A former FedEx delivery driver was denied justice a third time Monday after a Mississippi judge dismissed the case against the white father and son who allegedly shot at him in 2022.
Brandon Case and his father, Gregory Charles Case, originally went to trial in August 2023, charged with attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy and shooting into a vehicle.
Prosecutors alleged the Cases collaborated to harm D’Monterrio Gibson, who is Black, by chasing and shooting at his vehicle until he was out of their community in Brookhaven. Gibson, who was delivering a package in an unmarked vehicle, was not hit but several shots landed inside the van he was driving. He was in uniform at the time.
A mistrial was declared in the same month the trial began after it was discovered the lead detective in the investigation hid some evidence and lied about some guns found in one of the Case men’s homes and casings near the man’s property.
A federal lawsuit filed by Gibson against the Cases and his former employer also was dismissed in August 2023 after a judge ruled the plaintiff lacked a “viable claim against FedEx for which the Court would have original jurisdiction.” He noted he found the actions by the Cases’ “deplorable.”
FedEx, which Gibson says forced him to return to the same route where he was attacked, fired him after he claimed he could not fulfill his duties due to emotional distress.
Criminal charges remained against the Cases until the judge’s ruling Monday, which was supposed to mark the first day of a retrial. The defense argued their clients had been deprived of a speedy trial, as well as being denied due process.
Judge David Strong agreed. In his ruling Monday, Strong cited the shoddy work by the lead investigator, Vincent Fernando, whose intentional withholding of evidence resulted in “egregious discovery violations by the State.”
The judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be retried in that court again. Prosecutors in Lincoln County could still appeal it to a higher court.
Lincoln County District Attorney Brendon Adams said the judge had “no other choice.”
“Our office had a duty to disclose and provide all evidence, and Brookhaven Police Department didn’t do that,” he said.
In a statement, Gibson told WLBT News in Jackson he was “deeply devastated and disheartened” by the outcome.
“My family and I have been saying from the beginning that this is exactly what they wanted to happen and how it played and it did exactly that,” the former FedEx driver said. “I was hoping we would be approaching the end but the fight does continue.”
A second $5 million civil lawsuit against the Cases and FedEx remains. It alleges civil assault and battery, negligent/intentional infliction of emotional distress, general/gross negligence, negligent entrustment of a motor vehicle and vicarious liability.
“Defendants Brandon and Gregory essentially terrorized, shot at, and chased Mr. Gibson out of the Junior Trial neighborhood of Lincoln County, Mississippi,” the claim reads. “Following the assault of Mr. Gibson, the Defendant, FedEx sent him back to work on the same dangerous route the following day, intentionally inflicting emotional distress on the Plaintiff.”
Gregory Case’s employer, Adcamp, is also named in the suit, which alleges the defendant used his work truck to “chase and hunt down” Gibson after he’d delivered a package. The father and son are accused of pursuing Gibson while waving guns and blocking the road. When Gibson drove around the men, they began shooting, the suit contends.
Gregory Case’s attorney, Terrell Stubbs, said the men wanted to know why Gibson was outside Gregory’s Case’s mother-in-law’s house.
“It was completely dark, completely dark, and somebody was in the wrong place,” Stubbs said. “It wasn’t my client.”
FedEx has denied the allegations.
The company gave Gibson two weeks off without pay and paid for eight therapy sessions following the January 2022 shooting. FedEx reinstated one-third of his pay in February after pushback from the public. Gibson was terminated after the mistrial when he declined a part-time position.
“Mr. Gibson has been through a great deal since he suffered the attack by the Cases in January of 2022,” his attorney, Carlos Moore, said in December 2023. “They have still not been brought to justice in the criminal arena, but we are advancing his civil lawsuit in state court, and we expect to receive justice.”
Atlanta Black Star has reached out to Moore for additional comment.
