South Side man gets 18 years after plea deal

To avoid a murder trial scheduled this week, a Columbus man who claimed he shot in self-defense pleaded guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter for fatally shooting one man and wounding another in 2018 at his home on the South Side.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie Lynch immediately sentenced 24-year-old Krystopher N. Payne to an indefinite prison term of 18 years to 231⁄2 years at the joint recommendation of the county prosecutor’s office and Payne’s defense attorney.

In exchange for the guilty plea, Franklin County prosecutors dropped other charges, including murder, attempted murder and felonious assault.

When police responded to a shooting on the evening of April 11, 2018 to Payne’s house on the 1700 block of South 8th Street in Hungarian Village on the South Side, they found 19-yearold Te’marr Wallace dead of a gunshot wound inside the house. Yashuwa Watson, then 19 years old, was suffering from a gunshot wound and lying on the sidewalk outside, police said.

Watson, who was taken to a hospital in critical condition, survived. There was also a third alleged victim who may have been grazed by a bullet, said Payne’s defense attorney, Mark Collins.

All four individuals knew each other, Collins said, and Payne was defending himself when he fired.

“He was physically assaulted and he believed they were going to kill him,” Collins said. “Survival mode kicks in.”

Although Payne claims his assailant had a weapon, Collins said there was no other gun found at the scene.

Franklin County Assistant Prosecutor Dan Cable told The Dispatch that investigators “uncovered no evidence of self-defense.” He declined to comment further.