Recap: State rests case in Aaron Dean murder trial for Atatiana Jefferson shooting

The third day of former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean’s murder trial in the shooting of Atatiana Jefferson began Wednesday morning with testimony from crime-scene investigators and police and ended with Jefferson’s sister Ashley Carr taking the stand.

The state rested its case Wednesday afternoon. The trial will resume Monday, when the defense witnesses will be available to begin testifying. Court won’t be in session Thursday or Friday.

Carr’s voice broke as she looked at photos of her youngest sister that prosecutors showed to the courtroom, including a photo of her graduation from Xavier University, a trip to visit her brother who was stationed with the Navy in San Diego, and a photo with nephew Zion, who witnessed his aunt’s death when he was 8 years old.

Ashley Carr said Jefferson was the youngest of four children and had moved in with their mother, Yolanda Carr, on East Allen Avenue in Fort Worth after Yolanda became ill. Jefferson, 28, was also saving money for medical school and hoped to find a cure for diabetes, which she had had since she was a child, Ashley said. She was helping to raise Zion while his mother, Amber Carr, was also in the hospital.

The defense objected to the relevance of some of the personal questions and the judge told the prosecution to move on. Assistant Criminal District Attorney Ashlea Deener then asked Ashley Carr about their mother’s neighborhood, where Dean shot Jefferson through her bedroom window while responding to a neighbor’s call about open doors at the house. The defense has emphasized that police consider it a high-crime neighborhood.

Ashley Carr said her mother would leave the side door of her house unlocked. It was a “you just pull up and come in” type of house, she said. She testified for about 10 minutes.

Watch video of today’s proceedings below.

Jurors will have to decide whether Dean acted in self-defense. The defense has said Dean saw Jefferson point a gun at him through her bedroom window. Prosecutors don’t believe Dean saw the gun.

Wednesday began with testimony from crime-scene investigators and a Major Case unit detective who investigated after Dean shot Jefferson through the window at her home on Oct. 12, 2019.

A paramedic testified that a medical crew at the house tried everything they could to save Jefferson’s life for about 20 minutes, but she died at the scene. A deputy medical examiner then testified about the autopsy while prosecutors showed photos of the gunshot wound to Jefferson’s chest and glass from the window that pierced the skin on her face and chest.

The prosecution did not call any of the use-of-force experts that were on its list of potential witnesses. Prosecutors could still call more witnesses later as a rebuttal to the defense’s case.

The defense is expected to present a day or two of witness testimony.

Crime-scene technician James Van Gorkom discussed photos and an interactive, virtual 3D scan taken of the house. He told prosecutor Ashlea Deener it’s hard to tell the difference between a messy house and a ransacked house. The other officer who responded to the house with Dean testified that before the shooting, they thought the house had been burglarized, which turned out not to be true.

Major Case Detective Doug Rohloff, who collected Dean’s gun for evidence after the shooting, testified that Dean was given a replacement gun and that his personal flashlight attachment that was on the gun used in the shooting was given back to him. Dean resigned from the police department two days after the shooting and was arrested later that night.

Another crime-scene investigator, Officer T. Valderas, also testified. The defense asked a lot of questions on cross-examination to establish whether evidence was collected correctly.

Tarrant County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Richard Fries said he performed the autopsy on Oct. 13. He said the bullet hit Jefferson’s left upper chest and traveled downward and to the right. There was no exit wound and he removed the bullet from her right lower back.

The defense questioned Fries about the path of the bullet and how Jefferson was standing and he said he could not determine exactly how she was standing but that she could have been leaning forward and turned slightly to the side, rather than facing the officer directly when he fired the gun. He couldn’t answer how close she was standing to the window.

The paramedic testified that they worked to try to save Jefferson for 20 minutes and she never had a pulse and never breathed on her own during that time. Fries said that did not surprise him. “This was a lethal wound,” he said.

But she did not die immediately, he said. Her cries and groans could be heard on Dean’s body-camera video.

Jefferson bled to death and it’s unlikely she would have survived even if she had gotten immediate care at a hospital trauma center, Fries said. The bullet hit her heart, liver and kidney.

“These are very devastating wounds,” Fries said. “I would not expect someone to survive them.”

Previous testimony

On Tuesday, jurors heard testimony from Carol Darch, the other officer who responded with Dean to Jefferson’s home on East Allen Avenue after a concerned neighbor called about doors being open at the house after 2 a.m.

Jurors also heard Tuesday from the neighbor, James Smith, and the city employee who answered his call. Prosecutors played Dean’s body-camera video and the audio of Smith’s call.

In the bodycam video, Dean shouts, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” and then immediately fires one shot. Prosecutors say he didn’t identify himself as an officer, never mentioned seeing a gun, and did not perform any first aid to try to save Jefferson’s life.

On Monday, Jefferson’s nephew Zion Carr, who was the only witness inside the house, testified. He was 8 years old at the time of the shooting. He said that he and his aunt opened the doors to let out smoke after burning hamburgers. He said they were playing video games when Jefferson heard noises in the back yard, grabbed her handgun from her purse and looked out the window.

On Monday, Zion said Jefferson held the gun down by her side and that he didn’t see the officers in the yard. On Tuesday, the attorneys played video of Zion’s conversation with a forensic interviewer recorded about two hours after the shooting. In the video, Zion said Jefferson pointed the gun at the window and that he saw Dean’s badge, gun and flashlight through the window.

When Darch and Dean arrived, they found no signs of forced entry at the front and side doors, which were open but with the glass storm doors closed, Darch testified. The officers looked inside the family’s cars in the driveway and then went to search the back yard, she said. Deener asked Darch to read the Fort Worth Police Department’s general orders and pointed out the officers did not follow proper procedure for responding to an open structure call because they didn’t guard the open doors.