Right as Shilo Sanders’ 5-day federal bankruptcy trial kicked off in Denver, Deion Sanders spoke about “praying for my baby” and hoped the world would finally see “what really transpired.” The courtroom fight centered on whether Shilo deliberately caused John Darjean’s catastrophic spinal injuries back at Focus Learning Academy over a confiscated cellphone in 2015. But Shilo’s bid to erase the $11.89 million debt has taken a turn before Judge Michael E. Romero.
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According to USA Today, instead of helping his case, key defense witnesses changed their statements under cross-examination. This has complicated the case for Shilo’s camp. The defense had tried to frame school guard John Darjean as the aggressor. But now his credibility has taken a hit, as the witnesses’ testimony in court directly clashes with previous statements.
Star witness Ruda Nash James previously testified that Darjean choked Shilo Sanders during the 2015 altercation. Darjean’s attorney, Ori Raphael, immediately played a recorded 2015 phone call where Shilo’s mother, Pilar Sanders asked: “Did you see his hand around Shilo’s neck?” This led James to backtrack in his confession. “I didn’t see the neck part. I didn’t see all that,” James answered back, as reported by USA Today. James also revealed that Shilo Sanders’ legal team covered her travel expenses to Denver.
It was then time for former Colorado safety Shilo Sanders to take the witness stand. Sanders testified that he acted in self-defense during the 2015 confrontation, maintaining that Darjean attacked and choked him.
In closing arguments, Darjean’s attorney, Ori Raphael, argued that Sanders’ self-defense claim conflicted with what Raphael said had been the defense’s position for years: that Sanders never touched Darjean. Raphael contended that the shift undermined Sanders’ credibility. However, Judge Michael E. Romero had not issued a ruling on that argument when the trial concluded, as reported by USA Today.
“For 10 years, the defense (claimed) he never touched a man. If that’s the case, it cannot be self-defense. No one accidentally acts in self-defense… And if today he changes his tune, his credibility, which is also on trial, is shattered,” Ori Raphael declared in the courtroom, per USA Today’s Brent Schrotenboer.
Other eyewitnesses who were brought to testify about the case contradicted Shilo’s self-defense testimony. Former student Deaunte Lee, who testified via video, said Shilo elbowed and punched Darjean, and former employee at Focus Learning Academy, Saundra Haynes, confessed to an unprovoked punch from Shilo.
School founder Leroy McClure testified that Shilo was so aggressive on the phone that he feared Shilo would hurt him, too.
On day 4 of the trial, Darjean suddenly collapsed in court after testifying for more than two hours about his permanent spinal injury. An ambulance had to hurry to the scene to take him to a hospital.
Darjean is trying to prove that Shilo’s debt to him is directly related to a “wilful and malicious” injury caused by Sanders. This term is a specific exception in bankruptcy law that would prevent a debtor such as Sanders from discharging a debt.
Darjean sued Sanders over the fight and was awarded an $11.89 million default win in 2022 because Shilo never showed up to court in Dallas.
“Responsibility is a word you’re never going to hear from the defense (Sanders), because he never accepts it. And frankly, that would have been the best argument (for him) to say (that) it was an accident. He never says it,” Ori Raphael said in the closing argument from Darjean’s camp, as reported by USA Today.
Both sides accused the other of making “no sense” as well in their closing arguments. Meanwhile, Judge Romero ruled both cases as “very tough, very difficult and highly emotional.” With no verdict (yet), it remains to be seen in whose favor Judge Romero rules.