One year ago: FedEx case declared mistrial, case reopened in October – Daily Leader

BROOKHAVEN — One year ago today, Judge David Strong declared Mississippi v. Case void, citing the testimony of key witness Vincent Fernando, a detective with the Brookhaven Police Department. The case will be back in court at 9 a.m. on Oct. 14, 2024, according to court records.

Brandon and Gregory Case were indicted by a grand jury in November 2022 on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy, and shooting at a motor vehicle belonging to FedEx driver D'Monterrio Gibson in January 2022.

The mistrial

On August 17, 2024, the jury failed to take its seats, and Gibson, who was scheduled to take the stand today, was escorted out of the courtroom before a mistrial was declared.

Kitchens argued that Fernando was a member of the prosecution team and violated court orders and rules of evidence. On one occasion he mentioned shell casings that were not included in the preliminary evidence, blurted out that he had found long guns in a search warrant, which required Strong to warn the jury to forget about the evidence, and on the third occasion he introduced evidence that had been requested multiple times by both parties but never turned over.

District Attorney Dee Bates objected on behalf of the state, but said he understood the motion to dismiss.

“There was a CD of the interview with Mr. Gibson. We both asked for it. We had hearings and evidentiary briefings. We met with him, the defense met with him last week. The state is shocked by the new evidence. We oppose a mistrial. I would have liked Mr. Gibson to listen to the testimony today. He did everything he could to protect the integrity of his testimony.”

Strong said a rule was broken in the trial and that's why he had to declare a mistrial. He said he hadn't seen anything like it in 19 years.

“Nobody hates mistrial more than the court. We are in a position to come back here. Under these circumstances and in the totality of the circumstances, failure to follow the rules cannot be ignored. It happened here and we have no choice but to grant a motion for mistrial.”