Jordan Edwards was known for his smile. 

After the teen’s death, one of his teachers set a motto for the Mesquite High School classroom: “Smile like Jordan.” 

Students refused to sit at Jordan’s desk. His football locker was transformed into a shrine. 

“Everyone knew him from smiling. He gets that from me,” his father, Odell Edwards, said Tuesday, smiling.

It was the father’s testimony that brought many of the jurors to tears after they had convicted former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver in the 15-year-old’s murder.

Oliver, 38, was found not guilty, however, on two counts of aggravated assault for firing his rifle into the car full of teens.

He faces up to life in prison when testimony resumes Wednesday.

Odell Edwards said he blames himself for his son’s death; he was the one who let the teen go to a party the night of April 29, 2017. 

Jordan, his brothers Kevon Edwards and Vidal Allen, and two friends rode together in Odell Edwards’ Chevrolet Impala to the Balch Springs house party. 

“I blame myself a lot because I shouldn’t have let them go to the party,” Odell Edwards said, voice cracking. 

Several jurors wiped their eyes while the elder Edwards spoke. One put her head down. 

“It’s just not the same without Jordan around,” he said. 

He described what it was like to get a phone call from Allen, who was driving when Oliver fired into the car full of teenagers as they left the party. 

“Dad, Jordan’s been shot,” Edwards recalled Allen say. 

Edwards told his son to stop the car and “do whatever the police say.” Then the call went silent. 

“I just hopped in my truck. I drove all over Mesquite looking for my sons,” he said. 

Jordan’s mother, Charmaine Edwards, also blames herself, because she wasn’t home that night to be the strict parent and tell the boys they couldn’t go. 

She said that Allen also feels at fault. Jordan had asked to drive them home and if he been in the driver’s seat and not the passenger, he would be alive, Allen told his mother. 

The brothers were inseparable, the family said. 

The pair sold candy at their high school for spending money. And after the slaying, Allen changed his football jersey to No. 11, which had been Jordan’s.

“That was my baby brother. We did everything together,” Allen testified earlier in the trial. “We always had each other’s back, no matter what.”

Much of the punishment phase of the trial Tuesday focused on life before Jordan’s murder.  

Six high school teachers and the Mesquite High School football coach raved about the teen. Most said a variation of the same thing: They wanted a classroom full of Jordans. 

“You wish you had 31 of those kids like Jordan in that class,” said Robert Howig, Jordan’s computer teacher. 

“I would love to have a classroom of Jordans,” said algebra teacher Anna Lee Polk.

“I would be happy with a whole class of him,” said Jenna Williams, an English teacher. 

The teachers recounted the sorrow classmates felt after Jordan’s death and their own dismay about the way he died. 

“That’s not what we expected for his life, not what we’d expect for a kid like that,” said Alli Clements, his Spanish teacher. 

Football coach Jeff Fleener also testified Tuesday, but before he did, he gathered his team in the film room just after the guilty verdict was announced. 

The coach’s message was clear: “Praise God. Justice for Jordan.”

“It’s been weighing heavy on these kids,” Fleener said. “With the trial, all those same feelings and emotions came back up. It was tense yesterday afternoon and this morning, being worried about what the verdict might be.”

When they heard the verdict, the players erupted with emotions.

“Tears, hugging and some joy, too,” Fleener said. “I think for these young people, the only other things they’ve been able to compare it to, all the other trials that were like this, they haven’t gone this way.”

Fleener left after his team talk for the courthouse.

On the stand, he described meeting Jordan. Normally, it takes Fleener awhile to learn everyone’s names, but Jordan stood out, he said. 

The teen stayed after practice to work out and when the coach walked into the workout room, Jordan hopped up, held out his hand and introduced himself. 

Jordan “flashed that smile,” Fleener said. “He had that big of an impact on me, on the team and everybody who knew him.” 

Staff writer Corbett Smith contributed to this report.