Prosecutors find undisclosed body camera video days before Jackson DUI trial

Hinds County prosecutors said they discovered days before trial a sheriff’s deputy’s body camera video that had not been included in materials turned over by the Jackson Police Department, Mississippi Today reported.

The footage shows Deputy Kenny Bryant administering a Breathalyzer test to Jada Kelly, then 22, who is charged with killing two people and disfiguring a third after a crash on Jan. 15, 2023, prosecutors told the circuit court judge, according to Mississippi Today. Bryant found Kelly’s blood alcohol content was 0.18, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08, and investigators said the other driver, Toney Payne, registered 0.10 at the hospital.

Prosecutors turned the footage over to defense attorney Dennis Sweet III six days before the trial, Mississippi Today reported. At a hearing, Sweet asked a prosecutor why the defense had received the video so late; prosecutor Carrie Jourdan replied, “Because I just found it,” according to the outlet. Kayli Hankins, communications director for the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office, told Mississippi Today that materials are sometimes maintained by different agencies and that the office “promptly” turned the footage over once it was discovered. The Jackson Police Department did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Sweet has filed motions seeking to suppress parts of the video, arguing it shows officers failed to properly inform Kelly of her rights before the Breathalyzer, and has also moved for dismissal, Mississippi Today reported. Judge Debra Gibbs did not rule on the suppression motion, and the trial is underway. Kelly was indicted in 2023 on three counts of aggravated DUI about four months after the crash that authorities say killed sisters Azure Higgins, 45, and Valerie Lynch, 43, and left Payne permanently disfigured.

Legal observers say the late disclosure could raise Brady issues, the term for withheld evidence that could help the defense. Matt Steffey, a professor at the Mississippi College School of Law, told Mississippi Today he expected prosecutors would have known the footage existed earlier because Bryant’s name appears in court filings. Sheriff Tyree Jones said he was familiar with the case but was attending to another matter involving two homicides in rural Hinds County, Mississippi Today reported.

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