Court records trace a rapid sequence from a parking collision to an alleged attack and deadly use of a pickup.
HILLSBORO, Ohio — The first reported impact came just after 2:30 a.m., when a Ford F-150 hit another truck at a gas station. Minutes later, police say, a woman had been attacked and Billy Grooms lay critically injured.
The sequence described by investigators turned an ordinary stop on South High Street into a homicide case involving three alleged victims. Authorities say Javen Austin Meadows attacked a woman, returned to his pickup and drove over Grooms as the 49-year-old father tried to intervene. Grooms died June 4. A Highland County grand jury indicted Meadows on seven counts July 7, including murder and attempted murder.
Investigators place Meadows at the business shortly after 2:30 a.m. May 31. He arrived in an F-150 after allegedly following a former girlfriend, according to court records summarized in local reports. The pickup struck another truck as Meadows entered or attempted to park. Public records do not say how hard the vehicles collided, whether either was moving at speed or whether the first impact caused injuries. It nevertheless placed Meadows’ truck beside the vehicle occupied by the woman who soon became the focus of the alleged attack. Meadows got out and moved toward the other truck, police said. No publicly released account explains what was said before physical contact began.
The affidavit alleges Meadows seized the woman by the neck. He strangled her and threw her onto the ground, police said. While she was down, he allegedly kicked her. The woman regained her footing, but the attack continued, according to the account. Meadows took her phone and punched her, knocking her down again. The affidavit’s summary does not give the number of blows, the length of the strangulation or whether she lost consciousness. It also does not state whether she tried to call for help before her phone was taken. Her name and the extent of her injuries have not been disclosed.
Grooms and one of his sons were at the station during the assault. Relatives said Grooms saw the woman being choked and crossed the parking lot to help. His sister-in-law, Angela Osborn, said he told the attacker to let her go. Grooms then intervened physically and helped get Meadows away from the woman, according to police and family accounts. The available reports do not state whether anyone else joined him, whether employees had already called 911 or how much time passed between the first collision and his intervention. His family said he acted because someone was in immediate danger, not because he knew those involved.
The confrontation then shifted back toward the F-150. Police say Meadows entered the pickup while Grooms remained in the lot. Amy Grooms, Grooms’ wife, said the driver headed straight toward her husband, hit him and dragged him. Authorities have not publicly stated the truck’s speed or released a diagram showing its path. It is also unclear whether the vehicle changed direction before impact or how far Grooms was carried. Those facts could be important to the murder case because the prosecution alleges Meadows acted purposely, while any defense may challenge what he intended when he moved the truck.
The grand jury identified more alleged harm than the earliest public reports described. Beyond the two murder counts involving Grooms, the indictment includes attempted murder involving a second victim. It also contains two felonious assault counts concerning two surviving people and identifies the pickup as a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument. One allegation states that Meadows engaged in conduct that would have resulted in murder if it had succeeded. Another accuses him of causing or creating a substantial risk of physical harm through strangulation or suffocation. The public account of the indictment does not say which surviving victim was allegedly targeted with the truck and which conduct supports each separate count.
After the impact, emergency personnel treated Grooms for several broken bones and a traumatic brain injury. He was airlifted to a hospital and placed on life support. His wife said the family hoped treatment could stop the swelling in his brain. Over the next few days, however, his condition worsened. Doctors eventually told relatives that further medical efforts would not restore him, family members said. He was removed from life support June 4. His organs were donated to at least five people, turning the final stage of his hospital care into what relatives described as one more act of saving others.
During those hospital days, the criminal investigation was still changing. Meadows was initially charged with strangulation and assault in Hillsboro Municipal Court. Police publicly said additional charges were pending after Grooms’ death. Investigators would have needed to document the death, review medical conclusions and determine how the evidence fit Ohio’s homicide statutes. They also had to separate the alleged attack on the woman from the later movement of the pickup while showing how the events formed one continuous confrontation. The grand jury received the case and returned the expanded indictment July 7.
The first murder count alleges that Meadows purposely caused Grooms’ death. The second alleges that he knowingly caused the death as a direct result of committing or attempting to commit felonious assault. Prosecutors may present both theories to account for different conclusions jurors could reach about the same conduct. A person can face overlapping counts before a verdict, although the court later determines whether convictions merge or remain separate for sentencing. Meadows also faces the strangulation count, attempted murder, two felonious assault charges and a specification seeking forfeiture of the F-150.
Reconstructing the parking lot will likely become one of the case’s central tasks. Investigators may use tire marks, debris, damage to the vehicles and measurements from fixed objects to establish where the truck traveled. Medical evidence can show the direction and force of impact. Electronic systems in newer vehicles may record speed, braking or other operational information around a collision, although authorities have not said whether such data were recovered here. Gas stations commonly use security cameras, but police have not publicly confirmed the existence or quality of any recording from this property.
Human witnesses will provide another layer of the timeline. The woman can describe the alleged strangulation, Grooms’ arrival and the truck’s movement from her position. Grooms’ son may be able to describe his father’s actions and what he saw before and after the impact. Occupants of the vehicle first struck by the F-150, customers, workers and emergency responders may also have relevant accounts. Their views may differ depending on distance, lighting, obstructions and the speed with which the confrontation unfolded. Statements made during an emergency can also be incomplete even when witnesses are trying to be accurate.
The surviving woman has already offered the clearest public statement about the intervention. “I believe his actions saved my life,” she said of Grooms. Her words identify the point at which the alleged assault was interrupted, but they do not answer every question prosecutors must address. A trial would require evidence about Meadows’ identity, his conduct toward each person, his control of the truck and the mental state attached to each charge. The defense would be allowed to question witnesses, test physical evidence and offer another interpretation of the events.
Reports have described Grooms as the father of two and, in some national coverage, the father of three. Local accounts said he left behind his wife and two sons and had been his household’s primary provider. His relatives agreed on the part of his life most directly tied to the case: He was at the station with his son, saw a woman under attack and stepped forward. Amy Grooms said he was not highly social, but people who knew him understood his compassion. Osborn said the family was trying to comprehend that he died while saving someone else.
The predawn timeline is now the foundation of a Common Pleas Court prosecution. Meadows is presumed innocent, and the indictment is not evidence of guilt. Future hearings, evidence filings and witness testimony are expected to fill gaps left by the brief affidavits, including the pickup’s exact route and the identities of the other alleged victims.
Author note: Last updated July 10, 2026.