Jury deliberations continued late Friday in the murder trial of Jasmine Green, the Augusta woman accused in the 2015 death of former lover Davyn Dixon.
Green’s defense is that her confession was false, coerced by police who took her into custody without a warrant, shackled her to the floor of an interrogation room and grilled her for more than eight hours.
“You think she was leaving? No,” defense attorney Jacque Hawk boomed in closing arguments Friday. “They had her by her neck.”
Hawk called the interrogation a “psychological beatdown,” during which multiple investigators told Green she could help herself if she confirmed their version of events, or remain in custody and be charged with murder if not.
Jurors watched the entire interrogation during the four-day trial and began deliberations Friday afternoon.
Statements made to Green by Richmond County Sheriff’s deputies included the common elements of a false confession, such as coercion, duress, threats, invoking fear and the suggestion of a reward or hoped-for benefit, Hawk said.
Green, who was 19, was forced to sit on a steel stool for eight hours in the small interrogation room kept at what investigators called “hot as fire,” despite a thermostat visible on the wall, he said.
Methods aside, Green’s case is actually a simple one, Columbia County Chief Assistant District Attorney Natalie Paine said in closing arguments.
Paine, the former Augusta Circuit DA, is prosecuting the case after it was reassigned to the Columbia Judicial Circuit because Augusta Circuit DA Jared Williams formerly worked for Hawk’s law firm.
Green has been out on bond since 2019 and her case has been continued for years, awaiting COVID-19 delays and the assignment of a conflict prosecutor.
“Jasmine Green confessed,” said Paine, to the “cold-blooded and calculated” murder of a former boyfriend. “What a stupid reason for a young man to lose his life.”
Two days before his death, Dixon, 24, texted Green that “now I’m really cutting you off for good,” Paine showed the jury.
Why, Green texted Dixon, did he insist on using a condom “with me?”
Green would then tell friend Mandley Stewart that Dixon had hit her, and set up a meeting with Dixon at his Hephzibah home on the night of his death.
Stewart, who was initially charged alongside Green with Dixon’s murder, was released and never indicted by a Richmond County grand jury.
Green or Stewart lay in wait by a door where Green knew Dixon would come out, near where his body was found, Paine said. At a hospital, he was determined to have died from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Dixon’s family members cried in agony in a waiting room after learning Friday the jury was having trouble reaching a unanimous verdict.
The jury sent questions to the court about how long they had to continue deliberating.
Told they had to continue Friday or return Monday, they asked for food around 6:40 p.m. and were given a 45-minute break to eat.
