Judge finds second man guilty in fatal Short North sucker punch assault
Bethany BrunerA Franklin County judge found a man involved in a September 2022 fight outside a Short North bar guilty of murder.
The fight left 37-year-old Gregory Coleman, who had been sucker punched before falling and hitting his head on the concrete, dead.
Chrystian Foster, 34, was the second person to go on trial in relation to Coleman's death. Judge Chris Brown ordered Foster to serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 15 years, the only sentence allowed under Ohio law for a murder conviction.
Before Foster was sentenced, Coleman's mother and father both spoke to Brown about seeing Coleman in the hospital and how it broke their hearts.
"My son had no idea that night that he was going to meet the devil. He didn’t only meet one, he met two," Coleman's mother, Geraldine, said.
Foster apologized for his "mistake" in speaking to Brown before being sentenced.
"He definitely deserved to be home. I never meant for any of this to happen," Foster said.
In February, a jury found Dwayne Cummings, 40, guilty of murder. Cummings is also serving a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 15 years.
Brown said in reaching his verdict that he found that even though Cummings is more responsible than Foster, the evidence against Foster was still convincing.
"Whatever Mr. Cummings started, Mr. Foster made sure to finish and the evidence shows that beyond a reasonable doubt," Brown said.
Over the course of two days, Brown heard evidence from five witnesses, including Foster's wife.
Assistant Franklin County Prosecutors Jason Manning and Kevin Bertelsen argued that because Foster began the fight with Coleman, and struck Coleman three times while Coleman was lying unconscious on the sidewalk, he was a participant in the assault that led to Coleman's death.
Video of the fight, captured on social media, showed Coleman and Foster squaring up on the sidewalk outside the Julep bar at 1014 N. High St. Coleman, who had left work at another bar in the area, had walked up to two women on the patio, including Foster's wife, around 2 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2022.
The video shows Coleman throwing — but not landing — a punch before Dwayne Cummings, 40, came up behind Coleman and sucker punched him, knocking him unconscious instantly. Coleman was unable to brace his fall and struck his head on the pavement.
The video then showed Foster and Cummings standing over an unconscious Coleman, striking him more times. While the strikes were open-handed, the video showed both men winding up before hitting Coleman, who does not have any response.
Brown also asked the attorneys to give him their cases for whether Foster could be guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a lesser included offense. Brown said in rendering his verdict that he considered involuntary manslaughter but that Foster had struck Coleman forcefully, while Coleman was obviously unconscious, which made his conduct too egregious for the lesser charge.
"Mr. Foster was 'talking s---' to him while he was down, while he was unable to defend himself. That shows there was a motive," Brown said.
No 911 calls were placed about the assault as Coleman lay on the sidewalk for several minutes. Officers working special duty in the Short North spotted Coleman and stopped to give him medical attention. Coleman died on Sept. 18, 2022, 13 days after the assault.
Cummings and Foster were friends, testimony at the trial indicated, and was something Manning pointed to as a reason Foster should be convicted.
"There's no question that these guys beat him to death," Manning said. "They were buddies, they were friends, they both chose to go in there and hit this individual."
Foster's attorney, Bryan Bowen, said Cummings is the person truly responsible for Coleman's death and that Foster had attempted to give some type of aid to Coleman before police arrived.
"These are two different actors doing two different things," Bowen said. "There's no evidence that they were working together in any common plan or scheme."
On Friday, Bowen said Foster had been placed in a difficult position while working bar security that required him to interact with Coleman.
"He made at the time a bad decision," Bowen said. "He’s going to pay for that bad decision but he’s not a monster, he’s not an inhuman person."
Coleman's family has filed a lawsuit against the owners of Julep, which employed Foster as a security guard. The bar has since closed.