What to Know
- Aaron Dean faces a murder charge for the fatal shooting of Atatiana Jefferson in October 2019.
- Cases were rested Tuesday before closing arguments were presented Wednesday.
- Jurors began deliberating Wednesday afternoon.
A jury began deliberations Wednesday in the murder case against Aaron Dean, a former Fort Worth police officer charged with fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson through a rear window of her home in 2019.
Deliberations began after closing remarks from the prosecution and defense attorneys on Wednesday morning.
After more than seven hours of deliberations, the jury dismissed for the day at 7 p.m. They will sequester overnight and return to the jury room Thursday morning to continue.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
The jury asked for blank post-it notes to write on and for evidence, including photos, a couple of hours after being dismissed for deliberations at 11 a.m.
Jurors will be sequestered until they reach a verdict, and it will go as late into the evening as it wants. According to the judge, manslaughter can also be considered.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers closed their cases Tuesday, the fifth day of the trial.
Dean shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson through a window of her mother’s Fort Worth home on Oct. 12, 2019. He was one of the officers who responded to a non-emergency call by a neighbor who was concerned about an open door at the home.
Judge George Gallagher began by giving instructions to jurors as they prepare to hear closing arguments deliberation.
"If you can't feel safe in your own home.. where can you feel safe?" said Prosecutor attorney Ashlea Deener. "When he went over to that house, it wasn't a drug deal gone bad."
Deener talked to jurors about important definitions to remember during deliberation saying that Jefferson did nothing unlawful before Dean shot and killed her. She said the word “unlawful” is paramount.
“The power you have today is to hold him responsible, it’s to tell them [Jefferson's family] that it all wasn’t in vain, it’s to say that she matters. They matter, eastside matters. To say that we protect everyone."
The defense began closing arguments by calling the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson at the hands of former officer Aaron Dean tragic but said it was self-defense.
“A tragedy doesn’t always equal a crime; it doesn’t always equal a law violation," said defense attorney Bob Gill. "Aaron Dean has a right to self-defense."
Gill says when Jefferson pointed a firearm at a Fort Worth police officer, her rights stopped then, calling it "a crime" and an "unlawful act."
Gill then reverted back to the testimony of Jefferson's nephew, Zion Carr.
“Zion Carr’s testimony took a different turn," Gill said. “You could tell he was under a lot of pressure and a lot of time had passed. Zion succumbed to the pressure and testified differently.”
Carr's interview with police following Jefferson's death was then played.
Gill says the state can not prove that this was not self-defense and that it is "always against the law to point a handgun at a uniformed police officer."
The defense wrapped its closing arguments by asking the jury to find Dean not guilty of murdering Atatiana Jefferson.
The prosecution began a rebuttal closing argument.
Prosecutor Dale Smith talked about how Jefferson was protecting her nephew.
He also says that Dean didn't even see a gun while mentioning how he cracked a joke saying "I guess I should have just stayed home that night."
“Her only crime was love and protection for her nephew, not pointing a gun at a Fort Worth police officer," Smith said “A tragedy, an accident that’s spilling your milk at breakfast. This is murder.”
RECAP OF WITNESS TESTIMONIES DURING AARON DEAN MURDER TRIAL
On the night of the shooting, Jefferson was playing video games with her then-8-year-old nephew, who was the only witness inside the house. Jefferson's nephew, Zion Carr, 11, testified on day one of the trial saying he and his aunt burned some hamburgers earlier in the evening and that the door was opened to ventilate the house.
Recalling the moments leading up to the fatal shooting, Carr said he and his aunt forgot the front door was still open when they were playing video games and she got up to investigate a noise she heard outside.
Dean and his partner, Carol Darch, did not announce themselves when they arrived at the home Both Dean and his partner, Carol Darch, testified that the home looked like it had been ransacked. They said department policies did not require that they announce their presence at an “open structure” call or during a burglary in progress.
“It looked like someone had methodically gone through the house,” she Darch, adding that she didn’t hear anything in front of the home.
Jefferson’s nephew, Zion Carr, told a child forensic interviewer the morning of the shooting that Jefferson pointed a gun toward the window. Carr gave conflicting stories when he said she kept the gun at her side, on the stand last week.
