FORT WORTH, Texas — The Tarrant County jurors who convicted a white former Fort Worth police officer in the shooting death of a Black woman heard evidence Friday as they weigh his punishment for manslaughter.
The same jury found Aaron Dean guilty of manslaughter Thursday for fatally shooting a 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson when he responded to a call at her mother’s home.
Dean, 38, faces two to 20 years in prison for killing Jefferson, a doting aunt and aspiring doctor who grew up in Dallas’ Oak Cliff area and graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana. Dean could also be eligible for probation.
Adarius Carr, Jefferson’s brother, who has been in the courtroom throughout the trial, described Jefferson as a tomboy and stellar student. The punishment phase will be the first time jurors hear much about the kind of person Jefferson was. The guilt-innocence phase focused on Dean’s actions the night he killed Jefferson.
“If I was playing basketball, she was playing with me,” he said. “If I was hanging out with my friends, she was playing with me. Video games, I’m pretty sure I’m the reason she started playing them.”
He added: “She always wanted to be a doctor — I never heard her say anything else. School was super easy for her, I was almost jealous. I was a B-C student, she was always straight A’s kind of flawlessly.”
Dean shot Jefferson through her bedroom window from the backyard. A concerned neighbor called a nonemergency police line about 2:30 a.m. Oct. 12, 2019, because the home’s doors were open and the lights were on inside. Jefferson and her 8-year-old nephew, Zion Carr, were up late playing video games and left the doors open to air out smoke after they burned hamburgers at dinnertime. Jefferson moved into the East Fort Worth home to care for her ailing mother and Zion, whose mother was also in poor health.
Dean frequently blinked back tears as Carr testified and fixed his eyes forward. When Carr described getting the call from his sister, Ashley Carr that Jefferson died, Dean reached for a tissue, blew his nose and dabbed his eyes.
Prosecutors rested after Carr’s testimony. Now, the defense will present their case. Dean testified in the guilt-innocence portion of the trial. It’s unclear whether he will testify during the punishment phase.
Not fit for police work
Psychologist Kyle Clayton, who evaluated Dean before he was hired by Fort Worth police, testified Dean exhibited grandiose, “domineering, over-controlling” personality traits.
Clayton concluded Dean was “not psychologically suitable to serve as a police officer” because his “narcissistic personality style that would inhibit his judgement, decision-making, interpersonal abilities and would make him more likely engage in behaviors that would put himself and others at risk.”
Clayton said if applicants do not pass the evaluation, they can appeal. Dean’s lawyers said the panel of three psychologists unanimously decided Dean was fit to be an officer.
Dean gazed at the defense table as Clayton testified. He occasionally rubbed his face and pinched his nose. He frequently took sips of water from a cup before him. Dean, who was jailed after the jury’s verdict, had flat hair and it wasn’t gelled back as it has been throughout the trial.
Outside the presence of the jury, Clayton said Dean disclosed a woman reported to police that Dean assaulted her while he was a student at the University of Texas at Arlington.
While prosecutors and one of Dean’s attorneys, Bob Gill spoke with the judge, another defense attorney, Miles Brissette whispered to Dean. Dean smiled, seemed to laugh and covered his mouth. Jefferson’s relatives looked at each other and shook their heads.
The woman was then called to testify by prosecutors. She told jurors Dean hugged her from behind and “skirted the cup of my brazier” in the fall of 2004 while they were students at the university. In the same interaction, the woman testified, Dean asked about a promise ring from her boyfriend. She said he implied he’d been interested in her sexually since he saw her earlier that year wearing a dress that outlined the top of her breasts. Dean used his finger to trace the outline of the dress on her breast, the woman said.
“I was deeply upset,” she said.
She said she reported the incident to campus police. Dean said while applying for Fort Worth police that he was cited for simple assault pleaded no contest and paid a fine, The Dallas Morning News previously reported. Dean’s lawyers said while questioning the woman that Dean apologized to her.
Dean did not look at his former schoolmate as she testified. He scribbled notes as she spoke.
Manslaughter conviction
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated Dean’s guilt for about 14 hours over two days. They rejected a murder conviction sought by prosecutors, 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.
Key questions for the jury during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial 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.
Prosecutors argued since the trial began Dec. 5 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.
Defense attorneys argued throughout the trial 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.
Shouts erupted outside Thursday outside courtroom as activists and community leaders decried that Dean wasn’t convicted of murder. Some residents, however, saw the conviction as a small, but meaningful, step toward police accountability — and celebrated that Dean wouldn’t walk free.
