Man guilty of murder in beating at COTA bus stop

By the time a 911 caller alerted Columbus police to the beating at a COTA bus stop, it was too late to help Brandon Nicholson.

The 41-yearold homeless man was bloodied and unconscious when officers arrived at the intersection of James Road and East Main Street on the East Side.

He was taken to Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center, where he remained in a coma until he died July 30, 2018, seven days after the attack.

On Thursday, a Franklin County jury decided that this was more than a fight with an unfortunate outcome.

The jurors convicted Richard M. Spirnak, 46, of two counts of murder, finding that he purposely killed Nicholson and that he caused the death by committing felonious assault.

Spirnak will get a mandatory life sentence, with no chance of parole for 15 years, at a hearing set for March 4 by Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook.

Spirnak, who was a transient living at the time with his girlfriend in a nearby motel, and Nicholson were both drunk when they got into a fight while hanging out by the bus stop at about 8 p.m., according to testimony.

A 911 caller alerted police at 8:04 p.m., telling a dispatcher that one of the men was knocked out, but that his attacker was still beating him.

“He’s smackin’ him in the face ... slamming his head into the wall, pouring water on him,” the caller said.

“He’s degrading the man.”

Spirnak’s then-girlfriend was the prosecution’s key witness.

She testified that she arrived after Nicholson was knocked out and saw Spirnak knee him in the head and throw a beer can at him.

When they were back at the motel, she said, he joked and bragged about what he had done.

The autopsy determined that Nicholson died of blunt force trauma to the brain.

The force used was “excessive, repeated, horrific,” Assistant Prosecutor Erica Rose told the jury.

Defense attorney Jeremy Wright argued that this was “a fight between two intoxicated individuals,” and his client was guilty of something less than murder. Spirnak