Joshua Jaynes: Detective’s attorney acknowledges Breonna Taylor search warrant was ‘inaccurate’

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - An attorney for embattled LMPD Det. Joshua Jaynes said information in a search warrant affidavit related to the deadly raid on Breonna Taylor’s apartment was “inaccurate.”

Jaynes requested the search warrant that Judge Mary Shaw signed on March 12, allowing for the raid that left Taylor dead in her apartment hours later.

One officer was indicted for firing blindly into Taylor’s neighbors' apartments, and Jaynes remains under scrutiny in multiple investigations still in progress, including the FBI’s.

Jaynes was part of a team investigating Jamarcus Glover, a convicted drug dealer and ex-boyfriend of Taylor. As part of that investigation, LMPD officers bypassed the postal service because of “bad blood” and instead used Shively police to confirm whether packages were going to Taylor’s apartment. Shively police said there were no suspicious packages going to Taylor’s apartment at 3003 Springfield Drive. Officers said they passed that information to Jaynes and Sgt. Jon Mattingly, who would be shot during the Taylor raid.

The warrant stated that Glover had received packages at Taylor’s address. LMPD surveillance had captured video of Glover visiting Taylor’s address and leaving with a package.

In recently-released recordings from interviews conducted following the Taylor raid, Jaynes said he had asked Mattingly if Glover was receiving packages at the Springfield Drive address.

“'He said, ‘Your guy just gets Amazon or mail packages there,’” Jaynes recalled in the recordings. “I said, ‘OK, well that’s relieving.’”

WAVE 3 News asked Jaynes' attorney, Thomas Clay, how it went from a conversation about “Amazon or mail” packages to suspected packages on the search warrant affidavit.

“For whatever reason, the information in the search warrant appears to be inaccurate,” Jaynes' attorney, Thomas Clay, told WAVE 3 News on Wednesday.

Contradicting what Jaynes wrote in the affidavit, WAVE 3 News uncovered interviews with multiple LMPD officers who said no suspicious packages were going to Taylor’s home.

Clay said the misinformation can be attributed to LMPD’s collaboration with Shively police, whose investigation into another man with the last name Glover centered in part around suspicious packages.

Aside from the postal inspector aspect, Clay said there was still probable cause for the warrant, citing surveillance photos of Taylor’s car at 2424 Elliott Avenue, a suspected drug house owned by Glover, and the aforementioned imagery of Glover leaving Taylor’s apartment complex with packages. Clay added that Jaynes never checked Glover’s packages, and said at the time the pictures were taken he was not sure what unit he was coming out of.

“This was not a search on Breonna Taylor,” Clay said. “This was a search on that apartment to uncover possible evidence of a crime.”

Sam Aguiar, an attorney representing the Taylor family, sent WAVE 3 News a response to Jaynes' and Clay’s accounts.

“When you take away Jaynes' perjured statement, you’re left with one isolated incident where he saw Breonna’s ex-boyfriend leaving her home with a normal package,” Aguiar said. “There’s no way in hell that, under the law, this single observation permits officers to invade her home at 12:45 in the morning two months later. And at least two officers at Breonna’s were well aware of this. It’s dirty all the way around.”

Clay said Jaynes feels the warrant was a collaborative effort, adding that his client has no ill feelings toward any of the officers involved in the investigation.

Steve Romines, an attorney representing Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, also expressed criticism of the warrant.

“If the warrant was a collective effort of all the officers, the justification for them acting in ‘good faith’ never existed,” Romines said.

Jaynes has been scrutinized for asking people about Taylor, Walker, and Glover’s packages following the deadly raid.

“(Glover) was on their radar and they were fully justified in continuing their investigation into this guy’s activities,” Clay said.

Attorney Lonita Baker also represents the Taylor family and has previously said the LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit investigation showed police were trying to justify officers' actions the night of the raid, instead of investigating the police. The PIU files included text-message transcripts and images of Taylor and Walker that were collected after the shooting.

“It’s disturbing that anyone would attempt to justify that a warrant premised on lies is justified,” Baker said. “Det. Jaynes knows, just as anyone with any criminal law experience knows, that observing someone at a location and nothing further does not constitute probable cause. It’s even more absurd that Jaynes would ask people to believe he was still investigating the Springfield address as a connection to Glover over two months after Breonna’s murder since it was still closed off for investigative purposes. That follow-up call was nothing more than an attempt to cover-up his own criminal action of perjury, which led to the murder of Breonna Taylor.”

Clay said in hindsight, Jaynes could have taken the line about suspected packages out of the affidavit or at least changed the wording. Clay said Jaynes retained him about a week ago because, Clay said, they’ve heard conversations about some Metro Council members wanting Jaynes fired. Metro Council President David James told WAVE 3 News that some members “have expressed concern.”

Clay said Jaynes is open to speaking with the Department of Justice and telling investigators “everything.”