Dallas Police Department officer’s Amber Guyger conviction upheld in the Fifth Court of Appeals. Guyger shot and killed her neighbor Botham Jean, inside his own apartment in 2018, failed in this first murder conviction appeal.
Guyger is serving a ten year sentence for the murder of Botham Jean.
Jean, a Black man who lived in the same apartment building as Guyger was eating ice cream in his apartment when she entered and shot him in September 2018.
Amber Guyger Conviction Upheld
Guyger, who is white, testified that she thought she was entering her own apartment and thought Jean was an intruder. She was later fired from the Dallas Police Department after the shooting.
Guyger’s lawyers argued her 2019 trial was not enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Guyger committed murder. Their argument was she had a “reasonable belief” that she was in her own apartment. If jurors believed she had a “reasonable belief” she was in her own home, she would have been allowed to use deadly force in self-defense.
Guyger can still raise the case to Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals, but Thursday’s ruling is a setback to Guyger’s attempt to receive a reduced sentence. As it stands, she could be eligible for parole as soon as 2024.
There has been no public comment from Dallas Police Association (DPA) or its President Mike Mata. After the incident, Mata was accused of tampering with evidence after he aked that a police cruiser camera be turned off while he spoke to Guyger.
Mata was not charged by a Grand Jury who heard evidence and was cleared of any wrong doing. At the time he sadi he welcomed an Internal Affairs investigation believing he would receive the exoneration he ended up receiving through the court system.
During the Guyger murder trial, prosecutors used security camera video to suggest the DPA acted improperly when Mata arrived on the scene after the shooting.
Other Side Dallas has been covering Dallas Police misconduct since its founding and will continue to do so.
