The Columbus Dispatch

Man wanted in 2018 Hilltop homicide taken into custody

- Shahid Meighan Columbus Dispatch USA TODAY NETWORK

U.S. Marshals and Franklin County Sheriff ’s SWAT deputies have arrested a Columbus man wanted on charges for a May 2018 homicide in central Hilltop.

Wayne Earl Romine II, 31, was indicted on March 22 by a Franklin County grand jury on two counts of murder in the shooting death of 19-year-old John Williams Medlin IV. He is also charged with dischargin­g a firearm on prohibited premises, and being in possession of a weapon under disability.

Marshals arrested Romine without incident Tuesday morning in the 1700 block of Little Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side. He is being held at the Franklin County jail, according to a news release from the U.S. Marshals Office for the Southern District of Ohio.

“The arrest of this alleged homicide suspect is the result of the relationsh­ip between our Deputy U.S. Marshals and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. The combinatio­n of our investigat­ive resources and SWAT’S tactical capabiliti­es allows us to safely and quickly locate and arrest those accused of the most violent of offenses,” Michael D. Black, U.S. Marshal, said in a statement.

In the early morning of May 19, 2018, Columbus police responded to a report of a shooting at South Warren Avenue and Olive Street in central Hilltop, where they found Medlin on the front porch of a home in the first block of South Warren, suffering from a gunshot wound. Medics pronounced Medlin dead at the scene at 5:30 a.m.

Police said that Medlin and a juvenile, whom police did not identify, were “confronted by unknown suspects.” Medlin was shot and the juvenile was assaulted. Medics took the juvenile to the former Mount Carmel West Hospital in stable condition.

@Shahidmeig­han

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