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Louisville jury begins deliberations in ex-police officer's retrial in Breonna Taylor case

In Brett Hankison's last federal trial, a jury could not come to a unanimous decision leading to a mistrial after more than three days of deliberations.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A jury of six men and six women now hold the fate of a former Louisville Metro Police (LMPD) detective in their hands.

Jurors spent around four hours deliberating Wednesday in the federal retrial of Brett Hankison. 

Hankison is charged with violating the rights of Breonna Taylor and her neighbors during the 2020 police raid where he fired 10 bullets into the side of Taylor's apartment. 

Attorneys on both sides gave closing arguments before handing the case off to the jury.

Federal prosecutors said "firing blindly into covered windows is not a police tactic, it's a crime. They said Hankison's actions that night were "unfathomably dangerous."

Prosecutors also singled out Hankison, saying none of the other six officers fired blindly into the apartment's windows.

Credit: WHAS11 News
Brett Hankison enters a Louisville courthouse for the start of his federal retrial in the Breonna Taylor case. | Oct. 21, 2024

Hankison's defense argued the ex-detective had roughly 12 chaotic seconds to make a life-or-death decision. They told jurors "he did exactly what he was supposed to do," acting to save the lives of his fellow officers. 

His attorneys also questioned again if Breonna Taylor was even alive when Hankison fired into the side of her apartment.

"What evidence has the DOJ proved to you that [she] was alive with freedom of movement?" Hankison's attorneys asked jurors. His legal team suggests Taylor died before Hankison's shots flew into her apartment, therefore her civil rights could not have been violated. 

Federal prosecutors calling the argument "completely inconsistent with their entire case theory," saying Taylor "didn't have to be alive for 13 minutes, she just had to be alive for four seconds."

Breonna Taylor's family attorney, Lonita Baker, called the argument a ploy.

"It's another distraction that we feel like the defense tried to bring in," Baker told WHAS11 outside the courthouse after closing arguments. "So that's nothing more than a distraction. When Brett Hankison fired into that home, Breonna was alive."

Another stunning moment in court happened when Hankison's defense attorneys called Taylor's then-boyfriend Kenneth Walker a "criminal."

Walker fired the first shot at officers, saying he thought they were intruders. Defense attorneys told the jury his shot "started all of this" which "led to Taylor's death."

"Kenneth Walker is not the reason Breonna Taylor is no longer here, and any attempts to say that is nothing more than a distraction for everything that the police officers did wrong in this case," Baker said.

The prosecution's final words to jurors were for them to "hold the defendant accountable for putting innocent people in grave danger."

The jury has been deliberating for hours already. It's unclear how long those talks could last before a verdict is reached.

Jurors will return Thursday morning to continue deliberations. 

In Hankison's first federal trial last November, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision, leading to a mistrial after more than three days of deliberations. 

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