Huntsville Police officer accused of murder from a 2018 shooting will go to trial after multiple delays
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - A Huntsville Police officer charged in a 2018 fatal shooting will go to trial next month.
On April 6, William Darby’s attorneys and the state’s attorneys met with the judge to discuss logistics for the upcoming trial.
WAFF was in the courtroom at the Madison County Courthouse to learn the latest.
Today, we learned the judge decided not to allow the jury to hear the fact that a Huntsville Police Department internal review board cleared Darby of any wrong doing.
Darby is accused of shooting and killing Jeffrey Parker, a man who called police saying he was suicidal.
He was indicted by a Grand Jury after the internal investigation cleared him of wrongdoing.
The state, the defense, and the judge agreed it was best to leave that information out of the trial, citing opinion testimony.
A judge will decide on two other motions.
The first, if Huntsville Police re-training for mental health scenarios will be considered opinion testimony, and the second is whether the state will be able to present audio of the victim telling officers he was not going to shoot them.
The state anticipates a large crowd of Huntsville Police officers attending the trial to show support.
Attorneys have asked the judge to consider asking officers not to wear their uniforms in fear of intimidating the jury.
After multiple delays, William Darby is expected to go on trial May 3rd.
We will be in the courtroom when the trial begins.
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