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Jury begins deliberations in trial of former Dallas officer
Prosecutors and defense attorneys gave their closing arguments Tuesday after the defense rested its case without calling Hess to testify. Hess is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant after he shot and killed 21-year-old Genevive Dawes in 2017.
DALLAS - A jury began deliberating Tuesday afternoon the guilt or innocence of former Dallas police officer Christopher Hess for the fatal shooting of a driver.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys gave their closing arguments Tuesday after the defense rested its case without calling Hess to testify. Hess is charged with aggravated assault by a public servant after he shot and killed 21-year-old Genevive Dawes in 2017.
“It must be based on a reasonable belief that deadly force has to be used because it was immediately necessary,” said prosecutor Brian Mitchell.
The defense reiterated points it made throughout the trial.
“Something bad was going to happen if Officer Hess hadn’t have acted and officer were going to get hurt that evening based on the actions of the two people in that car,” said defense attorney Reed Prospere.
Hess and five other officers were responding to a suspicious persons call when they found Dawes behind the wheel of an SUV that had been reported stolen. The defense told jurors Dawes had drugs in her system while behind the wheel.
Body camera video shows her ignoring repeated commands to get out of the SUV, then she tries to leave. Hess ended up firing a total of 12 shots when Dawes put the vehicle in reverse.
Several other officers have testified during the trial, including some that were there that night. Most recently, one of the responding officers, Christopher Alisch, said he was in fear for their safety.
Alisch’s testimony bolsters the defense’s argument that Hess acted reasonably in self-defense. But prosecutors said Dawes was not threatening anyone’s life because she was reversing slowly. They also claim Hess violated the police department’s deadly force policy by firing on a moving vehicle.
A state rebuttal witness testified Tuesday the SUV was only going between two to three miles per hour -- basically walking speed.
“They want to get up her and say she was desperate to get out of there including mowing over officers. Is that really what you saw in that video, is that really?” Lewis said. “If she really wanted to run over officers she could have gunned and press that pressed to the floor.”
The defense pointed out the expert witness had 51 hours to reconstruct the scene, while Hess had mere seconds to assess the situation.
Deliberations will resume on Wednesday.