case on social media and then also later deleted his Facebook account.
"You may consider these factors when trying to determine the witness's credibility," the judge said. He then reminded the jury, it is their duty to decide what testimony to believe and what testimony not to believe.
As his testimony began, Corne was provided a copy of his GPS log by prosecutors from the day of the shooting, showing he was in the Case Road area around the time Goodson was driving.
While sitting at the intersection of Ferris and Karl roads, Corne testified that he saw a car coming from around the corner with a person “driving a little erratic and what appeared to be dancing in his car and singing with music.”
“At one point in time, he took both hands off the wheel and was dancing and moving and looked like he was going to come into my vehicle,” Corne said.
While providing testimony, Corne said he did not see anything in the driver’s hands at the time he drove through the intersection and never saw a gun inside the vehicle. He said he also made eye contact with the driver.
“He had one hand up in the air like he was singing toward me,” Corne said. “Whatever he was listening to, he was getting into it.”
He said there was also a pickup truck in front of him at the intersection. He said he noticed after the first car passed, the driver of the truck made a U-turn in the intersection to follow the car.
There was also a truck behind him, and the driver followed the other truck and also made a U-turn. It wasn’t until after the first truck passed him that he said he noticed lights on the truck and realized it was law enforcement.
He told the court the lights were illuminated for a short time while they were turning around.
As both trucks made the turn, he said he looked at them in his mirror to see which way they went.
“I had a few minutes of time on my hands and I wanted to go back and see what was going on,” he said. “I could see the two trucks that I had noticed was all the way at the end of the road, so I drove up about as close as I could get and pulled up to the right side.”
Corne said he was about two houses away from the corner of the road on Estates Place.
“The one truck was sitting with the driver-side door open,” Corne told the court.
He said he didn’t see any of the trucks’ lights on at the time they arrived outside the house.
Corne said he saw a person run out of a truck with an assault rifle wearing a vest he thought said “police” on it.
“While I was sitting there, I noticed that I attracted some attention from the house that I was in front of, so I started to back up down the road.”
“As I was backing up, I rolled down the window and I heard sirens coming from every direction I could possibly think of.”
After learning of what happened that night, he said he was not contacted and did not speak with law enforcement after what he saw until recently.
While being questioned by the defense, Corne was shown video footage of the road where the truck made a U-turn. He was asked about the video not showing lights on in any of the trucks or his work vehicle almost being hit by the driver of the car.
“You can’t see them in the video,” Corne said when asked about the lights.
Corne confirmed that he did not see the shooting when he was parked on Estates Place.
The defense asked Corne about his usage of social media during the trial and how he watched coverage of the trial, including other testimonies, and posted comments about the case – later deleting them.
At his deposition, Corne reportedly told the defense he posted about the shooting on Dec. 18, 2020, and before the trial began, he confirmed that he deleted the posting.
Corne also confirmed that he followed Goodson’s mother, Tamala Payne, on Facebook after the trial began in late January. While he was following her, he sent her between two and four messages and later deleted them. He also liked and commented on several of her posts.
He was first interviewed by the special prosecutor on Feb. 7 and then subpoenaed the following day. He was then questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Corne did not tell the FBI about his interaction on Facebook or about deleting his previous post on the incident.
At his deposition, Corne reportedly acknowledged that he should have told the FBI about his interaction with Payne and of the deletion of Facebook postings about the event.
He deleted his Facebook page on Friday. He stated that the reason for doing that was because he had a large number of friend requests after coming forward.
“I felt it was the safest thing to do at the time,” Corne told the defense.