Former Columbus Officer Ricky Anderson Sentenced to 3 Years Probation in Donovan Lewis Shooting

Former Columbus Officer Ricky Anderson Gets Three Years of Probation in Donovan Lewis Killing

On Wednesday, a Franklin County judge sentenced former Columbus police officer Ricky Anderson to the maximum available three years of community control for the 2022 shooting death of 20-year-old Donovan Lewis inside his Hilltop apartment, closing the criminal case without prison time, ABC 6 reported.

The sentence lands more than four years after the shooting and settles the criminal side of a case that has kept a central Ohio family in courtrooms and headlines since August 2022. What remains open is bigger than the sentence itself: a civil lawsuit against the City of Columbus, a police department policy changed in the shooting’s wake, and a family that says the reckoning is not finished.

Reaction to Ricky Anderson's Wednesday sentencing

The Night on Sullivant Avenue

Anderson, then 63 and working as a Columbus police K-9 handler, shot Lewis on August 30, 2022, during an overnight operation to serve arrest warrants on Sullivant Avenue, WOSU reported. The warrants covered domestic violence, assault and improper handling of a firearm. Body camera video showed Anderson firing a moment after a door was opened and Lewis woke in his bed. Anderson said he believed Lewis had a gun; Lewis was holding a vape pen. Lewis was unarmed and asleep when officers arrived.

Prosecutors later argued Anderson acted with “heedless indifference,” taking unjustifiable risks, and asked the court to remember, “Donovan Lewis was a young man asleep in his own bed, minding his own business when men with guns came in,” ABC 6 reported.

Former Columbus Officer Ricky Anderson Gets 3 Years of Probation in Donovan Lewis Shooting Death — Photo: columbusfrontline.com

Anderson Pleads Guilty to Lesser Charge

The path to Wednesday’s sentencing ran through a September 3 guilty plea. Anderson entered an Alford plea to reckless homicide, a third-degree felony under Ohio Revised Code Section 2903.041, meaning he acknowledged prosecutors had enough evidence for a conviction without admitting factual guilt, Columbus Frontline reported. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed the original murder charge.

Under Ohio law, a third-degree felony of this kind carries possible prison terms of nine to 36 months, but the same code allows courts to impose community control instead when incarceration is not mandatory, according to Columbus Frontline’s rundown of Ohio Revised Code Sections 2929.14 and 2929.15. Judge Julie Lynch chose that second path.

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Four Years, Counted in Seconds

Family members used the sentencing hearing to mark the wait. Don Lewis, Donovan’s father, counted it out: “How this has impacted me. It’s been four years, two months, five days and counting, 1,527 days, 36,648 hours and approximately 132,000,000 seconds of heartache,” ABC 6 reported.

Rebecca Duran, Donovan’s mother, told the court she wakes every night around 2 or 3 a.m., roughly the time her son was killed. “I say a prayer to Donovan and try to go back to sleep,” she said, according to WOSU. She described the hardest moments as when Lewis’ young son, born after his death, asks why he cannot see his dad. “I ask that you please make him accountable today. Donovan deserves better. We all deserve to have them in our life,” she said through tears.

A woman slumps over a bench in a courtroom with her head in her arms — Photo: wosu.org

Donovan’s sister, Tatiana Crowder, named the anger directly: “I am angry that it took this long. I am angry that my family had to spend years waiting for accountability for something that should never have happened in the first place. My brother was asleep in his own bed when Anderson shot and killed him,” ABC 6 reported.

“The problem is what the family wants really is vengeance. And we’re here for justice,” Judge Lynch said, adding that Anderson had killed Lewis by mistake and that “it wasn’t purposeful, it wasn’t intentional, and it wasn’t homicide.”

When the judge announced three years of community control instead of prison, Duran cried out and slumped on the gallery bench, WOSU reported. As family and friends left the courtroom, one woman muttered, “You let him get away with murder.” Another added, “They always do.”

Former Columbus Police officer gets three years community control for Donovan Lewis death

What the Sentence Actually Means

Community control is not freedom. WOSU reported that Anderson is barred from owning a gun and could face mental health assessments, travel restrictions or required counseling. If he violates the terms, he goes to prison for up to three years. The judge also ordered him to pay court costs, ABC 6 reported.

Anderson addressed the Lewis family for the first time since the shooting. “I do apologize to each and every one of Donovan’s family,” he told the court, according to WOSU. “I’m sorry to my family for what they’ve had to go through for the last four years. This has been a very trying time. I’ve suffered a lot. Everybody’s suffered a lot.” His attorney, Mark Collins, told media afterward that Anderson had been hesitant to plead even to lesser charges because Lewis’ death was a “mistake,” and that the plea was meant to let the family take a step in the grieving process.

Former officer Ricky Anderson sentenced in 2022 murder case

The shooting already changed one police practice. The Columbus Division of Police no longer serves certain warrants at night, Columbus FOP President Brian Steel said: “We no longer serve some of these warrants that meet certain criteria in the middle of the night. And I think that is a good thing that may possibly have prevented this.”

The civil lawsuit against the City of Columbus remains ongoing, and the family says it is not done pressing for reform. “There is no joy in this,” Duran said. “It’s not over, so we still have a lot to process. We’ll just continue to fight.”