Jury selection begins in murder trial of ex-Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean

The day after the death of lead defense attorney Jim Lane, jury selection began Monday afternoon in the murder trial of former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean.

Dean’s trial in the 2019 shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson is scheduled to begin Dec. 5, and 396th District Court Judge George Gallagher said he expects the trial to conclude in the middle of the following week.

Gallagher said that he will wait to see how jury selection progresses before making a final ruling on a defense motion for a change of venue, which, if granted, would move the trial out of Tarrant County.

Each member of the jury pool filled out a 25-page questionnaire Monday, and they will come back for individual questioning on Wednesday and Thursday. A jury is expected to be chosen by Thursday or Friday.

Gallagher began by asking the 190 prospective jurors to raise their hands if they had read or seen news coverage of the case. Fifty-seven percent, or 109, said they had seen coverage.

Gallagher told the jury pool that the case has received a lot of media coverage and that his goal is to find 14 people — 12 jurors and two alternates — who can keep an open mind.

Those who raised their hands will come back to the court at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Those who didn’t will return at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Attorneys will review the questionnaires on Tuesday.

Jefferson, 28, had moved into her mother’s home on East Allen Avenue to help care for her mother as her health declined. On the night of the shooting, Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew, Zion Carr, who was the only witness inside the house.

A neighbor, James Smith, called a police non-emergency line about 2:25 a.m. on Oct. 12, 2019, after noticing doors open at the house, which he thought was unusual. Smith has said that his intent was for police to check on the welfare of the residents, but police classified the call as an open structure.

Dean and Officer Carol Darch responded to the home. Body-camera video released by the police department shows that Dean looked in the front door (which was open with the screen door closed), whispered to Darch, and walked along the driveway to the back of the house. He turned on his flashlight, walked through a gate into the back yard and stood next to a window.

Inside the house, according to the account Zion gave to a civilian forensic interviewer trained to question children, Jefferson told Zion “that she heard noises coming from outside and she took her handgun from her purse.”

Zion said, “Jefferson raised her handgun, pointed it toward the window, then Jefferson was shot and fell to the ground,” according to an affidavit supporting the warrant for Dean’s arrest.

The video shows Dean raise his handgun with his right hand while pointing the flashlight toward the window with his other hand.

Dean yells, “Put your hands up! Show me your hands!” and then immediately pulls the trigger, the video shows, firing once.

According to court documents, both officers went into the house, where Dean administered CPR while Darch took Zion outside. Jefferson died at the scene.

Two days later, Dean, then 34 years old, resigned from the police department and was arrested.

Dean is white, and Jefferson was Black. Family members and protesters have called for justice in the case over the past three years as the trial has been delayed multiple times by the COVID-19 pandemic, scheduling issues with witnesses, and the recusal of original trial judge David Hagerman.

Dean is represented by Bob Gill and Miles Brissette. Lane’s in-courtroom participation during the trial had been in question for months because of his health. He died Sunday at a local hospital.

Legal experts believe the case will hinge on whether jurors believe Dean’s actions were reasonable under the state’s self-defense law.

The case is being prosecuted by a Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office team led by Dale Smith and including Ashlea Deener and Victoria Ford Oblon.

Proposed jury questionnaires filed with the court indicate the attorneys want to ask the jury pool about issues including how they feel about police officers and the criminal justice system, whether they believe police officers treat minorities differently and whether they keep guns in their homes.

This article includes information from the Star-Telegram’s archives.