ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – A Minnesota jury has reached a verdict in the trial of a police officer charged with manslaughter in the death of a black motorist.
Ramsey County court officials say the verdict will be read around 2:45 p.m. CDT Friday.
Officer Jeronimo Yanez is charged in the death of 32-year-old Philando Castile. Yanez pulled Castile over for a broken taillight July 6 in a St. Paul suburb. He shot Castile seconds later, after Castile informed him he was carrying a gun.
The shooting drew widespread attention in part because Castile’s girlfriend streamed the gruesome aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook.
Yanez, who is Latino, testified that Castile disregarded his commands not to pull out the gun and that he feared for his life. Prosecutors insist Yanez never saw the gun and say he overreacted to a non-threat.
The trial included squad-car video of the traffic stop, but the wide view did not show exactly what took place inside Castile’s car, leaving jurors largely in the position of whether to believe the officer’s testimony. A key part of the prosecution case was statements Yanez made that seemed to suggest he didn’t know where the gun was.
Yanez faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted on the second-degree manslaughter charge, though sentencing guidelines suggest around four years is more likely. He also faces two lesser counts of endangering Reynolds and her daughter for firing his gun into the car near them.
Conviction on the manslaughter charge requires the jury to find Yanez guilty of “culpable negligence,” which the judge described in jury instructions as gross negligence with an element of recklessness.
The 12-member jury includes two black members. The rest are white. None is Latino.