BROOKHAVEN — A year ago today,  Judge David Strong ruled the Mississippi v. Case trial a mistrial citing testimony from key witness Vincent Fernando, a detective with the Brookhaven Police Department. The case will go back to trial on October 14, 2024 at 9 a.m. according to court documents. 

Brandon and Gregory Case were indicted by a grand jury in Nov. 2022 on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy and shooting into a motor vehicle driven by FedEx driver D’Monterrio Gibson in January 2022. 

The mistrial 

On Aug. 17, 2024, Jury members never made it to their seats and Gibson, expected to take the witness stand, was escorted out of the courtroom before the mistrial was declared.

Kitchens argued Fernando is a member of the prosecution team and he violated court orders and rules regarding evidence. Once he brought up shell casings which were excluded from preliminary evidence, he blurted out he found long guns in a search warrant which Strong had to admonish the jury to forget the evidence and the third time he produced discovery which had been requested many times by both parties but was never turned over. 

District Attorney Dee Bates objected for the State but said he understood the mistrial motion. 

“There was a disk of the interview conducted with Mr. Gibson. We both asked for it. We had hearings and meetings for discovery. We met with him, the defense met with him last week. The state is shocked at the new evidence. We object to a mistrial. I would have liked Mr. Gibson to listen to the testimony today. He went out to protect the integrity of his testimony.” 

Strong said a rule was violated in the court proceedings and therefore he must grant a mistrial. It was something he said he had not seen in 19 years. 

“No one hates a mistrial more than the court. We are in the position of coming back here. Under the circumstances and the totality of circumstances, failure to follow the rules is something that can’t be ignored. It happened here and we have no choice but to grant a motion for mistrial.”