HUMAN ERROR

Mistrial Declared in Murder Case Against Simone Biles’ Brother

All 12 jurors said they had been influenced by filings they weren’t supposed to see.

An Ohio judge on Monday declared a mistrial in a murder case involving a U.S. Army soldier accused of shooting and killing three men at a 2018 New Year’s Eve party in Cleveland. Tevin Biles-Thomas, a 26-year-old GI from Georgia, is the brother of gymnast and U.S. Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles. The ruling came after jurors informed Judge Joan Synenberg that the trial evidence they were given to use during deliberations mistakenly contained confidential copies of legal briefs from both prosecutors and defense attorneys that they weren’t supposed to see, Cleveland.com reported. One of the briefs included a request from Biles-Thomas’ attorney asking the judge to tell jurors that they could consider that Biles-Thomas committed the shooting but had acted in self-defense. Synenberg denied the motion, and Biles-Thomas’ lawyer, Joe Patituce, closed his arguments in court by telling the jury that Biles-Thomas did not have a gun at the party. Once the paperwork error was discovered, Synenberg asked the jurors if they were influenced in any way by what they read in the briefs that were erroneously given to them. All 12 said yes.