LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A split decision in the federal retrial of former Louisville Metro Police detective Brett Hankison. The jury found Hankison guilty of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights, but not guilty of violating the civil rights of her neighbors in an adjacent apartment.
The 12-member jury returned the late night verdict after clearing Hankison earlier in the evening on a charge that he used excessive force on Taylor's neighbors.
Some members of the jury were in tears as the verdict was read around 9:30 p.m. Friday. The jury had been deliberating for three days.
The prosecution asked that Hankison be taken into custody, however Judge Rebecca Jennings said since Hankison has been successfully released on bond this entire time he can remain out.
Breonna Taylor's mother, Tamika Palmer, was in the courtroom for the hearing. After the verdict, she joined a small group of supporters to celebrate.
His sentencing is set for Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 10 a.m.—one day before the fifth anniversary of Taylor's death. The conviction against Hankison carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The jury delivered a verdict on the civil rights violation against the neighbors just after 7 p.m. Friday night, but told Judge Jennings they were deadlocked on the count against Taylor.
Jennings gave the jurors a second "Allen Charge" after the first verdict was read. An Allen Charge is a direction from the judge asking jurors to return to the deliberation room and try to reach a unanimous decision. They told her they would continue deliberating.
Earlier, just before 1 p.m. on Friday Judge Jennings notified the prosecution and defense, she received a note from the jury stating they couldn’t unanimously decide on the charges.
Jennings called the jurors into the courtroom and issued the first Allen Charge.
Jennings said, “Please keep in mind how very important it is to reach unanimous agreement.” She read her instructions and continued by saying, “It is your duty to make every reasonable effort you can to reach a unanimous agreement.”
An Allen Charge was also issued in Hankison’s first federal trial, which ultimately ended with a deadlocked jury.
Taylor was shot and killed by former police detective Myles Cosgrove on March 13, 2020, as LMPD attempted to execute a “no-knock” warrant on her apartment. Hankison fired 10 shots that night, but none of the shots hit anyone. His bullets went into Taylor’s apartment and into a neighboring unit, where a child was sleeping.
Prosecutors made their case by arguing Hankison violated LMPD policy by firing blindly into Taylor’s apartment after Taylor’s then-boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, fired a single shot at officers.
Several of Hankison’s rounds entered the walls of an adjacent apartment where three other people were living. Prosecutors alleged Hankison’s use of unreasonable force and his actions violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the victims.
They said Hankison fired through covered windows, despite not having identified a target. U.S. prosecutor Michael Songer said shooting through a covered window “is not a valid police tactic; it’s a crime.”
Songer said Hankison fired into opposite ends of the apartment unit “immediately, one after the other, like a drive-by shooting.”
But Hankison’s attorneys painted a different picture of the night of Taylor’s death, which prompted months of protests over police brutality in 2020.
They said Hankison was acting to save his fellow officers “in a very tense, very chaotic” situation that lasted about 12 seconds.
His lawyers emphasized that Hankison was volunteering that night to help out with the raid, that officers were not told by their lookout that there was more than one person in Taylor’s apartment, and they weren't aware that Taylor’s apartment shared a wall with another apartment behind it.
“This case is about Brett Hankison’s 10 shots that never hit anyone,” his attorney, Don Malarcik, said during his closing arguments. “Brett Hankison is charged with violating the constitutional rights of people he never met and never knew existed."
Hankison testified earlier this week that he believed a person armed with an AR-15 was firing at officers from inside the apartment, and he moved to get out of the way and return fire at the sight of muzzle flashes through the glass door and window on the side of the apartment unit. Another officer said in testimony earlier in the week that the shots were the loudest he has ever heard.
This was the third attempt to prosecute Hankison for his actions on the night of March 13, 2020. A judge declared a mistrial Nov. 16 in the federal trial last year after the jury deliberated for several days but could not reach a unanimous decision. He was acquitted in 2022 on state charges of wanton endangerment for shooting into Taylor’s windows and a glass patio door.
Hankison was one of four officers who were charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 with violating Taylor’s civil rights. The three other former officers charged were involved in crafting the search warrant.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.