Jurors will go to scene of Breonna Taylor shooting during ex-Louisville cop’s trial

Jurors hearing the case of former Louisville Metro Police detective Brett Hankison will go to Breonna Taylor’s apartment complex to see the scene where Taylor was fatally shot, and where Hankison fired his gun into Taylor’s apartment building.

Hankison’s defense team had requested that jurors go to the scene, and U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings partially approved their motion Friday. The jurors will not see the interior of the apartment.

Hankison’s trial started Monday with jury selection. Forty-four potential jurors were in the pool Monday, but that will be narrowed to 16. A potential questionnaire for jurors asked them whether they had any prior knowledge of the Breonna Taylor case. It also asked for jurors’ feelings toward police and the Black Lives Matter movement. It was unclear Monday if that questionnaire was actually given to jurors.

Hankison, 47, is facing a federal trial that could last three weeks to determine if he deprived the apartments’ residents of their rights under the color of law – while serving as a police officer in official capacity.

Why a judge thinks jurors should see the scene

Hankison’s defense team originally asked that jurors be able to view the interior and exterior of the apartment, arguing it would be an “effective way for the jury to understand circumstances of the incident and dimensions of the location,” according to a motion written by his attorneys.

Prosecutors asked that the judge deny Hankison’s motion, and argued there were a “voluminous” amount of photos, videos and diagrams which would be sufficient to show the apartment’s layout. Jennings ruled that jurors would only be allowed to see the outside of apartments 3 and 4 and the breezeway. Taylor lived in apartment 4 and a neighbor lived in apartment 3, which was also fired into.

“Even considering the volume of images available to the parties of Apartment 3 and Apartment 4 as they appeared an in-person viewing of the building would create a deeper understanding of the dimensions, distances, and layout of the scene,” Grady Jennings wrote in her order.

Jury will also see photos of Taylor’s body

Hankison’s defense team asked that jurors not be shown photos of Taylor’s body, as well as an “unrelated” window curtain. But Grady Jennings denied that motion, allowing for the photos to be shown.

Other orders issued by judge

Grady Jennings ordered that jurors could hear testimony about .223 Remington rifle casings found after the shooting despite prosecutors’ efforts to exclude that information.

Two rifle casings were found after the shooting by a neighbor, Aaron Sarpee, and by Taylor’s sister, who both turned the casings into law enforcement. The FBI determined the casings were fired from the same weapon, but did not locate a rifle in the residence. Sarpee is expected to be called as a witness, according to court documents.

Prosecutors said that in Hankison’s state trial, “the defense used the casings to suggest that (Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend) may have fired at officers with a rifle and Ms. Taylor’s family somehow hid this fact from investigators.”

Hankison has consistently said he was certain he saw someone at the end of Taylor’s hallway with a rifle who shot Sgt. John Mattingly, according to the motion. Sarpee, who turned in one of the casings after the fact, said he heard shots fired that sounded as if they came from a rifle, court documents say.

Multiple witnesses are expected to be called to testify that there was never a rifle found at the home, according to court documents.

“The jury is entitled to hear Sarpee’s testimony, evaluate his credibility, consider the shell casings, and weigh it against the United States’ evidence,” Grady Jennings ruled. “Even if the United States were correct that the circumstantial evidence connecting the .223 casings to the incident is thin, that does not make their probative value substantially outweighed by the possibility of misleading the jury or confusing the issues.”

Grady Jennings also ruled that previous civil lawsuits and victims’ settlements should not be discussed in court testimony. Prosecutors had asked for that information to be withheld.

The former detective is one of three LMPD officers to fire his weapon during the March 13, 2020, raid on Taylor’s South Louisville apartment. Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, was fatally shot by police officers who were attempting to carry out a search warrant just before 1 a.m. as a part of a narcotics investigation.