Former officer facing second trial for shooting unarmed Mesquite man
DALLAS - A second trial began Monday for the former Mesquite police officer accused of shooting an unarmed man.
Officer Derick Wiley was fired from the Mesquite Police Department after being charged with aggravated assault for shooting of Lyndo Jones twice in the back in 2017.
A Dallas County jury was unable to reach a verdict in a 2018 trial, with eight members of the jury voting not guilty and four voting guilty. The judge declared a mistrial in the case.
Wiley's second trial started with prosecutors calling it a "simple case" during opening statements.
"It is simple because a man unarmed, was shot twice in the back by a police officer while trying to get away from him," said prosecutor Brian Mitchell.
The defense, unsurprisingly, disagreed with the characterization of the prosecutors.
"This case is anything but simple. They want you to see it in a vacuum. This case is about a defiant man, a peace officer and politics," said defense attorney Rafael Sierra.
Surveillance cameras captured the encounter between Wiley and Jones.
Wiley testified last September he thought Jones was a burglar. Jones says he pulled into a Mesquite parking lot after missing his exit on his way to pick up his stepdaughter from daycare.
Jones testified he was snorting cocaine and smoking marijuana while listening to music and messing with his phone when Wiley drove up with his light bar and siren off.
Attorney Glynnis McGinty, who is new to the defense team for the re-trial, pointed out Jones got immunity from other charges for his testimony. He also grilled him about his admitted drug use and how it may have affected his behavior that night.
"Driving and doing illegal drugs is something wrong isn't it?" McGinty said. "Having fictitious tags is something wrong isn't it? You keep saying you didn't do anything wrong, you did."
Daryl Washington is representing Jones in a lawsuit against Wiley and the City of Mesquite.
"Clearly you can see the defense has a strategy as to try to use as much prejudicial information as they possibly can to attempt to get the just not to focus on the true issue of this case," Washington said.
He believes the video evidence tells the real story of an officer's abuse of power.
But Wiley's defense team on Monday picked apart Jones' own words and conflicting statements about what happened that night.
Testimony in the trial will continue on Tuesday.