FORT WORTH, Texas — The attorneys for the former Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson filed a motion Monday seeking to delay Aaron Dean’s trial once again due to the poor health of his lead attorney.
The murder trial for Dean is scheduled to begin May 16, with jury selection starting May 9, and has already been delayed multiple times. However, attorneys Bob Gill and Miles Brissette asked the court to delay the trial again because Dean’s lead attorney, Jim Lane, is seriously ill.
The motion was filed Monday as the court began hearing arguments on a separate motion from the defense, in which Dean’s attorneys are requesting the trial be moved out of Tarrant County. The motion for a continuance argues the trial must be delayed due to Lane’s “serious health issues” because he is not able to participate in trial preparation or court proceedings.
The motion also says state prosecutors filed “significant new discovery materials” in the last few days, and Dean’s defense does not have enough time to review the new information before the trial.
The motion does not give a clear timeline for when the defense would be prepared to go forward with the trial.
“It is unknown at this time when Mr. Lane will be able to return to his practice,” the motion says.
Lane is expected to be able to return at some point in the future, the motion says, adding that “this case should be continued to a future ppint (sic) when Mr. Lane is available to adequately prepare for trial and competently defend Mr. Dean at trial and fully render effective assistance of counsel as guaranteed by our constitutions.”
According to the motion, Lane is the lead attorney for Dean because of Lane’s “substantial and unrivaled experience in defending similar cases.”
The defense team needs Lane’s “experience, leadership and participation” in order to interview additional expert witnesses, “spot issues and deal with them in preparation” for the trial and “to develop coherent trial strategy for the defense of this case,” the motion says.
“Requiring Mr. Dean to proceed to pretrial hearings, jury selection and to trial without the services of Mr. Lane would deprive Mr. Dean of the attorney of his choosing and deprive him of his right to effective assistance of counsel,” the motion says.
It is unclear whether 297th District Court Judge David C. Hagerman will hear arguments on that motion Monday or when he will rule on it. In January, Hagerman said there would be no more delays or continuances granted.
Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, was shot inside her own home in south Fort Worth in October 2019. Dean, who was responding to a neighbor’s call about open doors at the home, shot Jefferson through a window at the back of the house.
Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when she thought she heard a prowler in the backyard, grabbed a handgun from her purse, and pointed it toward the window, the nephew told a forensic interviewer, according to an arrest warrant affidavit supporting Dean’s arrest. Dean, who is white, did not identify himself as a police officer and shot Jefferson within seconds, according to body-camera video.
Dean, 37, resigned from the police department the same day he was arrested, which was two days after the shooting.
Jefferson’s death prompted outrage from members of the community, leading to marches, protests and fundraisers in her honor.
The prosecution argued in January, after Hagerman granted a request by the defense to push back the trial to the current May date, that doing so delayed justice that was already overdue.
