DALLAS – The Dallas County district attorney has not set a timeline for when she will decide whether to retry former Mesquite police officer Derick Wiley.
Wiley was on trial for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon by a public servant, but a deadlocked jury led to a mistrial on Thursday. “There are many factors that must be considered in our continuing efforts to achieve justice in every case,” District Attorney Faith Jones said in a statement.
According to attorneys, the jury was split eight to four, with eight jurors believing Wiley should be found not guilty. “That wasn’t justice,” said Lyndo Jones. “The tape speaks for itself. He shot me, in my back.”
Wiley shot Jones, who was unarmed, during a call about a suspicious person in a Mesquite parking lot.
Jones was sitting in his truck alone. The video from Wiley’s bodycam shows him ordering Jones of his vehicle and down onto the ground using profanity.
Jones complied, but as Wiley tried to put handcuffs on him, the bodycam video shows Jones asking what he was doing. As Jones slipped away from him and began to run away, Wiley fired two shots. “I wouldn’t have shot that dude if I didn’t think he had a weapon or was going to try to hurt me, but I didn’t know what he was doing,” Wiley said on the stand, through tears.
Jones and his attorneys believe members of the jury were more apt to believe a police officer than Jones, who police said had drugs in his vehicle. “There were no winners in a mistrial, but there can be a winner, and we win when we get bad police off the street,” said Lee Merritt, who is representing Jones in a civil case against Wiley.
Merritt and co-counsel Justin Moore are requesting Johnson retry Wiley soon. “It’s incumbent upon her to take us down this path once again,” Moore said. “It’s not over,” Jones added.