FORT WORTH, Texas — Former Fort Worth police Officer Aaron Dean was convicted of manslaughter Thursday in the death of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson, who the ex-cop fatally shot while responding to a call at her mother’s home more than three years ago.
Dean, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison. Dean, who is white, shot Jefferson through her bedroom window from her backyard when the officer responded to the East Fort Worth home. A concerned neighbor called a nonemergency police line about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 12, 2019, because the home’s doors were open and the lights were on inside. Jefferson, who was Black, and her 8-year-old nephew were up late playing video games and left the doors open to air out smoke after they burned hamburgers at dinnertime.
The punishment phase will begin Friday morning.
A Tarrant County jury deliberated Dean’s guilt for about 14 hours over two days. The jury rejected a more serious murder conviction, which could have led to a life sentence. The difference is whether jurors believed Dean acted intentionally or knowingly for a murder conviction versus recklessly for manslaughter. Although some of the 12 jurors and two alternates are people of color, none are Black.
Jefferson’s siblings embraced and a juror covered her face as the verdict was read by state District Judge George Gallagher. Screams were heard outside the courtroom.
Fort Worth activist Nysse Nelson and a few others grabbed their jackets and swiftly left. Jefferson’s siblings were ushered out of the courtroom after the decision was announced. Dean’s father wiped his eyes, and Dean nodded toward his family and whispered as the courtroom emptied.
As wails of “No Justice, no peace” boomed in the background, Lesa Pamplin, an attorney and friend of Jefferson’s family, said she was happy to see the jury took its time in coming to a decision.
”This is a first,” she said of the trial. “I’m glad (after) everybody talked about the makeup of the jury, that these folks gave a good, hard look at the evidence and they didn’t rush it. I’m happy, not pleased.”
Cliff Sparks, a friend of the Jefferson family, said he believes the decision will embolden other officers to act “recklessly without consequence.”
”With this verdict, it gives another officer the understanding that he can shoot and kill somebody in his own backyard and get the lesser charge,” he said. “It’s not right. None of this is right.”
Sparks said he believes the jury wasn’t thorough enough in reviewing the evidence, especially whether Dean saw Jefferson’s gun.
“At some point, we have to say it’s not enough for someone to claim they saw something. We have to justify it, right?” he said. “It’s not a good look for the city of Fort Worth.”
Key questions for the jury were whether Dean saw Jefferson’s gun — which she grabbed when she heard a noise in the backyard — and if he was justified as an on-duty police officer to shoot her. Prosecutors said Jefferson had a right to defend herself. Dean and a fellow officer did not announce themselves when they responded to the call. Whether Dean and his partner should have announced their presence was a focus of the five days of testimony. The trial began Dec. 5.
State troopers arrived at the Tarrant County courthouse Wednesday. Cory Session, vice president for the Innocence Project of Texas, said the troopers’ presence can be intimidating. Session said he called on Gov. Greg Abbott to remove them. The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It’s unnecessary and it makes people uneasy,” he said. He added that the courthouse is already protected by sheriff’s deputies.
Lawyers’ arguments
Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that Dean did not act in self-defense when he fired the lethal shot that pierced Jefferson’s heart. They said Dean didn’t see Jefferson’s gun or follow proper department procedures when he arrived at the home and investigated what Dean testified he believed might be a burglary.
Dean’s lawyer Bob Gill said in closing arguments that Dean acted within his Fort Worth police training to meet deadly force with deadly force. Dean testified he saw the barrel of Jefferson’s gun; his lawyers said in opening statements he also saw a green laser attached to his gun pointed at him, however, Dean did not testify to that.
Prosecutor Ashlea Deener described Dean as a “power-hungry” officer with tunnel vision who had a “preconceived notion” about East Fort Worth as a dangerous neighborhood plagued by crime. She said Fort Worth officers were “ashamed” to have called Dean a “brother in blue.”
“It wasn’t important to (Dean) to serve and protect that day,” Deener said. “It was important for him to get there, get in the action.”
Gill argued Dean was in danger because he saw Jefferson point a gun at him. Gill called pointing a gun at a police officer an “aggressive, provocative act” that elicited Dean to act in self defense. Gill stressed police work is inherently dangerous.
Dean “saw a firearm pointed at him and based upon his training he reacted,” Gill said. “He acted tragically but he acted correctly under the law. ... He reasonably believed that his actions, his deadly force, was immediately necessary to counter (Jefferson’s) use of unlawful deadly force.”
What witnesses said
Both sides closed their cases Tuesday afternoon. Prosecutors rested their case-in-chief after three days of testimony last week, surprising some legal experts. They initially 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 who testified about four hours earlier this week — the prosecution called their own police expert who testified as a rebuttal witness.
Jurors heard contradictory opinions on the last day of testimony from the police use-of-force experts about whether Dean acted reasonably.
Prosecutors have said Dean did not follow proper Fort Worth police procedure when he responded to the neighbor’s concerns, which were coded by a call taker as an “open structure.” Smith lambasted Dean on the witness stand about measures prosecutors argued he failed to take when he arrived at the home in the 1200 block of East Allen Avenue.
But Dean and his lawyers said he believed the house was ransacked and a burglar may have been inside. Dean told jurors he saw the barrel of Jefferson’s gun through the window. Dean yelled commands and fired within less than a second, according to testimony.
Jefferson’s nephew, Zion Carr, told a child forensic interviewer the morning of the shooting that Jefferson pointed a gun toward the window. But on the stand last week, the now-11-year-old boy said she kept the gun at her side. Zion also told the interviewer he heard someone yell outside the window and thought he saw a police badge. But on the stand, Zion said he didn’t hear or see anything outside. Defense lawyers later implied to the judge they believe Zion was coached to give a different account of the shooting.
Dean resigned before the Police Department could fire him, the then-interim police chief said at the time. City officials said Jefferson had a right to defend herself within her home. A gag order prohibits Dean and his defense lawyers, and Jefferson’s family and the prosecutors from speaking ahead of the end of the trial.
Before Dean’s arrest, no Tarrant County officer had ever faced a murder charge, the district attorney’s office said at the time.
Jefferson has been described by family as a doting aunt and aspiring doctor who grew up in Dallas’ Oak Cliff area and graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana. She had moved into the East Allen Avenue home to care for her ailing mother and Zion, whose mother also was in poor health.
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