Update: Philando Castile’s Mom Reaches Settlement Close to $3 Million

Philando Castile

On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, when he was fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer.  Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter were passengers.  Diamond live-streamed Philando’s dying moments and the aftermath on Facebook.  The officer shot 7 times, hitting Philando Castile 5 times, twice in the heart. Philando was 32-years old.

Yanez was charged and went to trial.  He testified in court that he believed Philando matched the physical description of a robbery suspect, and that Philando was disobeying his commands and reaching for a gun.  We followed the trial here and here.

Philando, who was licensed to carry a gun, had advised Officer Yanez that he had a firearm in the car. Prosecutors said he had done so to put the officer at ease, not to cause alarm.

The jury was deadlocked for almost a week, but ended up acquitting Yanzez. A juror gave an interview to MPR News on the condition of remaining anonymous.

“Jurors were quick to decide Yanez’s acquittal on felony weapons charges. The juror said photos of Castile’s body showed that Yanez was aiming away from the two passengers, Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter.”

“What we were looking at was some pretty obscure things to a lot of people, like culpable negligence. You think you might know what it means: It’s negligent, but maybe pretty bad negligence. Well, it’s gross negligence with an element of recklessness … We had the law in front of us so we could break it down.”

“It just came down to us not being able to see what was going on in the car. Some of us were saying that there was some recklessness there, but that didn’t stick because we didn’t know what escalated the situation: was he really seeing a gun? We felt [Yanez] was an honest guy … and in the end, we had to go on his word, and that’s what it came down to.”

A Police Officer’s Response to the Killing of Philando Castile

Btx3's Blog

This in the letter section of a Minneapolis Paper. It points our that Officer Yanez could have retreated – and should have, if there was any question in his mind.

There was nothing about the stop that indicated that Castile posed any danger to the public. The “crime” he was stopped for was a basic traffic ticket – and in a lot of jurisdictions, would result in no fine if the driver went and got the issue fixed

Letters: ‘This shouldn’t have happened,’ cop says of Castile shooting

I have been a police officer for 19 years. I love my job and serving my community. I have learned over the course of my career to never assume anything. As I watched the events unfold on July 6, 2016, on a Facebook Live feed, I thought that there must be more that happened. There must have been such a threat that…

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Jury Finds Yanez Not Guilty In The Death of Philando Castile

Philando Castile

After approximately 29 hours of deliberations, the jury in the manslaughter case of St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez has returned a verdict of not guilty.  Yanez was also charged with two felony counts of intentional discharge of a firearm that endangers safety for firing his weapon.  When he shot and killed Philando Castile, Castile’s girlfriend and her 4-year old daughter were passengers in the car.  Bullets barely missed both of them.

During deliberations, the jury requested to review the transcript of Yanez’s interview with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.  Judge William H. Leery III denied their request.   By Wednesday, the jury was deadlocked, but the judge sent them back to keep deliberating.

Kare11 reports that this morning, the jury handed a note to Judge Leary III requesting to have the transcript of Yanez’s testimony while on the stand and the cross examination read aloud in court.  The judge denied their request.

We followed the trial at this link.

If there are press conferences filmed later where the videos are on Youtube so they can be embedded here, I will post them in the comment section.

UPDATE:

Trial Begins For Officer Jeronimo Yanez In The Shooting Death of Philando Castile

On July 6, 2016, Philando Castile was in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, when he was fatally shot by Jeronimo Yanez, a St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer.  Diamond Reynolds and her 4-year-old daughter were passengers.  Diamond live-streamed Philando’s dying moments and the aftermath on Facebook.  The officer shot 7 times, hitting Philando Castile 5 times, twice in the heart.

Yanez’s attorney, Thomas Kelly, said Yanez stopped Castile because he matched the description of a suspect in a robbery a few days earlier. (Castile was found to not be connected to the robbery.)

Today, prosecutor Dusterhoft told the jury;

“What he could see were dreadlocks, eyeglasses and the fact that Mr. Castile was a black man,” Dusterhoft said. “Based on that glimpse” he stopped the car in Falcon Heights.”

Jeronimo Yanez has been charged with three felony counts; second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm.

On June 5, 2017, a jury was seated and opening statements were made.  The jury consists of 9 men and 6 women which includes 3 alternates.  There is one Black man and one Black woman on the jury.

Open Discussion June 6, 2017

Friends, visitors, caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and a certain roach,

Sunday evening, a bug hit my household.  Even the dog vomited.  Although I’m feeling better now, my appetite has not returned and I’m still weak.  This open discussion is because there are two trials currently taking place, and I’m not sure if I can keep up with separate posts about other news.

• I knew jury selection was taking place for two trials; that of Jeronimo Yanez for the shooting death of Philando Castile.  Yanez is charged with second-degree manslaugher.   Jury selection is underway for Ray Tensing’s retrial, who is charged with the shooting death of Samuel Dubose.   The jury deadlocked at Tensing’s first trial, which we followed at this link.

Yanez’s trial is not livestreamed.  Tensing’s trial is scheduled to be livestreamed.   I will publish separate posts to follow each trial.