[suspenseful music]
♪ ♪
‐ It's incredibly rare
for criminal defendants to take the stand.
It is a risk very few take.
At stake, one's freedom
or even their life.
This is Roy Oliver,
a Texas police officer charged with the murder
of 15‐year‐old Jordan Edwards.
He's decided to take that gamble.
Will it help him convince the jury that he's not guilty?
‐ I had to make a decision.
There were threats inside the car.
‐ Or will it come back to haunt him?
‐ I had no other option but to use lethal force.
[gunshots]
He was trying to hit you.
‐ Take a courtside seat
with the prosecutor,
the DA's investigator,
the victim's family attorney,
and the journalist who covered the trial.
I'm Dan Abrams, and this is "Under Oath."
‐ Raise your right hand.
‐ Do you solemnly swear? ‐ I'm being honest
with everything I've said here.
‐ Do you solemnly swear?
‐ The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
‐ I would like to testify.
‐ The testimony you are about to give‐‐
the whole truth and nothing but the truth‐‐
‐ So help you God.
♪ ♪
‐ Texas is littered with stories
of famous tough cops.
And they're violent at times.
‐ You shoot this young man in the back of the head?
♪ ♪
‐ Roy Oliver's a Texas lawman in a rare predicament.
He's standing trial for the shooting and killing
of an unarmed ninth grade boy in the line of duty.
He's lost his job, he's been charged with
aggravated assault and murder,
which means he may lose his freedom.
Oliver and his attorneys have made a big decision:
he'll take the witness stand to explain how and why
the shooting happened.
[intense music]
♪ ♪
‐ The word in the courtroom
was not if Roy Oliver was gonna take the stand,
it was when he was gonna take the stand.
‐ Mr. Oliver had to get on there
and try and humanize himself.
Make himself likable to the jury.
‐ As egregious as his case was,
his testimony was not only
trying to get off...
‐ But his testimony was about
limiting the amount of time
that he would spend in prison.
♪ ♪
‐ Roy Oliver has to try to convince jurors
to see his side,
in the hope that they believe
he was acting lawfully with a valid reason.
But before they're asked to put themselves
in Oliver's shoes,
the jurors have to grapple with
a devastating tragedy:
the death of Jordan Edwards.
♪ ♪
‐ Jordan Edwards was a straight‐A student.
Jordan Edwards was loved by his teachers,
he was loved by his coaches,
he was loved by his classmates.
This was just a perfect kid.
‐ He played football and he loved football
even though he was, like, 4'9" tall.
He sometimes brought his Bible to school
to read during study hall.
He was so friendly that everybody called him "Smiley."
‐ Why did they call him "Smiley"?
‐ 'Cause he doing just what he normally did,
which was smile.
‐ He was always smiling?
‐ Yes, ma'am.
♪ ♪
‐ On April 29, 2017,
there was a kid who was throwing a party.
‐ It was a party that was being thrown because
the host of the party's parents were out of town.
♪ ♪
And so Jordan and his half brother, Vidal Allen;
his full brother, Kevon Edwards;
and then their two best friends,
Maximus and Maxwell Everette,
they get into Odell Edwards' Chevrolet Impala.
They're real excited to go.
And once they got there, it was easy to see why.
♪ ♪
‐ Everybody was enjoying themselves
and just doing what teenagers do.
Unbeknownst to them, someone made a call
to the Balch Springs Police Department.
‐ Around 11:00, a call went in
complaining about loud noise
coming from a neighbor's home.
‐ That one phone call
would lead to the death of Jordan Edwards.
♪ ♪
‐ The police get a call
and they send two officers,
Tyler Gross and Roy Oliver,
to the location on Baron Street
where this party is being held.
‐ I'm Officer Gross, okay?
‐ Officer Gross. ‐ I don't want
to see this again.
‐ Yeah, give us just a minute.
‐ They're having a very routine encounter with
a bunch of kids that are, shall we say,
having too much fun.
‐ I ain't expecting to get‐‐ ‐ I know.
