Judge sets trial date for ex-cop charged in fatal shooting

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The former Ohio police officer who shot and killed Andre Hill will stand trial next spring, a Franklin County Judge said Monday.

Hill, 47, who was Black, was fatally shot by ex-officer Adam Coy, who is white, on Dec. 22 as Hill emerged from a garage holding up a cellphone.

Coy, 44, has pleaded not guilty to murder and reckless homicide charges. 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 about the killing — 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.