By Krista M. Torralva and Maggie Prosser
FORT WORTH — A psychologist who evaluated Aaron Dean before he was hired as a Fort Worth police officer testified Friday the former cop convicted of manslaughter wasn’t fit for police work.
Psychologist Kyle Clayton testified Dean exhibited grandiose, “domineering, overcontrolling” personality traits. Clayton concluded Dean, 38, was “not psychologically suitable to serve as a police officer” because his “narcissistic personality style” could “inhibit his judgement, decision-making, interpersonal abilities and would make him more likely engage in behaviors that would put himself and others at risk.”
The same Tarrant County jurors who convicted Dean, who is white, in the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson, who was Black, listened to Clayton’s testimony as they weighed Dean’s punishment for manslaughter.
They found Dean guilty of manslaughter Thursday for fatally shooting Jefferson, 28, when he responded to a call at her mother’s East Fort Worth home. Dean faces two to 20 years in prison for killing Jefferson, a doting aunt and aspiring doctor who grew up in Dallas’ Oak Cliff and graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana. Dean could also be eligible for probation. Jurors rejected a murder charge, which could have led to a life sentence.
Closing arguments are expected Monday after both sides called witnesses Friday for the punishment phase.
Clayton told jurors that applicants who do not pass the evaluation can appeal. Dean’s lawyers said a panel of three psychologists unanimously decided Dean was fit to be an officer. Clayton’s evaluation was in 2017. Dean finished the academy the following year.
Dean gazed at the defense table as Clayton testified. He occasionally rubbed his face and pinched his nose. He frequently took sips of water from a cup before him. Dean, who was jailed after the jury’s verdict, had flat hair that wasn’t gelled back as it had been throughout the trial. He had been out of jail on bond for more than three years while awaiting trial.
Dean shot Jefferson through her bedroom window from the backyard. A concerned neighbor had called a nonemergency police line about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 12, 2019, because the home’s doors were open and the lights were on inside. Jefferson and her 8-year-old nephew, Zion Carr, were up late playing video games and had left the doors open to air out smoke after they burned hamburgers at dinnertime. Jefferson moved into the East Fort Worth home to care for her ailing mother and Zion, whose mother also was in poor health.
Key questions for the jury during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial were whether Dean saw Jefferson’s gun — which she grabbed when she heard a noise in the backyard — and if he was justified as an on-duty police officer to shoot her. Prosecutors said Jefferson had a right to defend herself. Dean and a fellow officer did not announce themselves when they responded to the call. Whether Dean and his partner should have announced their presence was a focus of the five days of testimony. Dean said he didn’t announce themselves because he suspected a burglary was still in progress, and he didn’t want to alert a perpetrator.
Prosecutors argued since the trial began Dec. 5 that Dean did not act in self-defense when he fired the lethal shot that pierced Jefferson’s heart. They said Dean didn’t see Jefferson’s gun or follow proper department procedures when he arrived at the home. Defense attorneys argued throughout the trial Dean acted within his Fort Worth police training to meet deadly force with deadly force. Dean testified he saw the barrel of Jefferson’s gun; his lawyers said in opening statements he also saw a green laser attached to her gun pointed at him, however, Dean did not testify to that.
Jefferson’s family testifies
Jurors also heard from Adarius Carr, Jefferson’s brother, who has been in the courtroom throughout the trial. He described Jefferson as a tomboy and stellar student. The punishment phase was the first time jurors heard much about who Jefferson was. The guilt-innocence phase focused on Dean’s actions the night he killed Jefferson.
“If I was playing basketball, she was playing with me,” Adarius Carr said. “If I was hanging out with my friends, she was playing with me. Video games, I’m pretty sure I’m the reason she started playing them.”
He added: “She always wanted to be a doctor — I never heard her say anything else. School was super easy for her, I was almost jealous. I was a B-C student, she was always straight A’s kind of flawlessly.”
Adarius Carr recalled not believing the news of his sister’s death.
“We had to fact-find to figure out what happened because we didn’t know anything,” he said. “We couldn’t have her body, her remains. [We had to] plan a funeral. Mom was ailing so we couldn’t really help her.”
Yolanda Carr, their mother, died months after her slain daughter.
Dean frequently blinked back tears and fixed his eyes forward as Adarius Carr testified. When Adarius Carr described getting the call from his sister, Ashley Carr, that Jefferson had died, Dean reached for a tissue, blew his nose and dabbed his eyes.
