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Aggravated Assault Charges Dropped Against Jordan Edwards' Murderer
Roy Oliver's latest mugshot
Dallas County Jail
Stephen Young | September 12, 2018 | 4:00am
For now at least, ex-cop Roy Oliver is not facing additional felony charges following his August murder conviction for killing Mesquite teenager Jordan Edwards.
Tuesday, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office dropped four charges of aggravated assault by a public servant against Oliver, citing the district attorney's need to allocate resources to Oliver's inevitable appeals. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, which means the District Attorney's Office, which did not return a request to comment for this story, can refile the charges.
Two of the dropped charges stemmed from a car accident that happened two weeks before Oliver killed Edwards in April 2017. Oliver was off duty at the time of the crash.
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On April 16, 2017, Monique Arredondo rear-ended Oliver's truck. Immediately following the crash, Oliver got out of his truck with his gun drawn, Arredondo's sister testified at the former officer's trial.
"Never in my life have I seen someone jump out of a car that quickly." — Ashley Cuevas
"I saw [Oliver] come out of his truck quickly and approach our vehicle with a gun pointed toward my sister," Ashley Cuevas said. "He was angry. He was raging. ... Never in my life have I seen someone jump out of a car that quickly."
Oliver admitted during his own testimony that he had his gun out when he approached Arredondo's car but said he had it in a "low-ready position" because he heard yelling coming from the other vehicle.
The other two charges Michael Snipes, Dallas County's first assistant district attorney, moved to dismiss accused Oliver of aggravated assault for firing the shots into the car in which Edwards was riding. Five teenagers were in the car when Oliver, at the time a Balch Springs police officer called out to break up a party, started shooting. Oliver hit Edwards, leading to his murder conviction. He was acquitted on two other aggravated assault charges.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Oliver remained in Dallas County Jail awaiting a transfer to a state prison. Barring a successful appeal, he will serve at least 7.5 years of a 15-year sentence for killing Edwards.
Legal Battles
Stephen Young has written about Dallas news for the Observer since 2014. He's a Dallas native and a graduate of the University of North Texas.
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