Joseph Weekley, the Detroit police officer charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones during a police raid accompanied by a reality TV crew more than four years ago, returns to court today for a second trial, Elisha Anderson reports in the Free Press.
A jury in June 2013 failed to reach a unanimous decision in the first trial. Prosecutors had argued that Weekley’s failure to use ordinary care caused the death of Stanley-Jones, who was sleeping on a couch when she was shot in the head by a round from Weekley’s submachine gun.
Defense attorney Steve Fishman called the shooting a tragic accident, saying Weekley was not grossly negligent when he entered the lower flat of a two-unit home on Detroit’s east side in May 2010 during a raid to find a murder suspect.
Weekley, 38, is charged with involuntary manslaughter, a felony, and careless discharge of a firearm causing death, a misdemeanor.
Police raided the home on Lillibridge to arrest Chauncey Owens, a suspect in the killing of 17-year-old Je’Rean Blake two days earlier. Owens said Blake had disrespected him
Aiyana’s father, Charles Jones, was accused of providing the gun that Owens used to kill Blake. Both Owens and Jones are serving long prison sentences.