[gunshots]
[people screaming]
‐ Then all of a sudden,
12 shots ring out from a nursing home...
[gunshots]
Located about 100 yards to the east.
‐ It sounded like
a semiautomatic
or maybe multiple semiautomatics going off
in a very close proximity.
‐ 64, shots fired. [people screaming]
‐ I exited the house.
The kids that had ran out of the house
and went eastbound on Baron Drive
were then running back westbound to the house
and screaming.
[people screaming]
‐ Both officers exit the house.
There is a sense of urgency
as to where did those shots come from
'cause you know you've got kids everywhere.
‐ Gross broke to the right.
I broke off to my squad car
to get the patrol rifle.
♪ ♪
‐ Roy Oliver runs to his police SUV,
opens up the trunk, grabs an AR‐15
that had just been issued to him...
♪ ♪
And he races for the sound of the gunshots.
‐ Tyler Gross picked out this dark colored Chevy Impala
that was backing up down the street towards the main road.
‐ They were going into the direction of
the black Chevy Impala that Jordan Edwards
was a passenger in.
‐ Officer Gross actually approaches
the car from the side.
‐ Gross has keyed in on something.
What has Gross keyed in on?
‐ He raps on the back passenger window of the car
just trying to get
the attention of the driver, Vidal Allen.
Inexplicably, the window breaks as a result of that.
‐ The vehicle came to a stop
for a slight moment and then accelerated forward.
I am focused on the vehicle.
It was coming at an angle at him.
And as it was gaining ground towards him,
I had to make a decision.
[rapid gunshots]
You all right? ‐ Yeah, I'm fine.
‐ They were trying to hit you.
‐ Second shot kills poor Jordan.
Goes into the back of his head
and kills him immediately.
[somber music]
‐ Roy Oliver had to take the stand
in order to justify his actions at the time
that he pulled his trigger.
‐ Roy Oliver's second bullet
kills Jordan Edwards instantly.
Several days later, he's fired.
Now, Oliver maintains his decision to shoot was lawful,
but he's indicted for aggravated assault and murder
in Dallas County.
The last time a cop
faced a murder charge here
was over four decades earlier.
And as the trial proceeds,
one of Oliver's biggest challenges
becomes clear:
his patrol partner had his own story to tell.
‐ Turned and saw that Oliver was standing next to me.
And then I saw the smoke from his weapon.
‐ That he was the one that had shot.
‐ We hear a lot about the "blue wall"
that police officers have,
that they always defend one another.
‐ Uh, I didn't‐‐
I was not in fear at that point.
[tense music]
‐ Gross took the stand and said
he never felt like
he was in fear of his life.
Oliver's partner's testimony was devastating.
‐ Tyler Gross' response
is not equal
to that of Roy Oliver's response, obviously.
Both of them have two different perceptions
of what's going on here.
♪ ♪
‐ What happened out there
on April 29th of 2017
happened in a split second.
‐ The first job of the defense is to introduce the defendant.
It's the starting point for the jury
to begin to see him as a person
and perhaps sympathize with him.
It's a high‐stakes moment.
Oliver's freedom is on the line.
So who was Roy Oliver,
the cop at the center of the trial?
‐ Dropped out of high school,
worked at the music store,
became the assistant manager at that location.
A friend of mine was working at a department store
in loss prevention.
He recruited me,
so I went over there to help
catch the internal employees stealing
or the shoplifters.
♪ ♪
‐ He dropped out of high school to go to work.
He ended up joining the army.
He'd served two tours in Iraq.
He's wearing a little
autism lapel pin
because he has a child who has autism.
♪ ♪
It was important to get Oliver on the stand
to show the jurors
why did he feel he had to go to such extremes
to defend his partner.
The only person that can explain that
is Oliver.
‐ I hear Gross, I'm running.
I'm not looking as broad left and right.
I'm focused on Gross.
Figuring out what has he locked onto,
what is he going after, why is he going after it.
