Second trial begins Monday for fired Mesquite officer who shot unarmed suspect
A fired Mesquite police officer goes back on trial Monday for shooting an unarmed who escaped custody.
A mistrial was declared the first time Derick Wiley went on trial in 2018. His body camera showed him shooting Lyndo Jones in November 2017 after Jones escaped while he was being arrested. Wiley will be tried on the charge of aggravated assault by a public servant.
Wiley's first trial ended in a hung jury – eight not guilty votes and four guilty votes by a jury.
"You start all over again," said former first assistant district attorney Heath Harris. "You've got 12 different new people. The voir dire will probably be a little different."
The new jury will see body camera of Wiley the night he confronted Jones in his pickup truck. Jones admitted he was using cocaine and marijuana. The video appears to show Wiley trying to cuff Jones to search him for weapons, but Jones resists and breaks free and Wiley shoots Jones.
Defense attorney Michael Levine, not involved in the case, thinks the state will again lean heavily on that specific piece of evidence.
"I think that video really speaks for itself," Levine said. "I think that they're going to stick with that video again and they're going to hope that a fresh set of eyes really see what there is on that video. It tells the whole tale."
What the tape doesn't tell, testimony will. But testimony that can't change is everything from the first trial record.
"The transcripts make a huge difference the parties would have gone over them and really gotten prepared for cross examination," Levine said. "Everything's known now."
Harris agreed that the strategies won't be a surprise during the second trial.
"They know how you're going to come and, typically, now you're stuck with this defense," Harris said.
Levine and Harris agree verdicts in re-trials typically favor prosecutors. But both also know it's dangerous to predict what happens in jury deliberations.
The new trial is scheduled to start Monday morning at 9 a.m.