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The trial of former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver will not be relocated outside of Dallas County, a judge ruled Tuesday of this week. Oliver is charged with the murder of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards.

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Attorneys representing Oliver believe that a fair trial for their client is not possible in Dallas County, because news coverage of the case has been “pervasive, prejudicial and inflammatory.”

Oliver’s attorneys also noted that hundreds of stories from local news organizations as an example of the extensive media coverage. However, State District Judge Brandon Birmingham said the coverage was not inflammatory.

“News stories that are accurate and objective do not run afoul to anybody’s constitutional rights,” Birmingham said.

On the night of April 29, 2017 Oliver, 38, and another officer were called to a Balch Springs house, after a 911 caller reported that drunken teens were in the street. After arriving at the house officers heard gunshots, later discovering they had been fired outside a nearby nursing home. Edwards and four other teens were leaving the house party when Oliver fired into their car and killing Edwards, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. The Balch Springs police chief originally said the car reversed toward the officers, but body-camera footage contradicted that account according to The Dallas Morning News. Oliver’s trial is set to begin Aug. 16. In addition to the murder charge, he’ll be tried on two of the four counts of aggravated assault by a public servant he faces in connection to the other boys in the car with Edwards.

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