A former Kentucky police officer was found guilty Friday of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights during a March 2020 police raid that killed her.

A jury returned the verdict Friday night in the trial of former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison after returning a partial verdict that acquitted him of a separate charge of violating the rights of Taylor’s neighbors. It is the second federal trial Hankison has faced, and the jury heard testimony from more than a dozen witnesses over the past two weeks.

Federal prosecutors hoped to convince jurors that Hankison flagrantly violated police department policy and put several people inside the apartment complex at risk.

But Hankison’s defense claimed the former detective’s actions were justified based on his belief at the time that he was saving the lives of his fellow officers. During closing arguments, his attorneys also presented a last-minute defense that cast doubt if taylor was still alive when Hankison fired his bullets, which proved to be a sticking point for jurors during deliberations.

Despite the defense, the jury, composed of five white men, one black man and six white women, returned the guilty verdict after three days of deliberations.

Following the verdict, members of Taylor’s family broke down in tears and hugged each other immediately after leaving the courtroom. Prosecutors asked that Hankison be detained immediately, but the judge denied their request.

The murder of Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, sparked months of protests, pushed legislation across the country and led to a $12 million civil settlement with his family.

Related: How Brett Hankison’s new federal trial is different from the first

Breonna Taylor Shooting: What Happened That Night?

Taylor, an emergency room technician, was inside her apartment when He was shot dead by plainclothes officers around 12:40 a.m. on March 13, 2020 during a botched narcotics investigation.

He officerswho say they called and announced themselves several times before their forced entry, had been trying to fulfill a search warrant. Neither Taylor nor her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was in the apartment at the time, were the subject of the investigation and no drugs were found in the home. Walker and several neighbors also say they did not hear the officers identify themselves as law enforcement.

As officers entered, Walker fired one shot from a pistol that struck an officer, then-Sgt. John Mattingly, on the leg. Walker later said he believed the officers had been intruders.

Hankison, who had been with Louisville Metro Police for about 17 years at the time of the raid and was one of three officers who fired their weapons that night, fired ten bullets into Taylor’s apartment through a door and window. glass covers.

Three of those rounds traveled to an adjacent apartment where there was a man, a pregnant woman and a five-year-old child. None of the bullets fired by Hankison hit Taylor or any of the neighbors.

Hankison was federally charged with violating the civil rights of Taylor and three neighbors in the adjoining apartment. An initial trial on those charges ended in a mistrial in November 2023, when jurors could not agree on the verdict.

Hankison will be sentenced on March 12. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

In the midst of deliberations, the jury asks: Was Breonna Taylor a ‘living victim’?

About five hours after deliberating, the jury sent a question to the judge and attorneys, asking if they “needed to know if Breonna Taylor was a live victim when Hankison fired (his gun).”

Jury instructions agreed to by the prosecution and defense state that Hankison is accused of depriving Taylor, a “living victim,” of her rights.

In the defense’s final argument, attorney Don Malarcik He claimed prosecutors provided no evidence that Taylor was alive. when Hankison fired his bullets that prosecutors said “buzzed over” Taylor’s head. In his rebuttal, prosecutor Michael Songer argued that Taylor was still alive in the few seconds between the time she was hit by other officers’ gunfire and the time Hankison fired, and asked jurors to use ” their common sense.”

After the jurors’ question, the attorneys agreed to tell them to trust their reading of the instructions given.

After 10 more hours of deliberations, the jury sent a note to the judge Friday afternoon, saying they believed they could not reach a unanimous verdict. Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings returned jurors to the courtroom to issue an indictment against Allen, urging them to reach a verdict.

After another five hours of deliberation, the jury sent a note saying they “remain in disagreement on one count.” After taking them back to the courtroom, Jennings told them they had the option of returning a partial verdict on one charge — the violation of Taylor’s civil rights or that of the three neighbors: Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper and their young son. ) and potentially continue to deliberate on the other.

They returned a not guilty verdict on the neighbor-related charges around 7 p.m. and returned to the courtroom approximately two and a half hours later with the guilty verdict on Taylor’s charge.

What other officers have been charged in the Breonna Taylor case?

Hankison was one of four people federally charged in connection with the raid on Taylor’s apartment. The others are former officers Joshua Jaynes, Kelly Goodlett and Kyle Meany.

Meany and Jaynes They have been charged with federal obstruction and civil rights crimes related to the preparation and approval of a false search warrant.

Goodlett was charged with one count of conspiring with jaynes falsify the search warrant for Taylor’s home and cover up his actions. In August 2022, She pleaded guilty to that charge. She is expected to be a star witness in the judgment of Jaynes and Meany.

Contact reporter Rachel Smith at [email protected] or @RachelSmithNews on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared in the Louisville Courier Journal: Former officer found guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights