Brett Hankison convicted of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights

Former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison was found guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights during a The March 2020 police raid that killed her.

A jury returned its verdict Friday night after returning a partial verdict acquitting Hankison on a separate charge of violating the rights of her neighbors.

This is Hankison’s second federal trial, with the jury hearing testimony from more than a dozen witnesses in the past two weeks.

Through their arguments, federal prosecutors hoped to convince the jury that Hankison flagrantly violated LMPD policy and endangered several people inside the apartment complex that night.

But Hankison’s defense said the former detective’s actions were justified based on his belief at the time that he had saved the lives of fellow officers. During closing arguments, his lawyers also introduced an 11th-hour defense that questioned if Taylor was still alive when Hankison fired his shotswhich proved to be a sticking point for jurors during deliberations.

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

Following the verdict, members of Taylor’s family broke down in tears and hugged immediately after leaving the courtroom. Prosecutors requested that Hankison be taken into custody immediately, although the judge denied their request.

“It took a lot of patience. It took a long time,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said on the steps of the federal courthouse following the verdict. “It took 1,694 days. It was long, it was hard, it was – I don’t know if I have any words (besides) “thank God”.

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

Following the verdict, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division issued a statement, writing that Hankison “has been held accountable” for his actions.

“Breonna Taylor’s life mattered. We hope the jury’s verdict recognizing this violation of Ms. Taylor’s civil and constitutional rights brings some small measure of comfort to her family and loved ones who have suffered so deeply from the tragic events of March 2020,” Clarke said. “We hope the communities Use this moment to speak her name and engrave in their hearts and minds the life and lasting legacy of Breonna Taylor.”

Here’s what happened in the case.

Filming Breonna Taylor: What Happened That Night

Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was in her South End apartment when she he was fatally shot by plainclothes officers around 12:40 p.m., March 13, 2020, during a botched narcotics investigation.

The officerswho say they knocked and announced themselves several times before their forced entry, tried to serve a search warrant. Neither Taylor nor her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was in the apartment at the time, were the targets 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 a shot from a handgun that struck an officer, then Sgt. John Mattingly, in the leg. Walker later said he thought the officers had been trespassed.

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 discharged their weapons that night, fired 10 rounds into Taylor’s apartment through a door and a covered glass window. Three of those runs traveled in an adjoining apartment with a man, a pregnant woman and a 5-year-old child. None of the rounds fired by Hankison hit Taylor or any of the neighbors.

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

Amid deliberations, the jury asks: Was Breonna Taylor a “living victim”?

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

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

In the defense’s closing argument, attorney Don Malarcik argued that the government had provided no evidence that Taylor was alive when Hankison fired his rounds that prosecutors say “buzzed over” Taylor’s head. In his rebuttal, prosecutor Michael Songer argued that Taylor was still alive in the seconds between when she was struck by gunfire from other officers and when Hankison fired, asking jurors to use “your common sense.”

After questioning the jurors, the attorneys agreed to tell them to rely on the reading of the instructions given.

After another 10 hours of deliberations, the jury sent a note to the judge Friday afternoon, saying it believed it could not reach a unanimous verdict. Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings brought jurors back into the courtroom to issue an Allen charge, prompting them to reach a verdict.

After another five hours of deliberation, the jury sent back a note that they “continue to disagree on one point.” After bringing them back into the courtroom, Jennings told them they had the option of returning a partial verdict on one count — the violation of the civil rights of either Taylor or the three neighbors: Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper and the child their little – and potentially to continue. to deliberate on the other.

They returned a not guilty verdict on the neighbors’ charges around 7pm and returned to the courtroom around 9.30pm with a guilty verdict on the Taylor charge.

Following the verdict returned, Taylor’s family attorney Lonita Baker criticized defense attorneys for their closing remarks against Walker, whom Malarcik called a “criminal” and claimed he didn’t care about saving Taylor’s life that night .

“The Breonna Taylor family and the Walker family are here and they are strong together,” Baker said.

What other LMPD officers were charged in the Breonna Taylor case?

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

Meany and Jaynes were charged with federal civil rights and obstruction charges related to the preparation and approval of a false search warrant.

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

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