<\/p>\n
Atatiana Jefferson, pictured in San Diego during a trip with her siblings, was killed Oct. 12, 2019, in her mother’s Fort Worth home. Her killer, former Fort Worth police Officer Aaron Dean, is on trial for murder in Tarrant County.<\/p>\n
Krista Torralva<\/p>\n
The battle over an $11.25 million\u00a0payout<\/a> to relatives of a woman killed nearly seven years ago by a Fort Worth police officer intensified this week when a family member accused others of committing fraud in their probate filing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The probate case involves the October 2019 fatal shooting of 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson by then-officer Aaron Dean. Atatiana was inside her mother\u2019s house when she was struck by a single bullet Dean fired through a bedroom window while conducting a welfare check.<\/p>\n The fraud allegation was made by Noella Jefferson, the widow of the man who served as a father figure to Atatiana. Marquis Jefferson was not Atatiana\u2019s biological father, but was listed as her father on her birth certificate and helped Atatiana\u2019s mother raise her, according to his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Noella Jefferson and family spokesman Bruce Carter have called upon the Tarrant County District Attorney\u2019s office, and other law enforcement agencies, to investigate their assertion that Atatiana\u2019s biological father, sister and aunt committed fraud in a probate claim they filed a little more than a year after her death that cut Jefferson\u2019s family out of the settlement.\u00a0<\/p>\n The DA\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Dallas Morning News.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dean went to Atatiana\u2019s mother\u2019s home after a neighbor called a non-emergency police line to request a welfare check. It was around 2:30 a.m. when the neighbor noticed the home\u2019s doors were open and lights were on inside. Jefferson and her nephew Zion Carr, who was 8 at the time, were playing video games and left the doors open after they burned some hamburgers. The nephew told investigators Atatiana got her gun<\/a> when she heard noises in the backyard and was pointing it toward a window when she was shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dean, who body cam video showed did not identify himself as a police officer when he yelled for Atatiana to put her hands up, was charged with murder but was convicted of manslaughter<\/a> in 2022. He was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in November 2028, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice online records.<\/p>\n Aaron Dean looks towards the gallery before the continuation of the punishment phase of his trial on Monday, Dec. 19, 2022, at Tarrant County’s 396th District Court at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas. Dean, a former Fort Worth Texas Police Officer, was found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of Atatiana Jefferson in 2019. (Amanda McCoy\/Star-Telegram via AP, Pool)<\/p>\n Amanda McCoy\/ASSOCIATED PRESS<\/p>\n After Atatiana\u2019s death, Marquis Jefferson got into a legal dispute<\/a> with other family members over funeral details. A Dallas County judge later ruled in his favor. Jefferson died from a heart attack less than a month after Atatiana was killed. Atatiana\u2019s mother, Yolanda Carr, died<\/a> from a long-term illness just three months after her daughter\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The probate claim filed by Atatiana\u2019s father, sister and aunt in November 2020 listed her name as Atatiana Carr, but noted that she was also known as Atatiana Jefferson. Carter said that amounted to fraud because Atatiana\u2019s legal last name was not Carr. \u00a0<\/p>\n He also said Marquis Jefferson\u2019s family was left out of settlement negotiations with Fort Worth city officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n The city agreed last month to pay $11.25 million to the family. That offer follows one for $3.5 million made in 2023 to the nephew who witnessed the shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n