A Mississippi judge declared a mistrial in the criminal case against two white men who chased and shot at a Black FedEx worker as he was delivering packages in January 2022.
The ruling, in which the judge cited errors by a detective in the investigation, comes a week after a judge dismissed a $5 million federal lawsuit filed on behalf of D’Monterrio Gibson against FedEx and others reportedly over racial discrimination.
District Attorney Dee Bates urged the jury to find Brandon Case, 38, and his father, Gregory Charles Case, 59, guilty of the attempted murder in the first degree of Gibson on Jan. 24, 2022. She argued the Case men collaborated to harm Gibson by chasing and shooting at his vehicle until he was out of their community in Brookhaven.
On the day of the incident, Gibson was completing his assigned route. Though the vehicle he was in was not a FedEx van, it had been rented by the company, and he was wearing his official company uniform. The name Hertz was on the vehicle three times.
The DA says after Gibson delivered a package to a residence on the Cases’ dead-end street, the father jumped in a pickup truck and tried to impede the van’s exit. Brandon Case then emerged holding a gun, aiming at the victim.
Gibson tried to maneuver around the pickup truck, but the van was struck three times, damaging the vehicle and the packages inside.
During a press conference, Gibson said he observed a white pickup truck pulling away from another residence connected to the property where he was delivering the package. When he tried to leave the driveway, the person in the vehicle made an effort to block him.
Gibson says he tried to escape, but the white pickup truck continued to pursue him until he reached Interstate 55 near Brookhaven. Once on the interstate, the driver of the pickup, believed to be Gregory Case, ceased the pursuit.
The terrified young man called back to his manager and immediately reported he was shot at while on duty.
Defense attorney Terrell Stubbs said when Gregory Case noticed the van outside his mother-in-law’s empty house, he approached it to question the driver, but the driver didn’t stop.
“It was completely dark, completely dark, and somebody was in the wrong place. It wasn’t my client,” Stubbs said to WSLS.
Carlos Moore, Gibson’s civil suit lawyer, highlights similarities between this case and Ahmaud Arbery’s. In Arbery’s case, a father-son duo was convicted of murder in Georgia, and both were sentenced to life plus 30 years.
Circuit Court judge David Strong declared a mistrial on the case on Thursday, Aug. 17, citing errors made by the Brookhaven Police Department.
Vincent Fernando, a detective working on the case, admitted he did not disclose the videotaped statement officers got from Gibson. He also said he lied about improperly testifying about some guns found in one of the Case men’s homes and casings near the man’s property.
Moore said he shared “the deep disappointment and frustration expressed by Circuit Judge David Strong over this development.”
The judge reportedly said, “In 17 years, I don’t think I’ve seen it.”
In the federal civil complaint against FedEx, the city of Brookhaven, the police chief and the Cases, Moore argued FedEx should have never sent him back on the same route, causing him to experience further trauma, and no one from the company showed his client any concern.
The judge in the civil case said that even though the father-and-son duo’s alleged conduct was “deplorable,” Gibson failed “to state a viable claim against FedEx for which the Court would have original jurisdiction.”
Moore intends to file a state court suit and notes Gibson remains employed by FedEx on workers’ compensation leave.
