Austin Shuffield’s case has been on trial in Dallas County court docket this week.
DALLAS — A girl who was attacked in Deep Ellum in 2019 took the witness stand at a trial in opposition to the person charged within the case on Thursday morning in Dallas.
Austin Shuffield, who was charged with aggravated assault within the case, was additionally anticipated to testify in his trial Thursday.
Shuffield was arrested after a video surfaced of him armed with a gun and punching L’Dajohnique Lee on March 21, 2019, in a Deep Ellum car parking zone.
Watch Lee’s testimony right here:
Shuffield was initially charged with a misdemeanor assault however the cost was upgraded after protests and pushback from neighborhood activists.
But Shuffield’s lawyer has mentioned the gun seen in his hand was by no means used through the altercation.
His protection in 2019 claimed there was an audio recording between the lead detective and prosecutor during which they mentioned there wasn’t sufficient proof to cost Shuffield with aggravated assault with a lethal weapon.
“Both the trial bureau chief and the lead detective agree on this recorded dialog that these parts weren’t there,” Rebecca Perlstein, Shuffield’s protection lawyer, advised WFAA in 2019.
As a consequence, Shuffield’s attorneys filed a movement to disqualify the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office over alleged bias, and a decide sided with Shuffield, dismissing Dallas County prosecutors from the case. A particular prosecutor was assigned to the case of their place.
Lee, 24 on the time of the incident, shared her aspect of the story with WFAA in 2019. She mentioned she had been out in Deep Ellum with pals and that she made a easy mistake.
“I knew I was on a one-way street but I was stopping literally at the corner to let my friend out,” she mentioned.
After she moved her automobile into the lot, she mentioned a person approached her automobile in an try to get an image of her license plate, which is when she mentioned she advised him “to get back or else she would mace him,” an arrest warrant mentioned.
A witness recorded your complete occasion through cellphone and at one level it reveals the person, recognized as Shuffield, pull out a gun through the confrontation.
In the video, he by no means factors it at Lee, nonetheless.
“I got scared,” she mentioned. “I was like, ‘You have a gun?’ The first thing I thought to do was call the police.”
Authorities wrote that Lee mentioned she then went to name 911, which is when Shuffield could be seen within the video slapping a cellphone out of her hand and kicking it away from her.
She advised police she feared for her life and went to slap Shuffield in an try to push him away. At this level, Shuffield could be seen punching Lee as many as 5 instances within the video, pushing her right into a metallic pole.
“He charged at me, and he just kept hitting me, and I was like, ‘OK, OK, OK’,” Lee mentioned.
“Watching that video literally makes me cry,” she mentioned. “All I could do was try and protect myself. He literally sat there and beat me like a man.”
story by Source link