After 7 1/2 hours of deliberations over two days, a jury Nov. 18 convicted a man of brandishing a knife to police officers but deadlocked over whether he assaulted a police dog by stabbing the dog.
Jurors also deadlocked 6-6 over whether the action of Dedrick Daknell Jones, 36, was felony animal cruelty. They voted 7-5 in favor of not guilty as to whether Jones committed assault on a police dog in the 2021 incident in the Midway District.
The District Attorney’s office will likely retry Jones on the deadlocked counts, but they may interview jurors before they reach a decision about a re-trial.
Jurors also deadlocked 10-2 in favor of guilt on a charge of resisting arrest from an executive officer.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Aaron Katz declared a mistrial on the deadlocked three charges. Jones, who acted as his own attorney, remains in the central jail without bail.
Jurors began deliberations Nov. 16, but they were interrupted Nov. 17 by a mandatory fire drill at the criminal courthouse Downtown in which everyone was evacuated mid-afternoon.
The jury was going to lose at least one member on Monday due to the Thanksgiving holiday, so they could not continue deliberations without an alternate juror replacing a juror. If that happened, jury deliberations would have to start all over because of the new juror.
Jones told jurors he acted reasonably towards officers, repeatedly saying he did not want officers to touch him in the police body worn camera footage shown to the six man, six woman jury.
He claimed he told officers he would drop a knife if they would call off the police dog, but they would not do that. Officers kept urging him to drop a knife, but he refused.
The jury viewed body camera footage that showed Jones holding a knife while backing up as officers approached him at gunpoint. He even walked into traffic on Rosecrans Street as officers pleaded with him to drop the knife.
“It showed disregard for the safety of himself and us,” testified officer Garrett Kai. “We were trying to de-escalate.”
“Are you trained to yell to de-escalate situations?” asked Jones, acting as his own attorney.
“Yes,” replied Kai.
Officer David Albright testified he repeatedly asked Jones to “drop the knife” while he was standing on someone’s truck. “He did not give any impression he would drop it or surrender,” he said, adding that police dog Hondo was then released.
Officers said Jones stabbed the police dog with the knife. Officer Troy Harris described Jones as “agitated with a knife” and was kicking.
“He was making gestures with the knife towards all the officers,” said Harris, adding it “was a struggle” to get him handcuffed.
Jones has pleaded not guilty to the current charges, but he pleaded guilty to animal cruelty with a knife and resisting arrest in the first police dog stabbing, which was more serious. The other police dog, Titan, lost 6-8 inches of his colon and had to have 100 stitches to close his wound.
The jury was not told of the court results of the first police dog stabbing, but they were informed of the incident. Jones was sentenced to a year in jail and placed on two years probation. He was released after serving approximately six months and was living unsheltered in the Midway District.
