PICKAWAY COUNTY, Ohio — On Tuesday, murder charges pressed against Joshua T. Adair, 36, of Pickaway County were dropped after evidence was presented that proved his innocence.
In November, Adair was accused of the murder of former Columbus lawyer, John D. Moore Jr., 51, of Columbus when a cell phone was found at the scene of the crime, and a warrant was issued to use the phone to track the suspect. Security footage confirmed spotting an individual armed with a handgun who dropped the cell phone as he was fleeing the murder scene.
However, during the case, which placed Adair in jail for four to five months, according to his lawyer, Sam Shamansky of Columbus, Adair was found innocent when a license plate-reading camera found his car placed elsewhere during the time of the crime. The case was resolved this week when prosecutors filed a “nolle prosequi” document, meaning that the prosecutors were unwilling to further pursue it.
“The whole evidence against him was the cell phone at the scene,” stated the Shamansky when asked by the Guardian. “We established through some of the evidence that was present in the case that his phone had been deposited at the scene.”
Shamansky then continued, saying, “We were also able to determine that he was no where near it, which clearly dispelled the government’s theory that he dropped it during the commission of the crime.” When asked if the phone was intentionally planted, the defense attorney was uncertain.
“We don’t know [if the phone had been planted], it had just been stolen from him.”
The defendant’s lawyer said that Adair would not be pursuing further legal action against the government for grievances or in a civil suit.
“He’s grateful to be home.”
The Franklin County Prosecutor did not return calls for comment for this story.
Innocence Project states that extrapolating from the 281 known DNA exonerations in the country since the late 1980s, a conservative estimate is that 1 percent of the US prison population — approximately 20,000 people — are falsely convicted.
