Ex-Fort Worth cop Aaron Dean gets nearly 12 years for shooting Atatiana Jefferson in her home

A jury on Tuesday sentenced former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean to 11 years, 10 months and 12 days in prison for manslaughter for shooting Atatiana Jefferson to death in her own home.

Jurors did not explain the reason for the specific length of the sentence but the significance of the 10 months and 12 days likely is because Dean killed Jefferson on Oct. 12, 2019. The 11 years could signify the age of Jefferson’s nephew, Zion Carr, who witnessed her death when he was 8. A sentence over 10 years also means Dean won’t be eligible for bond during any appeals. Dean, 38, will have to serve at least half of the sentence before he becomes eligible for parole.

Manslaughter is a second-degree felony. The maximum possible sentence was 20 years. The defense had asked the jury to consider probation.

Members of Jefferson’s family took the witness stand to read victim impact statements right after the verdict was announced.

Her sister Ashley Carr read statements from herself and from their sister, Zion’s mother Amber Carr, who is in the hospital.

Zion loved his “Aunt Tay” because they were so much alike and now he feels responsible to fill her role in the family, Amber’s statement said. She called Atatiana, who was 28, her inspiration.

“No amount of sentencing would make me feel as though we received some type of justice,” Amber wrote. “Atatiana should still be here. She had big dreams and goals.”

Zion “has the weight of the world on his shoulders,” Amber wrote. “... He will become a successful young man the way that his Aunt Tay would want him to be.”

Amber said that the three years of waiting for Dean’s trial have not been easy and she has been hospitalized for panic attacks, “actually flat-lining four times.”

During the trial, Amber said, the family could see that, “Mr. Dean had no remorse You could tell by his demeanor throughout the whole court process. The only time we saw a difference was when the verdict was read and at that time he looked shocked.”

Despite the manslaughter verdict, the family still views the shooting as murder, she said. “He came out to do so,” Amber wrote. “Murder was on his mind..”

Reading her own statement, Ashley said, “My heart breaks daily knowing that my family and the world lost a beautiful ray of sunshine.”

“My sister did not do anything wrong,” Ashley said. “She was in her home, which should have been the safest place for her to be and yet turned out to be the most dangerous. She was murdered. And as a her big sister, I live every day with the pain that I could not do my job and protect her.”

Dean, who is white, resigned from the police department and was indicted on a murder charge after he shot Jefferson, who was Black, through a window at the back of her mother’s home on East Allen Avenue. Dean and another officer responded after a neighbor called police about 2:25 a.m. after noticing doors open at the house.

Addressing Dean on Tuesday, Ashley said she and Atatiana had big plans.

“I wanted to cheer her on through her long nights of studying for medical school and be an even louder cheerer when she was at her white coat ceremony,” she said. “I wanted to watch her grow into the successful doctor making a difference in other people’s lives.”

Their mother, Yolanda Carr, died 90 days after Jefferson did.

“I stand here today on behalf of my mother who spent her last days on earth overcome with grief and sorrow,” Ashley said. “... I made funeral plans for my sister from my mother’s bedside for a funeral that she was too sick to even attend.”

Ashley said at first she wanted Dean to suffer but now she feels pity for his ignorance.

“You do not know enough to be ashamed. You are not self aware enough to understand your responsibility for this evil act,” she said to Dean.

“You shot a Black woman to death in front of an 8-year-old child,” Ashley said. “You spent the last three years rehearsing your excuses. I hope you spend the rest of your life reliving this moment and discovering all the terrible decisions that you have made.”

Before sheriff’s deputies led Dean out of the courtroom, Ashley Carr called Dean’s service as a police officer a permanent stain on the city of Fort Worth.

The defense argued that Dean thought a burglary might be in progress and that he saw Jefferson point a gun at him through the window. Prosecutors argued that Jefferson had a right to defend herself and her nephew against strangers in their back yard and that Dean did not identify himself as an officer and never said he saw a gun until he found the weapon after shooting Jefferson.

James Smith, the concerned neighbor who called police about the open doors, returned after the sentence to the Hillside Morningside neighborhood where he has lived for decades. “We got a semblance of justice,” he said. “It means that there’s more work to be done within the Fort Worth Police Department and what happened here will be a catalyst for change in Fort Worth.”

Tarrant County Assistant Criminal District Attorneys Dale Smith and Ashlea Deener prosecuted the case with assistance from district attorney’s office investigators Marvin Brown and Jose Carrizal.

“This verdict and sentence won’t bring Atatiana Jefferson back,” District Attorney Sharen Wilson said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “This trial was difficult for all involved, including our community. My sympathies remain with Atatiana’s family and friends and I pray they find peace.

