Aaron Dean verdict 'disappointing' to friends, family of Atatiana Jefferson
FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) – After the verdict came in, Atatiana Jefferson's uncle, LaPaca Jefferson, says his heart sank.
"Right now it's a bad time for me," LaPaca said. "Totally disappointing, because that's like a drunk person getting that charge after running over people, like they were not in their right mind, he was in his right mind."
After almost two days of deliberating, a Tarrant County jury found former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean guilty of manslaughter in the 2019 death of Atatiana.
His brother, Atatiana's father, died of a heart attack just weeks after she was killed, but he wanted to see justice served.
"To be perfectly honest, I know he is turning over in his grave," LaPaca said. "He would be totally disappointed. Totally disappointed because justice has not been served."
"It don't make sense, he was supposed to be guilty," said Nysse Nelson, a friend of the family. "Manslaughter is without the intent to kill, he intended to kill her."
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt – who represents Atatiana's mother's side of the family – also expressed his disappointment in the conviction.
"I think it's a relief for the family to finally see a conviction, to acknowledge what happened to Atatiana was not only bad police work, but a crime," Merritt said. "We were disappointed in a manslaughter conviction because it bears a lower penalty and we're very invested in the penalty phase of the trial now."
A murder conviction would have come with a sentence of five to 99 years or life in prison. Instead, Dean faces two to 20 with the possibility of just probation.
The punishment phase starts Friday.
"Atatiana, she loved people," LaPaca said. "She loved helping people. The only thing I can do, I'm pretty sure she would want something good to come out of something bad that happened."