Trial is delayed again for two former Capitol Police officers accused in shootings ...Middle East

The trial of two former Capitol Police officers accused of unlawfully opening fire on a car and shooting a passenger in the head has been delayed for at least the ninth time, Hinds County Courthouse staff said.

The white former officers, Michael Lamar Rhinewalt and Jeffery Walker Jr., each face up to two decades in prison if convicted of aggravated assault charges. They are accused of shooting at two Black people in August 2022 as they were driving through downtown Jackson, leaving passenger Sherita Harris with “permanent neurological and facial injuries,” according to a civil lawsuit she filed against them.

The officers were set to stand trial on the criminal charge Monday, but the courtroom stood locked and empty, and court records did not immediately give a reason for the delay.

Hinds County Circuit Judge Adrienne Wooten pushed the trial back at the request of the officers’ attorneys, according to De’Vone Cole, a Hinds County sheriff’s officer at the court. But at the time of the trial, the circuit clerk’s office said it had no record of the request or rescheduling. A new date had not been set for the trial in court records.

Wooten’s deputy court administrator, Tandra Thompson, initially told Mississippi Today that she wasn’t aware of anyone on staff who knew why the trial didn’t start — even though the court was responsible for setting its date under the rules issued by the state Supreme Court. Thompson then said scheduling information was confidential to the defense and prosecution, even though it is public record under state law.

The defense and prosecutors did not answer Mississippi Today’s calls to confirm why the trial did not happen. 

This will be the second criminal trial tied to a record year of shootings by Capitol Police, both against Rhinewalt. In the first trial, which was rescheduled six times before ending last week, he avoided a manslaughter conviction in the shooting and killing of a 25-year-old Black man, Jaylen Lewis, during a traffic stop a month after Harris’ shooting. 

After the majority-Black jury deadlocked on whether Rhinewalt was guilty, the state attorney general’s office dropped the case against him, writing, “the benefit of the doubt goes to our law enforcement officers.” The jury in that trial acquitted another former Capitol Police officer, Steven Frederick Jr. 

Cole said Rhinewalt’s second trial would begin in December at the earliest — nearly two years after it was initially scheduled. Court records show the trial has been delayed at least eight other times since it was first scheduled for March 2025.

Trial previously delayed after ‘conflict of interest’

One delay came after Judge Wooten barred the attorney general’s office from prosecuting the case because of an unprecedented “conflict of interest which gravely undermines the integrity and fairness of the proceedings.”

While the attorney general’s office was pursuing a criminal case against the two officers for opening fire on Harris, it was also defending the pair against a $3 million federal lawsuit Harris filed for shooting her and violating her constitutional rights. 

“This inconsistency is not merely theoretical — it strikes at the heart of fairness and undermines the core ethical obligations owed to clients and to the judicial process,” Wooten wrote in May 2025.

The attorney general’s office argued that separate divisions were handling the cases and that there was no evidence of “improper influence” on the grand jury that indicted both officers in the shooting. But ultimately, the office of Lin Carter, the district attorney of Forrest and Perry counties, took over prosecution of the aggravated assault case.

Until the criminal case comes to an end, Harris’ lawsuit is on hold.

The case marks a rare criminal proceeding against officers for shooting at civilians. In the entire history of Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s Office reviewing these cases, the office said it has found four incidents not “justified,” including in the killing of Lewis.

In that case, the attorney general’s office still handled the prosecution against Rhinewalt, despite defending him in Harris’ lawsuit.

Why was Harris shot? Officers’ and victims’ versions sharply diverge

The former officers — who were with Capitol Police’s crime suppression Flex Unit — and the victims have given starkly different accounts of the moments that ended with a bullet in Harris’ skull.

In her lawsuit, Harris alleged that the shooting occurred after the friend she was riding with, Sinatra Jordan, “complied” with the officers’ commands to pull over while the two were waiting for a traffic light to turn green. But “shortly” after, the lawsuit stated, Rhinewalt opened fire on Jordan’s silver Nissan Rogue as it tried to drive away to “escape the constant firing of bullets.”

Rhinewalt was believed to be the officer who shot Harris in the head, according to her lawsuit, leaving her with permanent memory loss, a partially paralyzed face and damaged sight and hearing. Walker did not shoot at the car but did admit to opening fire on Jordan once he exited the vehicle, the lawsuit stated.

After the shooting, Jordan survived and was arrested. A month later, Walker admitted in a hearing that both officers opened fire on the car, but only after Jordan ran a red light, fled a traffic stop, led them on a car chase throughout downtown and then shot at them first, sparking a gun battle that ended in a residential neighborhood.

Walker testified that no bullets struck the officers’ patrol car and no gun was found in Jordan’s vehicle. He also said he saw objects being thrown from the car during the chase, but none of these items were found.

Jordan ultimately pleaded guilty to fleeing police. He was also accused of shooting at the officers and charged with aggravated assault, but that charge was dropped last year.

The shooting was one of four by Capitol Police officers in 2022 — more than any other law-enforcement agency in the state. The spike came as the Legislature expanded the force’s reach throughout Jackson in an effort to address record homicide rates.

Harris wrote in her lawsuit that the shooting left her not only with physical injuries but also “severe emotional distress” and “mental trauma,” including panic attacks, anxiety and depression. She argued that “any reasonable police officer” in Rhinewalt and Walker’s position would have known they had a “duty” to “prevent harm” to her, as an “innocent bystander.”

In response to Harris’ lawsuit, both officers denied wrongdoing, arguing that they acted “at all times” in line with “proper policing procedures” and “in good faith.”

Case continues legal trouble for both former officers

Harris’ shooting adds to the legal trouble both former officers face from their service with Capitol Police.

During last month’s manslaughter trial, Rhinewalt admitted he shot Lewis in the head during a traffic stop, killing him. He told jurors the killing was in self defense, as he believed Lewis was trying to run officers over with his Jeep Grand Cherokee.

But the passenger riding with Lewis, Selena Hayes, testified the pair didn’t know they were being stopped by officers, who were not in typical uniforms and were driving unmarked police cars. As a result, she said, Lewis was trying to drive around the officers, rather than to run them over.

While Rhinewalt avoided another trial after the attorney general’s office dropped the manslaughter case against him, he still faces a $75,000 wrongful death suit from Lewis’ family in federal court. He denied the lawsuit’s allegations.

In December, Walker pleaded guilty in federal court to violating a man’s civil rights during a traffic stop just weeks before Harris’ shooting by slamming the man’s head into his car and kicking him in the head and face while he was handcuffed and under control. But he filed a motion to withdraw his plea in August on the day he was scheduled to be sentenced — when he faced up to a decade in prison — because of “newly discovered evidence.”

His then-attorney, Arthur Calderón, wrote that the week before Walker was set to be sentenced, the former officer received pictures from Capitol Police that “contradict” federal prosecutors’ claims that he injured the man, who was identified in court records as E.S. As a result, Walker asserted his innocence and requested a trial.

Federal prosecutors say the photos, which were “reportedly” provided by Rhinewalt, show E.S. handcuffed and on the ground with a swollen and discolored face. The prosecution argued Walker was still guilty, as the defense “fails entirely” to explain how the photos — which were not new evidence — demonstrated his innocence. 

U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate has not ruled on whether the photos are enough evidence to overcome the former officer’s guilty plea and warrant a trial.

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