“This trial wasn’t about politics and it wasn’t about race,” Wilson said. “If someone breaks the law, they have to be held accountable. The jury agreed. We thank the jury members for making sure justice was served.”

Deener said that Jefferson’s family told prosecutors they were relieved that the sentence means prison time for the former officer.

“They’ve waited so long,” she said. “They would have liked to get the verdict of murder but they’re so very happy it was not probation.”

The Fort Worth Tarrant County NAACP said Dean’s actions have greatly affected Fort Worth and the emotional impact will be felt for years.

“His felony actions have done much damage to the psyche of our kids,” president Estella Williams said in a statement. “His actions continue to perpetuate an uneasiness about the level of safety in our own homes.

“The fact that the decision on sentencing is at the higher end of the spectrum of punishment, is proof that we are making progress toward judicial equity. The Fort Worth Tarrant County NAACP will continue to fight the good fight to ensure that the punishment of such acts fits the crime. We believe there is no solution to tragedy, but we are hopeful for a resolve of full and total justice in the case of such crimes.”

The jury deliberated about 13 hours toward the sentence and delivered their verdict just after 2 p.m. They began their second day of deliberations at 8:15 a.m.

Sighs of relief could be heard on the Carr family’s side of the courtroom. A woman sitting in the third row wiped her eyes with a tissue, and another woman patted Ashley Carr on the back.

Dean stood stoically while the sentence was read and then sat down slowly. His family remained in the courtroom afterward to speak to his attorneys.

During their closing arguments in the punishment phase Monday morning, prosecutors asked the jury to give Dean the maximum sentence, while the defense encouraged jurors to recommend probation.

The closing arguments ended shortly before 10 a.m. Monday and the jurors began their deliberation. Around 2 p.m. the jury asked to review Dean’s body-camera video and the Fort Worth Police Department’s general orders again. They stopped deliberations about 5:30 p.m. and were sequestered overnight before returning to court Tuesday morning.

The jury spent a similar amount of time deliberating the guilty verdict. Asked what factored into the jury’s lengthy discussions, prosecutor Dale Smith said, “They made a thoughtful decision. And that is the cornerstone of the American justice system. And so we really appreciate all the hard work they did.”

Dean’s trial was postponed multiple times for a variety of reasons, including COVID-19 restrictions and a change in judges.

“There are so many great police officers in the city of Fort Worth and in Tarrant County and across this nation,” Dale Smith said. “This particular officer made a series of decisions early that morning that cost this woman her life and this jury has held him accountable for it. And I think that’s an important thing to remember. It was not our intent to put the Fort Worth Police Department on trial. We put this defendant on trial.”

Since the trial began Dec. 5, friends of Jefferson’s family and community members have gathered at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center to watch the proceedings in 396th District Court.

Activist and community journalist Liz Badgley told the Star-Telegram last week that she had attended every day of the trial.

“It’s very emotional and taxing,” the 32-year-old said. “I can’t imagine how the family feels.”

On Tuesday, while waiting for the verdict on punishment, she told the Star-Telegram that she was tired and she felt like the community is “on edge.”

“I really expected it to be over sooner,” she said. “... Here we are, and hopefully this is the last day.”

Gerald Banks Sr. said he has been at the courthouse nearly every day since the trial started.

“It’s just wait, wait, wait,” the Fort Worth community activist said. “And people are tired of waiting for accountability.”

He added that the trial is something the community has been waiting for for three years, and the verdict of manslaughter felt like “a slap in the face.”

After the sentencing, Bishop Mark Kirkland, an activist and pastor with Greater St. Mark Ministries in Fort Worth, said the sentence was as much as they could have hoped for, but there is still work to be done to make Fort Worth safe for the Black community.

Kirkland emphasized the need for a police oversight board.

“I just don’t know how to express to my 15-year-old daughter that she’s not safe,” he said.

The Fort Worth City Council voted 5-4 against a police advisory board in November. The proposed board would not have been an oversight board but would have acted as an advisory board. The nine members would have reviewed policy and practices, recommended changes to the police chief, and served as an additional avenue for community input.

Jefferson’s family still has a lawsuit pending against the city and Dean in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

“This outcome was a community victory,” the family’s attorney, Lee Merritt, said Tuesday at a news conference with the family at the house on East Allen. “It was a relief. It wasn’t exactly the justice we all thought that Atatiana deserved, but it certainly represented a historic moment in the city of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.”

Dean is believed to be the first Tarrant County law enforcement officer convicted of a killing committed while on duty.

Star-Telegram service journalism editor David Montesino contributed to this report.