Murder charge dropped in exchange for Alford plea
Ricky Anderson, a former K-9 officer with the Columbus Police Department, pleaded guilty Wednesday to reckless homicide, the lesser of the two charges he faced in the August 2022 fatal shooting of 20-year-old Donovan Lewis. The plea brings a four-year criminal case to a close without a trial on the underlying facts.
Anderson entered an Alford plea, a procedure in which a defendant concedes that prosecutors have enough evidence to support a conviction without admitting guilt. The Franklin County prosecuting attorney said the state agreed to drop a murder charge in exchange for the reckless homicide plea.
The charges stemmed from an early-morning encounter in August 2022, when Columbus police officers went to Lewis’ apartment around 2 a.m. to arrest him on multiple warrants, including domestic violence, assault, and felony improper handling of a firearm, according to the police account.
A lawyer for Lewis’ family has said body-camera footage appears to show Anderson fired within a second of opening the bedroom door where Lewis was sleeping.
Anderson’s attorneys have said trial evidence would have shown he was justified in using deadly force.
Lewis’ family has filed a separate civil suit against the former officer, which remains pending. The criminal plea does not address the family’s civil claims.