An Ohio jury has delivered a guilty verdict to Brad Madison, a 37-year-old man who shot and killed his longtime friend, 33-year-old Brandon Joiner. According to The Columbus Dispatch, after four hours of deliberations, the jury, consisting of five men and seven women, convicted Madison of aggravated murder and murder for the incident that occurred on May 16, 2022, along State Route 104.
The prosecution presented evidence that after an evening at a bar, Madison followed Joiner onto the road near Haul Road before the fatal shooting. Joiner was on the phone with his girlfriend during the time of his demise, who testified to hearing him attempting to greet his assailant before being met with "gunshot after gunshot after gunshot," as Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Steve Schott described it. Found guilty on multiple murder charges, Madison now faces a minimum sentence of 26 years to life, with the possibility of life without parole, detailed by The Columbus Dispatch.
Defense attorney Joseph Landusky II argued Joiner's shooting was in self-defense, citing that Madison returned fire only after Joiner shot first. The defense highlighted three gunshot wounds under Joiner's arm, suggesting they could only have occurred with an extended arm as if pointing a gun. Additionally, ABC6 reported the recovery of a gun beneath Joiner's body, with Madison's attorney presenting the theory that Joiner had called his girlfriend to fabricate an alibi.
During the trial, Madison testified that he had blindly fired back at Joiner, who had already shot at him from a vehicle with a "topped-off magazine." According to The Columbus Dispatch, following the shooting, Madison looked up information on Haul Road camera coverage, how long gunshot residue remained on the hands, and whether he had been charged, the latter according to his phone records. Discussing his online behavior post-shooting, Madison initially slipped up during the cross-examination by Deputy Chief Counsel Anthony Pierson when asked if he had concocted a self-defense story, initially responding affirmatively before correcting himself. Schott emphasized this slip-up in his closing argument, challenging the credibility of Madison's claim to be an expert marksman.
