A Franklin County jury convicted Cortez J. Jackson of one count of murder Thursday for fatally shooting his girlfriend in 2021 inside her West Side apartment.
Jackson, now 33, at first told Columbus police that somebody else shot 34-year-old Alyse S. Edwards on the morning of Aug. 19, 2021. But Jackson testified at his trial this week in Franklin County Common Pleas Court that he was trying to wrestle the gun away from Edwards when it accidentally went off.
Edwards and Jackson have multiple children together. Their 3-year-old daughter was in the apartment at the time of the fatal shooting.
The jury found Jackson not guilty of one count of murder but guilty of another count of murder, essentially determining Jackson did not purposefully cause Edward’s death but at least caused her death while committing felonious assault. The jury also found Jackson guilty of tampering with evidence.
The jury returned its verdict after a three-day trial and about three hours of deliberation Thursday morning.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Karen Held Phipps found Jackson guilty of possessing a weapon under disability (having a gun as a convicted felon).
Franklin County prosecutors dropped a domestic violence charge against Jackson before the trial began.
Jackson, who is scheduled to be sentenced June 1, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison with the opportunity for parole after at least 18 years.
The shooting of Alyse S. Edwards
The shooting happend at Edwards’ apartment in the 3700 block of Eakin Road near Wedgewood Drive in Columbus’ Hilltop neighborhood.
Witnesses reported hearing a loud argument between Jackson and Edwards before a gunshot. Edwards was then seen stumbling out of her apartment into the hallway bleeding from her torso, followed by Jackson.
Edwards was transported to OhioHealth Doctors Hospital, where she died.
Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Meyer said during the trial nobody else was observed near the apartment around the time of the shooting. A shell casing was found in the apartment’s kitchen and a trail of blood led into the hallway, according to Meyer.