The only reason I'm thinking he's going after it is
active shooters, he's got them located.
We've got to stop the vehicle.
‐ When the vehicle was moving towards my partner.
I had to make a decision.
This car's about to hit my partner.
There are threats inside the car.
And I had no other option but to use lethal force.
[rapid gunshots]
You all right? ‐ Yeah, I'm fine.
‐ He was trying to hit you.
‐ Make sure my partner was okay.
‐ After Roy Oliver shot into the Chevy Impala,
the car's driver, Vidal Allen,
pulled the vehicle over seeking help.
Roy Oliver and other officers
discovered Vidal's brother, Jordan Edwards,
dead in the front passenger seat.
♪ ♪
‐ Sick to my stomach.
Heartbroken.
‐ It's kind of tricky because
if you talk about remorse,
that is almost a concession
that you've done something wrong.
‐ Police investigators figured out later
from witnesses that the gunshots
heard by partygoers and Officers Oliver and Gross
were fired randomly into the air
by a local gang nearby.
‐ If any of those witnesses
that I watched these past few days,
if any of them would have been able
to actually just...
♪ ♪
Step up, wave their arms,
yell, "Hey, that's not the vehicle."
♪ ♪
If anyone would have intervened,
it could have‐‐
it would have changed the outcome.
‐ When he talks about how he had to do it,
I think that's posturing for the jury.
‐ There was a whole other side of Roy Oliver
that the jury had not seen.
There was this
picture of Roy Oliver
that the prosecution had
that they were ready to unload on the jury,
and they did.
[tense music]
‐ You could, yes.
‐ Depending on the environment.
‐ During cross‐examination,
the tone of the trial changes.
It is night and day.
The defendant will undergo fierce and tactical questioning
by the prosecution.
Under increasing pressure, can Roy Oliver,
former infantryman and patrol cop,
hold up?
♪ ♪
I think about Jordan Edwards every single day.
I didn't want to lose that case.
‐ When you have a hard‐nosed, tough, no‐nonsense prosecutor,
that prosecutor would be
all over him
trying to get him to lose control
and show the jury
what he's really like.
‐ That is a risk.
♪ ♪
‐ I believe it is.
‐ Correct.
♪ ♪
‐ When the jury has the opportunity to see
a defendant's mannerism totally change,
that is when you now have the opportunity
to attack that person's credibility.
♪ ♪
‐ Yes, anytime you're put in a situation,
if you take a life, that's‐‐
that's not something that happens easily by any means.
‐ The prosecutor wants Roy Oliver
increasingly uncomfortable on the stand.
So maybe he'll even reveal
a more aggressive side for the jurors.
‐ Yes, he was failing to‐‐
he failed to comply with Officer Gross
and he failed to comply with what
Officer Chambly was telling him.
‐ The prosecution's investigation found
another way to give the jury a glimpse
of Oliver's character, of a darker side.
Since he testified on the witness stand,
there was what attorneys call
"an open door."
It's the legal leeway to bring up other,
less flattering aspects of a defendant's past.
In this case, a damaging Facebook post Oliver had made.
‐ That was a repost. That's correct.
‐ Even if it's reposting somebody else's,
when he posted it, he made it his own.
‐ That's an incredibly dangerous,
horrible thought to have.
‐ Damaging past behavior
often keeps defendants off the witness stand.
In Oliver's case, the prosecution
now had another door to open,
allegedly, into his temperament.
It was an off‐duty incident.
It was investigated,
it was included in his disciplinary record,
during which Oliver drew his gun.
‐ I think one of the most significant moments
in the trial came when the prosecution,
trying to prove what kind of person Oliver was,
put on the stand two young women
who said that two weeks before,
they rear‐ended Oliver's car
and that he got out
and pulled a gun on them.
‐ I was watching him walk towards me,
and when he got right here,
next‐‐when I turned to the side,
all I could see is the end of the gun in my face.
‐ So...
‐ Yeah.
‐ I'm positive.
I can't forget a gun in my face.
