Former Kentucky officer found guilty of violating Breonna Taylor's civil rights

A former Kentucky police officer was found guilty on Friday of violating Breonna Taylor's civil rights during a March 2020 police raid that killed her.

A jury returned the verdict late Friday in the trial of former Louisville Metro Police Detective Brett Hankison after issuing a partial verdict that acquitted him on a separate count of violating the rights of Taylor's neighbors. It is the second federal trial Hankison has faced, with the jury hearing testimony from over a dozen witnesses over the last two weeks.

Federal prosecutors had hoped to convince the jury that Hankison egregiously violated the police department's policy and that he placed several people inside the apartment complex at risk.

But Hankison's defense asserted the former detective's actions were justified based on his belief at the time that he was saving the lives of fellow officers. During closing arguments, his attorneys also introduced an 11th-hour defense that called into question whether Taylor was still alive when Hankison fired his rounds, which proved to be a sticking point for the jurors during deliberations.

Despite the defense, the jury — made up of five white men, one Black man and six white women — returned the guilty verdict after three days of deliberations.

Following the verdict, members of Taylor’s family collapsed into tears and embraced immediately after they left the courtroom. Prosecutors asked that Hankison immediately be taken into custody, but the judge denied their request.

The killing of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, sparked months of demonstrations, prompted legislation across the country and led to a $12 million civil settlement with her family.

Related:How Brett Hankison's federal retrial is different from his first

Breonna Taylor shooting: What happened that night

Taylor, an emergency room technician, was inside her apartment when she was fatally shot by plainclothes officers around 12:40 a.m. on March 13, 2020 during a botched narcotics investigation.

The officers, who say they knocked and announced themselves several times before their forcible entry, had been attempting to serve a search warrant. Neither Taylor nor her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, who was in the apartment at the time, were the target of the investigation, and no drugs were found in the home. Walker and several neighbors also say they did not hear the officers identify themselves as law enforcement.

As officers made entry, Walker fired one shot from a handgun that struck an officer, then-Sgt. John Mattingly, in the leg. Walker later said he believed the officers had been intruders.

Hankison, who had been with Louisville Metro Police for about 17 years at the time of the raid and was one of three officers to discharge their weapons that night, fired ten rounds into Taylor's apartment through a covered glass door and window. 

Three of those rounds traveled into an adjacent apartment with a man, pregnant woman and 5-year-old child inside. None of the rounds fired by Hankison hit Taylor or any of the neighbors.

Hankison was federally charged with violating the civil rights of Taylor and three neighbors in the adjacent apartment. An initial trial on those charges ended in a mistrial in November 2023, when jurors could not come to an agreement on a verdict.

Hankison is set to be sentenced March 12. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Amid deliberations, jury asks: Was Breonna Taylor a 'living victim'?

About five hours into deliberation, the jury sent a question to the judge and attorneys, asking whether they "needed to know if Breonna Taylor was a living victim when Hankison fired (his weapon)."

Jury instructions agreed upon by the prosecution and defense state Hankison is charged with depriving Taylor, a “living victim,” of her rights.

In the defense's closing argument, attorney Don Malarcik claimed prosecutors provided no evidence that Taylor was alive when Hankison fired his rounds that prosecutors say "buzzed over" Taylor's head. In his rebuttal, prosecutor Michael Songer argued Taylor was still alive within the few seconds between when she was struck by other officers' gunfire to when Hankison fired, asking jurors to use "your common sense."

After the question from the jurors, attorneys agreed to tell them to rely on reading the instructions given.

Following 10 further hours of deliberations, the jury sent to a note to the judge Friday afternoon, saying they believed they were unable to come to a unanimous verdict. Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings brought the jurors back inside the courtroom to issue an Allen charge, which urges them to reach a verdict.

After another five hours of deliberation, the jury sent back a note that they "continue to disagree on one count." After bringing them back inside the courtroom, Jennings told them they had the option of returning a partial verdict on one count — the civil rights violation of either Taylor or the three neighbors: Cody Etherton, Chelsey Napper, and their young child — and potentially continuing to deliberate on the other one.

They returned a not guilty verdict on the neighbor-related charges around 7 p.m. and returned to the courtroom about two and a half hours later with the guilty verdict on the Taylor charge.

What other officers have been charged in the Breonna Taylor case?

Hankison was one of four people federally charged in connection to the raid on Taylor's apartment. The others are former officers Joshua Jaynes, Kelly Goodlett and Kyle Meany.

Meany and Jaynes have been charged with federal civil rights and obstruction offenses related to preparing and approving a false search warrant.

Goodlett was charged with one count of conspiring with Jaynes to falsify the search warrant for Taylor’s home and to cover up their actions. In August 2022, she pleaded guilty to that charge. She is expected to be a star witness at the trial of Jaynes and Meany.

Reach reporter Rachel Smith at rksmith@courierjournal.com or @RachelSmithNews on X, formerly known as Twitter.