Aaron Dean trial live updates: Day 3 in court case surrounding Atatiana Jefferson’s death continues Wednesday

FORT WORTH, Texas — On Tuesday, three witnesses took the stand in the murder trial of former Fort Worth police officer Aaron Dean: Dean’s former police partner, Fort Worth Police Officer Carol Darch; former City of Fort Worth call taker, Abriel Talbert; and James Smith, the neighbor who initially called the non-emergency line. 

Prosecution called on Darch to revisit what happened that night and if they followed protocol when responding to the “open structure call.” Darch described responding to the scene believing the home might have been burglarized based on the state of the home at the time. 

The person who initiated that call, former 911 call taker Talbert, also took the stand Tuesday and described why she input that call as an “open structure call” and not a welfare check, which Jefferson’s neighbor James Smith had made that evening.

Talbert explained that there’s no way for officers to see if a call is an emergency or non-emergency and she felt the call needed an “open structure” label, not  “welfare check.”

Finally, Jefferson’s neighbor, Smith, who made the initial welfare check call was the final witness to take the stand Tuesday. Smith said he was concerned about his neighbors after seeing their door open. 

WFAA will stream the trial on multiple platforms — including WFAA+, YouTube and wfaa.com. (WFAA+ is available on Roku and Amazon Fire.)

You can also watch it in the below embed: 

10:06 a.m.: Fort Worth Police Department Detective Doug Rohloff takes the stand. Rohloff recovered Dean’s firearm and magazine from the scene. He also testfied on Dean’s body camera and how it operated. 

9:25 a.m.: Crime scene photos, including photos of Jefferson’s body, were entered into evidence and shown to the jury as Gorkom testified about the documentation of the scene. 

9:10 a.m.: The jury enters the courtroom as Fort Worth crime scene investigator James Van Gorkom prepares to take the stand. Gorkom said he arrived on scene after the death of Jefferson around 5 a.m. to collect scan data.