By John Futty, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – One by one, family members and friends of Lincoln S. Rutledge testified Monday that they were stunned to hear about his arrest last year in the shooting death of a Columbus police officer.
“I couldn’t believe it. I absolutely couldn’t believe it,” said Randy Hupp, an uncle. “It goes against everything Lincoln ever did.”
He was one of 10 witnesses who testified on the first day of the sentencing phase in the case against Rutledge, whose attorneys are trying to convince a Franklin County jury that a death sentence is not appropriate.
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Rutledge, 45, became eligible for the death penalty last week when the jury convicted him of purposely killing Officer Steven Smith (above, left) during a standoff with SWAT officers who were trying to serve him with an arrest warrant at this Clintonville apartment.
Defense attorneys Jefferson Liston and Mitch Williams expect to continue calling witnesses through Wednesday morning to offer what are known as mitigating factors for consideration by the jury.
If the jurors decide that the mitigating factors outweigh the crime’s aggravating factors, they must recommend a sentence of life without parole or life with the possibility of parole after 25 or 30 years.
Williams told jurors in his opening statement that they will hear evidence that Rutledge was a “quiet, lovable guy” whose mental health rapidly deteriorated leading up to the confrontation with SWAT officers on April 10, 2016.
Under Ohio law, a “mental disease or defect” is among the mitigating factors that jurors can consider.