Carr also told the interviewer he heard someone yell outside the window and thought he saw a police badge but in his testimony, Carr said he didn’t hear or see anything outside. Defense lawyers implied to Judge George Gallagher, who is proceeding over the trial, they believe Carr was coached to give a different account of the shooting.
Dean's partner, Darch, testified about the difference between “open structure” and “welfare check” calls as well as “burglary-in-progress.” They were responding to an "open structure" call when Dean shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson.
Darch testified they started walking toward the side door and backyard and said Dean took the lead as they went into the backyard and that they did not call for backup.
Darch's testimony spoke to the vital issue in the case: whether Dean saw Jefferson's gun before he opened fire. Darch testified that she never saw Jefferson's gun and said she never heard Dean announce "gun" before he opened fire.
Dean, 38, took the stand in his own defense this week before both sides rested their cases saying "the jury needs to hear from me and hear the truth."
During his testimony, Dean admitted he made mistakes when responding to an open structure call but said he had no choice when he fatally shot the woman and said that he'd have done it again if she'd exited the house with a gun pointed at him.
Dean also said Jefferson was bent over and stood upright as he drew his service weapon. He said her gun was near her chest, and he saw the barrel of the gun through the window after describing what he saw as a "silhouette." Dean’s lawyers have said he followed his training and met deadly force with deadly force.
Dean resigned from the police department before he could be fired, the then-interim police chief said at the time.
Jay Coons, a criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University testified for the defense, saying Dean’s actions as a police officer were reasonable.
Coons told jurors the officers “didn’t know what they had” other than an open door.
A forensic video evidence expert said that just about a half second lapsed from when Dean started shouting commands at Jefferson to when he pulled the trigger. The prosecution argued that given Coons’ prior testimony, Jefferson wouldn’t have had enough time to respond to the officer’s orders before the lethal shot was fired, piercing her heart.
Dean yelled, “Put your hands up, show me your hands,” before firing, his body-camera footage shows. Dean did not alert his partner he saw a gun until after seeing the gun at Jefferson’s feet when they got into the home, according to the partner’s testimony and the body-camera footage.
Coons testified that the department’s policy for open structure calls does not prohibit officers from announcing themselves. He said it is implied they shouldn’t make themselves known if the officers believe something nefarious is happening. Coons said the mere presence of an officer in a police uniform is a form of announcement.
He later implied while being questioned by a prosecutor that he did not believe Dean committed a crime when he killed Jefferson.
“Police officers are trained that when a firearm is pointed at you, shoot that individual, you are in extreme danger, you are in danger of being shot and killed,” Coons said. “As far as the training, as far as your options as a human being, it’s down to one decision... one decision only.”
Prosecutors rested their case after only three days of testimony, which surprised legal experts and community leaders. Initially, they did not put on an expert to testify to whether Dean’s killing of Jefferson was justified, but after the defense called three witnesses, including Dean, the prosecution presented a rebuttal witness.
Jonathyn Priest, a retired Denver police officer who now works as a consultant on police use-of-force cases, testified for the prosecution and said Dean should not have walked around the house. Priest said Dean should have either announced himself as police when he walked up to the open front door or called for backup.
“My opinion is they shouldn’t have left the front door,” Priest said. “Anything after leaving that front door creates potential risk and danger.”
The final two witnesses gave conflicting testimonies about whether Dean was following police protocols when he went into Jefferson's backyard unannounced.
The family has described Jefferson as a loving aunt and aspiring doctor. She grew up in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas and graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana. Her older sister, Ashley Carr, says Jefferson had recently moved back in with her mother, Yolanda after she fell ill. Jefferson was also saving up for medical school.
Carr says her mother's side door was often open, referring to it as "the kind of home you can always come into."
This high-profile story of Jefferson's death gained national attention and caused protests against police brutality across North Texas.
The case was unusual for the relative speed with which, amid public outrage, the Fort Worth Police Department released video of the Oct. 12, 2019, shooting and arrested Dean. He’d completed the police academy the year before and quit the force without speaking to investigators.
Since then, the case was repeatedly postponed amid lawyerly wrangling, the terminal illness of Dean’s lead attorney and the COVID-19 pandemic.
This trial is ongoing. Please refresh for updates. This story will continue to be updated throughout the day.
