FORT WORTH — Tarrant County prosecutors rested their murder case Wednesday against former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean, who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson in her mother’s home. Ten witnesses testified for the prosecution over three days in the much-delayed trial.
The length of the case put on by prosecutors surprised lawyers and observers packed into the courtroom and angered activists. Court ended before noon on Monday so people could attend the funeral for one of Dean’s lawyers and testimony ended mid-afternoon Wednesday.
Jurors must determine whether Dean, 38, was justified as a police officer to shoot Jefferson, a Black woman, on Oct. 12, 2019. Jefferson’s killing by Dean, who is white, sparked nationwide outrage and became a watershed moment previewing 2020′s widespread social justice protests. Jefferson, who lived in a predominantly Black neighborhood, was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when a concerned neighbor called a nonemergency police line because two doors to the home were open at 2:30 a.m. Although some of the 12 jurors and two alternates are people of color, none are Black.
Dean and a fellow officer responded to the call. He opened a backyard fence and saw Jefferson through her bedroom window. Jefferson heard a noise and grabbed a gun from her purse. Dean yelled, “Put your hands up, show me your hands” and fired through the glass, striking the 28-year-old. Prosecutors say Dean pulled the trigger too fast and could not have seen Jefferson’s gun within the seconds he acted.
The Dallas-based social justice non-profit organization Next Generation Action Network said it was appalled by the brevity of the prosecutors’ case. Members of the group were present throughout the trial. Prosecutors’ witness list from October 2021 listed more than 200 people the state could have called to testify. Court will resume Monday when defense lawyers present their case.
“This is beyond troubling that after three years of waiting for this trial, only three days were used; this doesn’t show the community that the Tarrant County DA is taking this case seriously at all,” the organization wrote in a statement.
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment, citing a gag order that prevents Dean, the lawyers or Jefferson’s family from speaking publicly before the trial ends.
Dean did not identify himself as police before he fired into the house. Prosecutors told jurors Dean did not act in self defense and said Jefferson did not know the two silhouettes in her backyard were police officers. Texas law allows homeowners to use deadly force to defend themselves, although prosecutors did not present witnesses to testify about that law. City officials at the time of the shooting said Jefferson was within her rights to defend herself.
Dean’s lawyers called Jefferson’s death a “tragic accident” and said the officer saw a green laser coming from her weapon when he fired into the home. Defense lawyers emphasized while questioning the state’s witnesses that aiming a gun at a police officer is a felony. Prosecutors did not question the witnesses about Jefferson’s right to defend herself. The state can call rebuttal witnesses after the defense presents its case.
Lawyers not involved in the case said they were shocked prosecutors didn’t ask about Jefferson’s right to use deadly force.
”That is the one thing you need to get your jury ready to deal with, and you need to hammer the fact that this was her home,” Dallas-based defense lawyer Alison Grinter Allen said. “She had no idea who was outside. Yes, it’s illegal to point a gun at a police officer, but it’s not illegal to point a gun at somebody who is on your porch at night that you can’t identify.”
Prosecutors capped their case Wednesday with brief testimony from Jefferson’s oldest sibling, Ashley Carr. They showed jurors photos of Jefferson beaming at her college graduation, on family trips and cheek-to-cheek with her nephew, Zion Carr, who was in the house when Jefferson was killed. Zion, now 11, was the first witness to testify in the trial this week.
Jefferson grew up in Dallas’ Oak Cliff area and was a graduate of Xavier University in Louisiana. She had recently moved into the Fort Worth home in part to care for her ailing mother and Zion, whose mother was also in poor health. Jefferson was also saving up for medical school to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor and finding a cure for diabetes, Ashley Carr told jurors. Jefferson suffered from diabetes since she was a kid, she said.
In court, her sisters, Ashley and Amber Carr, wore matching gold necklaces of a stethoscope molded into a heart and inscribed with Jefferson’s name. Jefferson and Dean’s families have been in the courtroom gallery throughout the trial.
Ashley Carr agreed with prosecutor Ashlea Deener that it is sometimes difficult to see pictures of her late-sister. Dean, who faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder, wiped his face with a tissue as she spoke. Dean’s attorneys did not question Ashley Carr.
Officer Carol Darch, who was Dean’s partner on the call, testified Tuesday they peered inside the open doors, saw a mess and believed the house had been burglarized. Zion said they left the doors open to air out smoke after burning hamburgers at dinnertime.
Darch told jurors the officers did not announce their presence in case a burglar was still inside. Both officers had recently graduated from the police academy and undergone a training period.
Zion said his aunt heard a noise in the backyard and grabbed her gun from her purse. He said on the witness stand that Jefferson held the gun at her hip and approached the window. But Zion told a child forensic interview the morning of the shooting that Jefferson held the gun up. In the recorded interview shown to the jury, Zion held his arms straight in front of him and intertwined his fingers to mimic a gun.
Dean never announced he saw a gun before he fired his service weapon or as he and fellow officer Darch raced inside the home, according to body-camera footage and Darch.
Prosecutors confronted Darch on the stand Tuesday about the officers’ failure to secure the front and side doors before opening a fence and going into the backyard. Those steps are proper procedure for an open structure call, Deener said, citing Fort Worth police policy.
Miles Brissette, Dean’s defense lawyer, suggested the policies are only “best practices.”
Dean resigned before the department could fire him, the interim chief said at the time. Dean was arrested on a murder charge two days after the shooting. Before Dean’s arrest, no Tarrant County officer had ever faced a murder charge, the district attorney’s office said at the time.
Dean did not tend to Jefferson’s wound once inside the house. Dean scanned a flashlight around the bedroom where Jefferson’s body lay and picked up her gun, his body-camera showed. Dean put a blanket on her wound when he heard more officers at the door, prosecutors said.
Dean looked away and fixed his gaze forward as prosecutors showed crime scene photos of Jefferson’s bloodied body Wednesday. Amber Carr pressed her hand to her temple and shook her head.
Dean clasped his hands on the table, his eyes cast down, as a paramedic testified how they tried to save Jefferson.
Richard Fries, a Tarrant County deputy medical examiner, said Jefferson was shot in the torso and had shards of glass embedded in her skin. The bullet pierced her heart, Fries said. He speculated no one would survive Jefferson’s injuries, even if they’d been taken to a hospital.
A juror hunched over, closed her eyes and covered her face with a jacket as prosecutors flipped through autopsy photos.
