Mistrial Declared in Abilene Murder Trial Because of Police Chief's Comments

ABILENE, TX -- A Taylor County Judge declared a mistrial before testimony began in the murder trial of Charles Edward Newman because of comments made to the potential jurors by Abilene Police Chief Stan Standridge.

KTXS is reporting Judge Thomas Wheeler made the decision out of an abundance of caution after Chief Standridge addressed the potential jurors for three or four minutes thanking them for their service.  Standridge was there as a potential juror himself.

Standridge issued the following statement on Tuesday: “On September 25, I received notice of Jury Duty. I arrived with several hundred other citizens. Judge Paul Rotenberry explained the importance of our task, and then court clerks worked hard to identify potential juror pools While we were waiting, I also thanked our citizens for their responsiveness to jury duty. It has been alleged that I encouraged them to vote in a certain manner, which is absolutely untrue. Instead, I spoke for about 3-4 minutes about overall crime issues. No one discussed the specific cases, as we did not even know what they were at the time.

I have a heart for this city and our citizens. I wanted to thank them, and encourage them that crime is not winning in our city. However, I should not have addressed them in this forum, for which I apologize. I made an honest mistake that I own and that I regret.”

Newman is standing trial accused of shooting and killing Kendra Keppler, 27, inside of her apartment in May of 2016.

A new trial for Newman has been set for Oct. 15.