A judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the case of a white father and son in Mississippi who were accused of chasing and shooting at a Black FedEx driver who had dropped off a package at a home, after it was revealed that police did not turn over all evidence to the prosecutor’s office.
Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Case, were charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into the vehicle driven by D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022. The case drew comparisons to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was running through a Georgia neighborhood in February 2020 when three white men — including a father and son — chased him in a pair of pickup trucks for five minutes and one of the men fatally shot him. The three men were convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Judge David Strong issued his ruling Thursday morning, a day after the defense asked for a mistrial because police did not turn over all evidence. The disclosure came to light during the testimony of Brookhaven police Detective Vincent Fernando.
“The failure to turn over matters in discovery is just something that can’t be ignored,” Strong said Thursday. “In 17 years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it happen.”
“But it happened here,” Strong added. “And with great reluctance, the court has no choice in this matter but to grant the motion for a mistrial.”
A woman then stormed out of the courtroom.
Gibson has said he believed the Cases pursued him because he is Black. He said he was wearing a FedEx uniform when he dropped off a package at a house in Brookhaven on Jan. 24, 2022. He said he was not in a FedEx truck but in a Hertz van that FedEx had rented, with the rental company’s markings on the sides. As he was leaving, he said, a man in a white pickup truck began following him closely while honking his horn. Gibson said he drove past a couple of houses and encountered a man standing in the middle of the road with a gun pointed at him. The man was mouthing the word “stop,” Gibson said.
District Attorney Dee Bates told the majority-white jury this week that Gregory Case used a pickup truck to try to block the van from leaving, and Brandon Case came outside with a gun.
As Gibson drove the van around the pickup truck, his van was shot at, Bates said. He said three rounds hit the delivery van and some of the packages inside. His account of events matched what Gibson previously told NBC News.
Gregory Case’s attorney, Terrell Stubbs, told jurors that his client saw a van outside his mother-in-law’s unoccupied home and was concerned. He said Gregory Case went to check what was happening and had planned only to ask the van driver what was going on, but the driver did not stop, Stubbs said.
The judge ended Wednesday’s court session early because Fernando acknowledged under oath that he had not previously given prosecutors or defense attorneys a videotaped statement that police took from Gibson after Gibson’s encounter with the Cases. The jury was not in the courtroom when he disclosed this.
“The bottom line is, this file should have been turned over to the D.A.’s office prior to the indictment and by file, I mean the entire file, including a video recorded statement of the victim, which was also requested by the defense to the D.A.’s office,” Strong told Fernando on Wednesday. He added that Bates acknowledged the request had been made and said that he had been told it didn’t exist.
“Lo and behold, here we are on the second day of trial and we find out something that these attorneys had been looking for for at least a week, potentially months, is actually in your file,” Strong said. He asked Fernando whether he understood that he was required to turn the entire file over to the district attorney’s office in order for him to be able to prosecute the cases.
Fernando responded, “Yes.” Asked by the judge who had possession of the video, Fernando said he did. The judge questioned him as to whether there was any way for the prosecution or defense to know about it. “You understand how the system doesn’t work when that happens?” Strong asked Fernando, who responded, “Yes, sir.”
The judge instructed him Wednesday to go through his file and make sure that everything in it is in possession of the district attorney “and by osmosis, defense counsel.” The Brookhaven Police Department did not immediately return a request for comment.
The defense had asked for a mistrial, arguing that Fernando violated multiple rules while on the witness stand. He made statements that were excluded in the trial, including about shell casings he had found. The judge said the district attorney was not at fault because he did not believe Bates knew it existed.
“He’s told me that, and I believe that,” Strong said Wednesday.
Carlos Moore, Gibson’s attorney in a civil lawsuit, expressed disappointment and frustration Thursday.
“It is concerning that BPD withheld a potentially crucial piece of evidence, and I concur with District Attorney Dee Bates, the withheld evidence necessitated a mistrial,” he said. “We believe that this is not an isolated incident but a part of a larger pattern of obstruction by the BPD.”
Moore said he would ask the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to investigate the police department’s conduct in the case for potential obstruction of justice.
“We are hopeful that the Department of Justice’s involvement will help shed light on this serious matter and ensure that justice is served,” he said.
Brookhaven is about 55 miles south of the state capital, Jackson. The population of Brookhaven is 59.5% Black and 39% white, according to the most recent census data.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
