Aaron Dean attorneys show hours of media clips in bid to move trial out of Fort Worth
Attorneys for former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean, who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson in her home in 2019, argued at a court hearing Monday that his trial should be moved out of Tarrant County.
Dean, who is charged with murder, has been scheduled to appear before a jury on May 16. Dean’s attorneys, Bob Gill and Miles Brissette, filed the motion for a change of venue on Nov. 30.
In the 297th District Court of Tarrant County on Monday, Dean’s attorneys showed the courtroom hours of video coverage about Dean and the shooting from local and national media outlets. Clips from NBC DFW, Fox News, WFAA, Reuters, CBS 11, the Star-Telegram and other outlets played on a screen while reporters, community members and Jefferson’s family members watched. The clips included interviews with former Mayor Betsy Price, body camera footage of Dean shooting Jefferson and Dean’s initial job interview with Fort Worth police.
Monday’s entire proceedings from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. consisted of the attorneys showing video footage.
At one point, Gill noted on the record that some of the videos played Monday were not relevant to the case. For example, the attorneys pulled all videos from any Star-Telegram article that mentioned Dean or Jefferson by name, resulting in multiple videos being played in court that had nothing to do with the case.
Dean’s defense team claims that Dean cannot receive a fair trial in Tarrant County because of media coverage and “considerable prejudicial discussion” around Jefferson’s death.
As of Monday afternoon, the judge had not ruled on the motion for a change of venue. It’s unclear whether moving the trial to another county would cause delays.
The trial has been delayed several times, frustrating some in the community. It had been set to begin Jan. 10, but was last rescheduled in December after Dean’s defense attorneys said expert witnesses would not be available to testify at that time.
Gill and Brissette filed another motion Monday morning asking the court to delay the trial again because Dean’s lead attorney, Jim Lane, is seriously ill. It’s unclear when the judge may rule on that motion.
In January, Judge David Hagerman tentatively re-scheduled Dean’s murder trial for May 16, with jury selection to begin May 9. At the time, Hagerman said there would be no more delays.
“Is this how justice comes for Black women?!?!” Jefferson’s sister Ashley Carr posted publicly on her Facebook on Dec. 15. “Just let me know!! How long do we have to wait?”
Jefferson, 28, was killed 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 back yard, 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. The department said he would have been fired if he had not resigned.
After the motion to delay the trial to May was granted in December, Jefferson’s family and others in the community said the continued delay in justice is disrespectful.
The defense’s new motion for a continuance argues the trial again 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 (point) 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.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 3:32 PM.
