Overview
- Common Pleas Judge Giovanni O. Campbell dismissed a second juror Friday, ordering deliberations to begin again and sending the panel home until Monday.
- Jurors earlier requested copies of DNA evidence, crime-scene photos, the officers’ clothing, and letters between prosecutors and a cooperating witness.
- Prosecutors presented DNA findings, cell phone tower data, and testimony from a participant who identified former accomplices.
- Defense lawyers called no witnesses and argued there is no camera footage or direct eyewitness to the shooting and that their clients did not know Sgt. Richard Mendez was an officer.
- Defendants Yobranny Martinez-Fernandez and Hendrick Pena-Fernandez face potential life sentences in the Oct. 12, 2023 airport garage shooting that killed Mendez and wounded Officer Raul Ortiz; a third man pleaded guilty last week.