‐ No, I had both hands on the steering wheel
and I was leaning forward
so in case he were to fire,
I knew I was gonna get hit and not my sister.
‐ Something's wrong with his threat level.
‐ As soon as he stepped out of his truck,
he approached our vehicle very quickly.
'Cause he was angry. He was raging.
‐ What the Dallas County Prosecutor's Office
wanted to point out to the jury
is that Roy Oliver
was a walking time bomb.
‐ But the track record in Dallas County and nationwide
in finding officers guilty of murder
is not very good.
♪ ♪
‐ There are threats inside the car,
and I had no other option but to use lethal force.
[rapid gunshots]
‐ Former police officer Roy Oliver's on trial
for the shooting death of Jordan Edwards.
His justification?
The Chevy Impala Edwards was in
veered dangerously toward his patrol partner, Tyler Gross,
after shots had been fired nearby.
Protecting his partner from the threat,
Oliver says, prompted him to act.
The problem for Oliver?
Gross didn't feel that threat.
‐ I was not in fear at that point.
[tense music]
‐ As the trial wound down
at the Frank Crowley Courthouse,
it all came down
to one question for the jury:
was Roy Oliver being reasonable
defending his partner?
Or had he gotten caught up
in the violence of the moment
and let loose with a barrage of bullets,
killing a 15‐year‐old in the process?
‐ Roy Oliver's defense team
hoped jurors would understand
this patrol cop's point of view.
In an unusual move,
they had Oliver stand in the courtroom
before the jury box.
♪ ♪
‐ Strap on Roy Oliver's boots.
You have to have in your mind
that you're there to protect the public,
but most of all,
your foremost duty
is to your partner.
‐ The defense tried to paint Roy Oliver
into a reasonable person
in order to justify his actions.
‐ That vehicle was pointed at Tyler Gross
and it was a threat to Tyler Gross
and that is why Roy Oliver reasonably made the decision
that he had to make.
It doesn't matter
that looking back on it in hindsight,
we'd all make a different decision now.
We have to look at it
how Roy Oliver saw it at the time.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Roy Oliver should be found not guilty.
‐ If a layperson thought
that he did have to shoot his weapon
in order to protect his partner
from serious bodily injury or death,
then they could acquit him.
‐ Anytime a case goes to the jury,
the gravity of the decision‐making looms over
the proceedings in the case.
The trial had a much higher profile
given the interest in police shootings
of unarmed individuals.
A lot of eyes were on this Dallas County courtroom.
♪ ♪
‐ I know that there is a chance
that this police officer could walk.
And I know the devastation
that it would have on this family
and this community.
‐ Here comes this decision
which reflects
what has been going on in so many cities
about young, unarmed Black men
being shot by white cops,
and we all thought,
"Are they really gonna come back
with a murder conviction?"
♪ ♪
‐ Mr. Gill, Mr. Oliver,
Mr. Brissette, Mr. Lane,
if you would please rise for the reading of the verdict.
‐ As a prosecutor, particularly when you got
the kind of victim that I had,
you feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.
‐ This is cause number F17‐18595‐V,
the State of Texas versus Roy Oliver.
The verdict form reads as follows...
‐ You're worried to death
that you're going to let this kid down.
‐ "We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant
guilty of murder as charged in the indictment."
♪ ♪
‐ Finally we got justice.
Roy Oliver was not gonna get away
with the murder of 15‐year‐old Jordan Edwards.
‐ I think it's unbelievably horrible
that his life was taken away.
I don't want this to be a teaching point or something
for other police officers to learn about.
I want it to have never happened at all.
‐ Did Roy Oliver taking the witness stand
benefit or hurt his case?
Yes, he was convicted of murder.
But the sentence he received
in the penalty phase indicated
that this Dallas jury at least considered his point of view.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence
of 60 years behind bars.
[keyboard clacking]
The jury gave him 15.
Defendants are never forced to take the stand.
But that decision is likely the biggest one
they ever make.
For "Under Oath," I'm Dan Abrams.