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Former Texas police officer found guilty of manslaughter for the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson at her home
No qualified immunity for this trigger happy Barney Fife?!!
CNN —
A former Forth Worth, Texas, police officer was found guilty of manslaughter Thursday in the 2019 shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in her home.
Dean, who is White, faces up to 20 years in prison for the conviction. Jefferson was Black.
He had pleaded not guilty to murder, a charge which carried a possible sentence of five to 99 years. Jurors were instructed Wednesday to also consider the lesser included offense of manslaughter. The sentencing phase begins Friday, CNN affiliate WFAA reported.
Dean, in a gray suit, showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
Members of Jefferson’s family were expressionless in the courtroom as the judge announced the verdict, WFAA reported. There was no immediate comment from family members.
“We’re glad there was a guilty verdict. That’s progress,” the Rev. Crystal Bates, a minister and activist, told WFAA outside court.
“But there’s so much work to be done… How he is sentenced is going to send a message not only to him but to other law enforcement to not be so trigger happy when you see somebody of color.”
Defense attorneys had said Dean fired in self-defense, but prosecutors argued there was no evidence he saw a gun in the woman’s hand before firing through a bedroom window.
Jefferson’s 11-year-old nephew, who was with her at the time, and Dean’s police partner – who responded with him to what they believed was a burglary – were the primary witnesses to the shooting and testified at trial. Dean took the stand and said he fired at Jefferson because she pointed a gun at him.
The verdict comes more than three years after the deadly encounter in which Dean and his partner responded to Jefferson’s house around 2:25 a.m. on October 12, 2019. They arrived at her house after a neighbor called a nonemergency police line to report that her doors were open.
Trial testimony, which touched on fraught issues of race, police violence, gun rights and body-camera footage, began on December 5.
The verdict was announced after jurors deliberated for more than 13 hours, reported WFAA. The manslaughter conviction of a police officer who was on duty is a first in Tarrant County, the station reported.
Jurors got the case Wednesday afternoon following closing arguments in which the state portrayed Dean as a power-hungry former cop whose preconceived notions about the neighborhood where Jefferson lived tainted his conduct the night of the shooting.
The defense countered that Dean fired his weapon in self-defense while fearing for his life in what attorneys said was a tragic accident but not a criminal act.
Dean resigned days afterward and was arrested and charged in the killing of Jefferson.
“If you can’t feel safe in your own home, where can you feel safe?” Tarrant County Prosecutor Ashlea Deener told jurors in closing arguments on Wednesday. “When you think about your house, you think about safety. It’s where you go to retreat, to get away from the world.”
Dean, the prosecutor said, had a “tremendous amount of power” when he put on his uniform.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/us/aaron-dean-trial-verdict-atatiana-jefferson/index.html
No qualified immunity for this trigger happy Barney Fife?!!
CNN —
A former Forth Worth, Texas, police officer was found guilty of manslaughter Thursday in the 2019 shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson in her home.
Dean, who is White, faces up to 20 years in prison for the conviction. Jefferson was Black.
He had pleaded not guilty to murder, a charge which carried a possible sentence of five to 99 years. Jurors were instructed Wednesday to also consider the lesser included offense of manslaughter. The sentencing phase begins Friday, CNN affiliate WFAA reported.
Dean, in a gray suit, showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
Members of Jefferson’s family were expressionless in the courtroom as the judge announced the verdict, WFAA reported. There was no immediate comment from family members.
“We’re glad there was a guilty verdict. That’s progress,” the Rev. Crystal Bates, a minister and activist, told WFAA outside court.
“But there’s so much work to be done… How he is sentenced is going to send a message not only to him but to other law enforcement to not be so trigger happy when you see somebody of color.”
Defense attorneys had said Dean fired in self-defense, but prosecutors argued there was no evidence he saw a gun in the woman’s hand before firing through a bedroom window.
Jefferson’s 11-year-old nephew, who was with her at the time, and Dean’s police partner – who responded with him to what they believed was a burglary – were the primary witnesses to the shooting and testified at trial. Dean took the stand and said he fired at Jefferson because she pointed a gun at him.
The verdict comes more than three years after the deadly encounter in which Dean and his partner responded to Jefferson’s house around 2:25 a.m. on October 12, 2019. They arrived at her house after a neighbor called a nonemergency police line to report that her doors were open.
Trial testimony, which touched on fraught issues of race, police violence, gun rights and body-camera footage, began on December 5.
The verdict was announced after jurors deliberated for more than 13 hours, reported WFAA. The manslaughter conviction of a police officer who was on duty is a first in Tarrant County, the station reported.
Jurors got the case Wednesday afternoon following closing arguments in which the state portrayed Dean as a power-hungry former cop whose preconceived notions about the neighborhood where Jefferson lived tainted his conduct the night of the shooting.
The defense countered that Dean fired his weapon in self-defense while fearing for his life in what attorneys said was a tragic accident but not a criminal act.
Dean resigned days afterward and was arrested and charged in the killing of Jefferson.
“If you can’t feel safe in your own home, where can you feel safe?” Tarrant County Prosecutor Ashlea Deener told jurors in closing arguments on Wednesday. “When you think about your house, you think about safety. It’s where you go to retreat, to get away from the world.”
Dean, the prosecutor said, had a “tremendous amount of power” when he put on his uniform.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/us/aaron-dean-trial-verdict-atatiana-jefferson/index.html
