Recap: Jury sentences ex-Fort Worth cop Aaron Dean to more than 11 years in prison

BREAKING NEWS: A jury has sentenced former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean to 11 years, 10 months and 12 days in prison for manslaughter in the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson.

Jurors announced their verdict on the sentence shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Rewatch the video here:

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 current age of Jefferson’s nephew, Zion Carr, who witnessed her death when he was 8 years old. 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 emotional victim impact statements right after the verdict was announced.

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

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

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

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

Amber Carr 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.”

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.

Dean shot Jefferson, 28, through her bedroom window at the back of her mother’s home. The defense argued that he thought a burglary might be in progress and he saw Jefferson point a gun at him. Prosecutors argued that Jefferson had a right to defend herself and her nephew in their home and that Dean never said he saw a gun until he found the weapon after shooting Jefferson.

James Smith, the concerned neighbor who called police about open doors at the house on East Allen Avenue, returned after the sentence to the 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 written 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.”

PREVIOUS STORY: The jury resumed deliberating Tuesday on the sentence of former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean for manslaughter in the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson.

Jurors were sequestered overnight after they weighed the decision for about seven hours on Monday without reaching a verdict on whether to sentence Dean to prison time or probation. Under Texas law, they could sentence him to between two and 20 years in prison, but they can choose probation if they decide on a sentence of 10 years or less.

The jury resumed deliberating about 8:15 a.m. Tuesday. They had been deliberating for almost 13 hours total when it was announced they were returning with a verdict. They had not reportedly sent any notes or questions to the judge on Tuesday.

A mistrial during the punishment phase of a trial is rare. If the jurors are unable to agree on a sentence, the guilty verdict would stand but a new jury would have to be convened to decide the sentence.

Dean shot Jefferson, 28, through a window at the back of her home while he and another officer were responding to a concerned neighbor’s call about open doors at the house on East Allen Avenue about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 12, 2019.

Dean, now 38, resigned from the police department two days after the shooting and was arrested later that night. He was indicted on a charge of murder and was released on bond for three years while awaiting trial.

After hearing five days of testimony, on Thursday the jury convicted him of manslaughter and he was booked into the Tarrant County Jail. The jury took about 13 hours to reach the guilty verdict.

During their closing arguments in the punishment phase of the trial Monday morning, prosecutors asked the jury to give Dean the maximum sentence, while defense attorneys encouraged jurors to recommend probation. By law, the court will have to follow the jury’s recommendation.

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. Jurors apparently hadn’t sent any other notes to ask questions by the time they stopped deliberations about 5:30 p.m. Monday.

The defense has argued that Dean thought a burglary might be in progress and that he saw Jefferson point a gun at him through the window before he shot her.

“Aaron Dean is literally being judged for a second of his life today,” defense attorney Bob Gill told the jury.

He emphasized that Dean was working in the line of duty when he made a split-second decision to shoot Jefferson and was trying to protect himself and his partner, Carol Darch.

“So what are we going to punish him for?” Gill asked, adding that Dean had been trained by the Fort Worth police academy to eliminate a threat.

Many in the community have expressed outrage over the case of a white police officer killing a Black woman. In his closing, Gill said that Dean did not know who was on the other side of the window, just that they were armed and posed a threat to him.

“As much as people want to make this a racial issue, it’s not,” Gill said.

Prosecutor Dale Smith told the jury that if Dean gets probation instead of prison time, that would mean only about 15 minutes a month, or three hours a year, that he would have to meet with a probation officer.

“Probation’s not appropriate and you know it,” Smith said.

He said Jefferson’s death wasn’t just a tragic accident — it was an event that could have been avoided had Dean made different decisions. Prosecutors have said Dean never said he saw a gun, didn’t announce himself as a police officer, didn’t give Jefferson time to respond to his command to put her hands up, didn’t attempt CPR and made many other wrong decisions in his response to the call.

“He’s the one who set everything in motion,” Smith said, gesturing toward where Dean sat by his attorneys.

Smith finished by showing the jury two photos of Jefferson — one with her siblings on a trip to San Diego and the other with her young nephew Zion, who was with her during the shooting.

“This is the person who lost her life,” he said, reminding the jury that Jefferson was planning to be a doctor and contribute to society.

“She deserved better and she deserves a sentence from you,” Smith said. “... Give him the 20 years.”