Aaron Dean’s attorneys again ask for murder trial to be moved out of Tarrant County

Defense attorneys for Aaron Dean, a former Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed Atatiana Jefferson in her home in 2019, filed another request with the court to move the upcoming murder trial out of Tarrant County.

Defense attorneys Bob Gill and Miles Brissette filed the motion at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to state prosecutor Dale Smith. At a pretrial hearing Wednesday morning, Smith said the prosecution team did not know about the motion until 9:15 a.m. Wednesday and called the motion “an ambush by the defense.”

Smith argued the pretrial hearings have been scheduled since August, and the defense filed the change of venue motion at the last minute. The state did not have enough time to prepare to argue against the motion, Smith said, and he requested a recess in order to review the document.

The murder trial is set to begin on Dec. 5, with jury selection scheduled for Nov. 28. The trial has been delayed multiple times.

At 9:30 a.m., Judge George Gallagher dismissed the hearing until 11 a.m. in order to allow the state attorneys to prepare. When court reconvened, the defense played news clips from WFAA regarding the Dean trial. Gallagher suggested he review the rest of the news clips outside of the court, and the defense agreed.

Change of venue argument

The defense’s motion for a change of venue argues that “influential persons in the county have instigated a dangerous combination against Mr. Dean by reason of which Mr. Dean cannot expect a fair trial in Tarrant County for this case.”

The motion specifically says former Mayor Betsy Price, former Police Chief Ed Kraus and Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Sharen Wilson “combined” against Dean, and collectively made public comments against the former officer.

Through comments to the media, the motion says, Wilson, Price and Kraus “expressed their opinion that Mr. Dean is guilty of murder and that there is no justification for the act of Mr. Dean.”

The 16-page motion cites numerous Star-Telegram articles and editorials, saying “many other influential persons expressed their opinion in the media regarding the alleged guilt of Mr. Dean.”

The defense team previously filed a change of venue motion in November 2021, which was denied by Judge David Hagerman in May. In that motion, the defense argued Dean could not receive a fair trial in Tarrant County due to prejudice by the media. For several days, the defense played clips from broadcast news and reviewed Star-Telegram articles about Jefferson’s death. Hagerman ruled that while media coverage had been pervasive and prejudicial, the coverage had not been inflammatory.

Hagerman was removed from the case after Dean’s attorneys argued he was biased against the defense.

The change of venue motion also argues “influential persons” seek “to make a racial issue out of the Dean trial.” The motion references an October 2019 article in the Star-Telegram that quotes then Tarrant County Democratic Party chairwoman Deborah Peoples as saying, “When officers come into our communities, they come in combat mode. We don’t have a chance.”

Gill said the defense planned to show news clips that have been generated since their last motion was denied. Smith said the state’s team was prepared for that portion of the argument, but the second motion is an entirely new argument that it has not had time to prepare for.

Gill also said Wednesday that the defense plans to call Kraus and Price to testify on the motion on Thursday. Smith said the defense emailed that request on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m., which he said is not sufficient time to schedule those testimonies from the former mayor and former police chief.

Thursday’s hearing is set to begin at 9 a.m., and the defense plans to call Price and Kraus to the stand regarding the defense’s motion to move the trial out of Tarrant County. Councilman Chris Nettles will also be called to testify via Zoom.

Other motions

The defense also filed a motion on Nov. 4 to test Dean’s gun, which he used to shoot Jefferson, for unspecified evidence. On Nov. 8, the defense went to the Fort Worth Police Department to test the weapon, according to a motion from the state, which objected to the testing.

Gallagher also heard arguments surrounding the defense team’s subpoena to the DA’s office requesting records from the Tarrant County DA’s IT department. On Nov. 11, the defense requested emails sent or received over a 183-day period by eight current and former DA’s staff members containing seven specific search terms.

The DA’s office sought a protective order from the court, arguing the time frame to produce all the records was “impossible” and the records likely included confidential or sensitive material.

The city of Fort Worth had similar objections to a request the defense made on Nov. 11 for staff emails. The request asked for e-mails over a period of over three years, sent or received by 30 current or former city employees and containing specific keywords. A city representative said at Wednesday’s hearing the request places a “huge burden” on the city because all those emails must be reviewed for sensitive information.

Gallagher ordered both the city and the DA’s office to turn over the information they had collected so far and instructed the defense attorneys to go through those records to see if they needed anything more.

Case background

A grand jury indicted Dean on a murder charge after he fatally shot Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman, through a window at her family’s home in October 2019.

Jefferson’s neighbor James Smith had called the police and asked for a welfare check on the house because a front door was open. Dean and another officer parked around the corner from the home and walked into the back yard.

Inside, Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when she thought she heard a prowler in the yard. She grabbed a handgun from her purse and pointed it toward the window, according to her nephew’s account in an arrest warrant affidavit supporting Dean’s arrest.

Dean, who is 37 and white, did not identify himself as a police officer and shot Jefferson within seconds of seeing her through the window, according to body-worn camera video. He resigned from the police department the same day he was arrested, two days after the shooting.