43
Late appeal denied in Columbus Jones murder conviction
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
The Ohio Supreme Court has denied a motion for a delayed appeal filed by a man convicted in the killing of a Youngstown State University student.
Columbus Jones was sentenced to 92 years to life in prison in the slaying of 25-year-old Jamail Johnson and the wounding of others during an incident at a fraternity house in February 2011.
He asked the state’s high court last month to allow him to file the appeal, months after the 7th District Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction.
In court filings, Jones wrote that his legal counsel did not notify him properly of the appeals process. The lapse, he noted, was brought to his attention by an inmate clerk in a prison legal library.
“Since there does appear to be a substantial issue of having notice in the direct review process being infringed upon by lack of notice to timely seek discretionary review, I should not be tainted when a serious liberty interest remains unanswered ...,” he wrote.
The Ohio Supreme Court denied the motion Wednesday without comment, though Justice William O’Neill dissented on the decision.
The 2011 incident began with a couple of scuffles on a dance floor and ended with “more than 20 bullets from two different guns” fired toward the fraternity house on Indiana Avenue, according to documents.
Several people were charged as a result, though Jones was convicted of murder, based on eyewitness testimony and other evidence.
He has contended that there is no credible evidence that he was the shooter.
Jones is imprisoned at the Trumbull Correctional Institution.