FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A former Fort Worth police officer will face his murder trial next month in the city where he fatally shot a black woman through a window of her home in 2019, a Texas judge ruled Wednesday.
Judge David Hagerman denied a motion by Aaron Dean’s attorneys, who were seeking to move his Atatiana Jefferson murder trial to another county due to media coverage they claimed had tainted the jury against the 37-year-old. . But he agreed to her request to postpone the case, delaying it for a month.
The decision means Dean will go on trial in June just a few miles from where he shot Jefferson through a rear window while he was responding to a knock on the open front door. Murder of 28-year-old black woman shattered already fragile relationships between the city’s police department and its black community.
After nearly three days of hearings, Hagerman ruled that news coverage of the shooting had not been inflammatory and that Dean’s case will proceed in Tarrant County, about 30 miles west of Dallas, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Dean’s trial has been delayed for years as the COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed courts across the country. It was scheduled to start on May 16, but the former officer’s lawyers asked for more delay on Wednesday because one of them is in poor health.
Hagerman has set the trial for June 23 and said he will proceed with or without the attorney, KXAS-TV reported.
Dean resigned after being charged with murder at Jefferson’s death on October 12, 2019.
Jefferson was looking at his 8-year-old nephew when a neighbor called the police non-emergency line to report a door ajar. Police have said Dean opened fire from outside through a window after “perceiving a threat”.
Hagerman has issued a gag order that prevents prosecutors and defense attorneys from speaking publicly about the case.
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