At another moment in court, prosecutors and one of Dean’s attorneys, Bob Gill, spoke with the judge. Another defense attorney, Miles Brissette, whispered to Dean. Dean smiled, seemed to laugh and covered his mouth. Jefferson’s relatives looked at each other and shook their heads.
Outside the presence of the jury, Clayton, the psychologist, said Dean disclosed that a woman reported to police that Dean had assaulted her while he was a student at the University of Texas at Arlington. But he was “flippant” and “minimized” the incident, Clayton said.
The woman was then called to testify by prosecutors. She told jurors Dean hugged her from behind and “skirted the cup of my brassiere” in the fall of 2004 while they were students at the university. In the same interaction, the woman testified, Dean asked about a promise ring from her boyfriend. She said he implied he’d been interested in her sexually since he saw her earlier that year wearing a dress that outlined the top of her breasts. Dean used his finger to trace the outline of the dress on her breast, the woman said.
“I was deeply upset,” she said.
She said she reported the incident to campus police. Dean said while applying for Fort Worth police that he was cited for simple assault, pleaded no contest and paid a fine, The Dallas Morning News previously reported. Dean’s lawyers said while questioning the woman that Dean apologized to her. The News is not identifying the woman because of the nature of Dean’s assault.
Dean did not look at her as she testified. He scribbled notes as she spoke.
Defense witnesses
Tom Foster, a congregant at Dean’s church, described the former officer as “dependable, upright, noble” and a “humble servant.” Gayle Armstrong, a longtime family friend who homeschooled her children with the Dean family told jurors Dean was “an approachable, humble young man.”
Defense lawyers also called a probation court officer to testify about possible probation conditions. Defense lawyers are expected to ask jurors for a probated sentence.
Dean testified in the guilt-innocence portion of the trial. He did not testify during the punishment phase. His mother, Donna Dean; brother, Adam Dean; and sister, Alyssa Dean, took the stand.
Aaron Dean is the second-oldest of six children, his mother testified. His parents and Alyssa Dean sat in the courtroom gallery throughout the trial and other siblings were present for the verdict. His father, Larry Dean, clutched a Bible in court Friday.
As a child, Aaron Dean especially liked to dote on his sister, Alyssa Dean, who is 10 years younger and also a police officer. He sympathized with her when she was a toddler, and her parents made her nap, and he would take stuffed animals to console her, Donna Dean said. Aaron Dean blinked back tears and Alyssa Dean pulled a tissue from her backpack.
Aaron Dean’s sister squeezed his shoulder as she walked to and from the witness stand to testify in his defense. After the courtroom was mostly cleared, Aaron Dean was allowed back in to visit with his family. He returned without his tie and the top of his dress shirt unbuttoned. His embraced his parents and siblings.
Alyssa Dean said while she was questioned by prosecutors that she disagreed with the jury’s verdict.
Thomas Dugan, a Fort Worth police detective who trained Aaron Dean, testified Aaron Dean was “pretty torn up” after killing Jefferson. Dugan choked back emotions, and Aaron Dean’s eyes welled with tears.
‘Can I ask if Zion is sad?’
Jurors last heard from Ashley Carr, Jefferson’s oldest sister, who prosecutors called as a rebuttal witness after the defense put on their case. Jefferson took on the role of caretaker to Zion when his mother and grandmother were in the hospital. Yolanda Carr and Zion’s mother, Amber Carr, struggled with heart problems, Adarius Carr said earlier.
Jurors laughed when Ashley Carr said she was the aunt who bought him toys, but Jefferson was the aunt who got to play with him because they were so close. Since Jefferson’s death, Zion struggles with emotional outbursts and often misses school, Ashley Carr said. The now 11-year-old has been in counseling since 2019, Ashley Carr said.
Outside the presence of the jury, Ashley Carr said Zion feels guilt for Jefferson’s death because the house doors were open to air out smoke after Zion burned the hamburgers. The judge did not allow Carr to testify to that in front of the jury after objections from defense lawyers.
“Can I ask if Zion is sad?” prosecutor Ashlea Deener asked the judge. The judge allowed Ashley Carr to say she’d observed that Zion was sad.
Deener expressed frustration to a member of the prosecutionteam as the courtroom emptied for the day, saying she “was limited” in what testimony she was allowed to elicit from Jefferson’s family.
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