A former Balch Springs officer who is accused of killing a teenager returns to court Friday for the second day of his murder trial.
Police say Roy Oliver opened fire last year into a moving car with five teenagers inside, killing 15-year-old high school freshman Jordan Edwards.
NBC 5 reached out to Dallas attorney Toby Shook for perspective on the trial. Shook spent more than 20 years in the Dallas County District Attorney’s office and now works as a defense attorney.
On the first day of the trial, jurors were able to watch body camera footage from the night of the incident. Shook said the video will play an extremely important role throughout the rest of the trial.
“These body cameras are going to be critical to their evidence. They have eyewitnesses, but the body cams will speak for themselves,” Shook said. “They should pick up everything Oliver said and other officers said and what was going on.”
Shook said it is still not out of the realm of possibility for Roy Oliver to take the stand in his own defense.
“I think the defense may not have made up their mind whether to put him on or not,” Shook said. “If a defense attorney can work in the self-defense issues without the witness taking the stand they’ll often go that way.”
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Oliver's attorney said he feared for the safety of a fellow officer. That officer, Tyler Gross, testified Thursday that he did not fear for his life as the vehicle went by and that he never felt the need to fire his weapon.
The defense team decided to forego making an opening statement until after the prosecution rests. It’s not an unheard of tactic, but it is not common. Shook said that strategy could also signal the defense is undecided if Oliver will take the stand.
“If you’re not sure if your client is going to testify [or] if you’re not sure exactly what evidence you are going to present, you want to hold that back as a strategy decision,” Shook said.
Shook said there are risks in waiting to make an opening statement.
“Foregoing your opening statement is a risky move by the defense, because jurors make up their minds right away,” Shook said. “They start making up their decisions right away so you want to follow the prosecutions open so you can get your version of the events in their minds as soon as possible.”
