Pretrial Motions Wrap Up In Case Of Former FWPD Officer Charged In Atatiana Jefferson Shooting
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) — A judge is expected to decide Wednesday whether to delay Aaron Dean's murder trial which is scheduled to start next month.
Judge David Hagerman said in court Tuesday he would take up a motion tomorrow morning to delay the trial, and then any additional motions if still necessary.
Dean is the former Fort Worth police officer accused of shooting and killing Atatiana Jefferson in 2019. He'd been dispatched to a call about an open door at her mother's house, where she was staying. Dean had entered the backyard of the home and never identified himself as a police officer before shooting Jefferson through a window.
The hearings on pre-trial motions that started this week are the first substantial in-person legal proceedings in the case. There have been public demonstrations and statements from elected officials this year urging the court to move forward with the trial.
A motion from Dean's defense team however says at least two expert witnesses would be unable to fit a January trial into their schedule. Attorneys have also had scheduling conflicts even for the hearings this week due to a number of other pending cases as courts continue to work through the COVID pandemic backlog.
Dean's team has also asked to move the trial out of Fort Worth due to pre-trial publicity. It wasn't clear Tuesday if the judge still planned to hear arguments and make a decision on that request, after he decides on the motion to move the trial date.