Jury reaches verdict in Columbus murder trial in 90 minutes. Here’s what they decided

Jurors took only 90 minutes Thursday to reach a verdict in the murder trial of Cyrus Bradford Howard Sr., who admitted killing his mother’s neighbor over an imagined threat.

The verdict: Guilty on all counts, of malice or deliberate murder, of felony murder for killing James Richardson Jr. while committing the felony of aggravated assault, of aggravated assault and of using a gun to commit a crime.

Jurors delivered the verdict around 6 p.m., having begun their deliberations about 4:30 p.m., following an emotional day of testimony from the defendant, who broke down on the witness stand.

“To the victim’s family, I’m sorry, y’all. I wasn’t right,” Howard said to Richardson’s widow Tomeka Pugh and other family in the courtroom.

About a dozen were there for the verdict. Howard showed little reaction. Pugh smiled tearfully and afterward tightly embraced prosecutor Veronica Hansis. Others also waited to hug the assistant district attorney.

Across the courtroom, Howard’s mother Claudia Mahone wept quietly.

‘That’s not insanity’

Claiming he believed that Richardson was a threat to his mother, who lived a few doors down on Hunter Ridge Circle, Howard shortly after 8 p.m. on July 30, 2018, knocked on Richardson’s door and started shooting as soon as it opened.

As Richardson ran back into his house, Howard followed, firing until he emptied the .380-caliber pistol. Richardson was shot six times, in the arm, chest, hand and back, one bullet piercing his heart, a medical examiner testified.

Leaving Richardson dying in the dining room, Howard walked back to his mother’s house and put his clothes in a tub of bleach.

When Hansis asked him why he bleached the clothes, he said, “I’m thinking in my mind, ‘I need to cover my tracks.’”

Was he aware that killing Richardson was a crime?

“In the essence of what you’re saying, yes ma’am,” he replied.

In her closing argument Thursday afternoon, Hansis said Howard’s actions showed Howard was conscious of his guilt, as he behaved in a clear and deliberate manner.

Under questioning by defense attorney William Kendrick, Howard recounted having served in the military, where he left after two years because of a stroke.

He was shot twice during a robbery in February 2016, and became paranoid after that, suffering post-traumatic stress, he said. “I was in a coma for three days,” he said.

After that, he started using drugs and “being paranoid, hearing voices, things like this,” he testified.

In his closing argument, Kendrick asked jurors to be mindful of Howard’s military service and apparent mental issues. “The kind of person that he is doesn’t line up with what happened that day,” he said.

Howard told police questioning him in August 2018 that he believed Richardson was linked to a street gang that would break into his mother’s home and hurt her. Investigators found no evidence of that.

Hansis said Howard’s conduct was not delusional, in that neighbors testified to his walking purposefully to and from Richardson’s home around the time of the shooting.

That Howard was so intent on his target that he hardly spoke to neighbors was not a sign of delusional thinking, she said: “That’s not insanity.”

No claim of mental illness excuses a cold-blooded killing, she told jurors. “You don’t get a pass when you kill another human being,” she said.

Howard, 52, remains held in the Muscogee County Jail. Judge Ron Mullins has not yet scheduled his sentencing.

Howard faces life in prison.