Advertisement

newsCourts

Jury won't hear about road rage case at murder trial for Balch Springs cop who killed Jordan Edwards 

A Dallas County judge denied prosecutors' request to allow a jury to hear about a road rage incident in which a former Balch Springs officer allegedly pointed a gun at someone two weeks before he shot and killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.

Two weeks before he shot and killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, a former Balch Springs officer allegedly pointed a gun at someone else — but a Dallas County jury likely won't hear about that incident.

Prosecutors argue that Roy Oliver's defense of his behavior after an off-duty fender bender matches his justification for fatally shooting the teen. In both case, he said he feared someone would be run over by a vehicle and used that to explain pulling a gun.

State District Judge Brandon Birmingham on Tuesday denied prosecutors' request to allow the traffic accident to be discussed at the murder trial for Oliver, which is set to begin Thursday.

Advertisement

In April 2017, Oliver shot into a car full of teenagers while on duty, killing Jordan. He was fired and charged with murder and four counts of aggravated assault by a public servant.

Breaking News

Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.

Or with:

The fatal shooting became a flash point in a national conversation about violence by white cops against minorities.

Oliver, 38, will be tried on the murder charge and two of the four aggravated assault charges. The trial is expected to take at least a week.

Advertisement

Birmingham's ruling was one of several procedural hurdles cleared ahead of the trial. Defense attorneys also had asked Birmingham to recuse the Dallas County District Attorney's office from the case and to grant another continuance to delay the start of the trial. Birmingham denied both requests.

Former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver (right), who is charged with the murder of...
Former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver (right), who is charged with the murder of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, speaks with his defense attorney Bob Gill after a hearing to delay his trial. (Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)
Jordan Edwards was shot and killed as he left a house party in April 2017.
Jordan Edwards was shot and killed as he left a house party in April 2017.

Oliver is also charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant for his behavior after the April 16, 2017, fender bender in which he is accused of pointing his gun at two women.

After his truck was rear-ended, he got out and walked toward the car with his gun visible.

Advertisement

He said he didn't point the gun at the driver, Monique Marie Arredondo, and the passenger, Ashley Cuevas, but they say he did.

"I had a gun to my head," Arredondo testified Tuesday. "I thought I was going to die in front of my sister and my niece."

Oliver said he had his gun out because he was afraid Arredondo was trying to drive off or hit him with her car, court records show.

Cuevas testified that the driver of the truck her sister rear-ended didn't ask if they were hurt. Instead, he pointed the gun at them and demanded to see Arredondo's driver's license, she said.

"He looked more than angry," Cuevas said. "He looked raged."

Monique Arredondo showed where Roy Oliver (foreground) had his gun after a vehicle accident...
Monique Arredondo showed where Roy Oliver (foreground) had his gun after a vehicle accident she had with him while he was off-duty during a hearing for his trial at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas on Tuesday.(Rose Baca / Staff Photographer)

His justification for having his gun out after Arredondo rear-ended his truck is the same he gave as to why he fired at the car Jordan was in, said prosecutors, who argued that it showed a pattern of behavior. Oliver said he thought his partner was going to be run over the night of April 29, 2017.

Oliver and Officer Tyler Gross were called to a Balch Springs house that night after a 911 caller reported that there were drunken teens in the street. While at the house, the officers heard gunshots, which were later discovered to have been fired at a nearby nursing home.

Advertisement

Jordan and four other teenagers were leaving the party when Gross ordered the car to stop and broke the car's window with his gun. Oliver fired his patrol rifle into the car, fatally hitting Jordan in the head, court records show.

The four other teenagers were not hurt.

In a written motion, prosecutors argued that Oliver's justification for pulling out his gun after he was rear-ended "is strikingly similar to his justification for the Edwards shooting — that he believed Vidal Allen was trying to hit Gross with his vehicle."

Birmingham said "it seems premature" for prosecutors to be rebutting a self-defense argument with the prior incident before the trial even starts.

Advertisement

The judge also declined Tuesday to have a hearing on a writ of habeas corpus defense counsel filed to dismiss the criminal indictments.

Defense attorneys Jim Lane, Miles Brissette and Bob Gill alleged in the writ that Oliver's constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors used statements he made to a Balch Springs internal affairs investigator as part of the basis for the case against him.

Gill argued that the issue should be examined because Oliver was required to give a statement to an internal affairs investigator to try to keep his job and such a statement should not be used by prosecutors.

Birmingham said the writ application doesn't fall within his court's jurisdiction.

Advertisement

"I'm not going to consider the merits of the writ," he said.