A major update in the case of a white Dallas police officer who killed an unarmed black man who was eating ice cream in her apartment has left the victim’s family furious.
Amber Guyger, now 35, was still in uniform when she returned to her apartment complex on Sept. 6, 2018, and mistook Botham Jean’s apartment for her own, which was on the floor directly below hers.
She testified at her trial the following year that she found the door ajar and shot and killed Jean, 27, after mistaking him for an intruder.
Guyger was convicted of murder in 2019 and sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
But on Sunday, what would have been Jean’s 33rd birthday, Guyger qualified for parole after serving just five years in prison, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice reported. confirmed to CBS News.
Amber Guyger, now 35, is eligible for parole after serving five years behind bars for the murder of Botham Jean, 27.
‘Her birthdays are always difficult, but today is extremely difficult,’ Jean’s sister Allisa Charles-Findley he told NBC DFWas she and her family fight to keep Guyger behind bars.
“He’s only been in the hospital for five years and we have a lifetime left without Botham.”
“She has caused my family tremendous harm, tremendous pain,” added her mother, Allison Jean. ‘She should stay where she is.
“He needs to serve a full 10-year sentence here, which is well below the sentence you receive for murder, the murder of an innocent man in the comfort of his home, having done nothing wrong.”
The family is expected to be interviewed by the Texas Parole Board in the coming days as it considers releasing Guyger.
Other family members are also writing letters to the parole board urging it to deny Guyger parole, and supporters of Botham’s family have He started an online petition.
Jean was eating ice cream on his couch when Guyger shot him to death on September 6, 2018.
His mother, Allison Jean, is now trying to stop Guyger from being paroled.
“Amber Guyger was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison,” it says. ‘This sentence was intended to serve as a measure of justice for Botham Jean and his family, and as a statement that such actions will not be tolerated.
‘Granting parole at this time would undermine the seriousness of the crime and the justice sought through the legal process.
“Allowing the early release of Amber Guyger would not only be a disservice to the memory of Botham Jean, but also to the principles of justice and accountability,” continues the petition, which has garnered nearly 1,700 signatures as of Tuesday evening. .
‘We believe Amber Guyger should serve her full sentence as a reflection of the seriousness of her actions and to uphold the integrity of our justice system.
“We urge the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny his request for parole and ensure that full justice is served for Botham Jean and his family.”
Even the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office has said it sent a letter protesting his parole request, NBC DFW reports.
Guyger was still wearing his police uniform and had just returned from work when he shot Jean. She was later fired from the Dallas Police Department.
Jean’s death had sparked massive protests across the Texas city, as residents remained outraged that the accountant had just been eating a bowl of ice cream on his couch when he was shot and killed.
Guyger was subsequently fired from the Dallas Police Department, and at her weeks-long trial in September 2019, she testified that she was “scared to death” when she encountered Jean in what she believed was her own apartment.
After she was convicted of murder, Jean’s brother Brandt shocked the courtroom by hugging his brother’s killer at an emotional sentencing hearing and telling him that Jean would have wanted her to give her life to Christ.
He said that if she asked God for forgiveness, she would get it.
Judge Tammy Kemp also hugged the defendant and gave the former police officer his own personal Bible to take to prison.
Kemp later said in an interview that he could not deny Guyger a hug and argued that his act of compassion was appropriate because by then the trial was over.
But during his time behind bars, Guyger has repeatedly attempted to appeal his conviction.
The appeal revolved around the assertion that her mistaking Jean’s apartment for her own was reasonable, and therefore so was the shooting.
Her lawyer asked the appeals court to acquit her of the murder charge or substitute a conviction for criminally negligent homicide, which carries a lesser penalty.
Dallas County prosecutors responded that the mistake was unreasonable, that Guyger acknowledged intending to kill Jean, and that “murder is a results-oriented crime.”
Chief Justice Robert Burns III and Judges Lana Myers and Robbie Partida-Kipness agreed with prosecutors and disagreed that Guyger’s belief that deadly force was necessary was reasonable.
In a 23-page opinion, the justices also disagreed that the evidence supported a conviction for criminally negligent homicide rather than murder, pointing to Guyger’s own testimony that he intended to kill.
“The fact that he was mistaken as to Jean’s status as a resident in his own apartment or as a burglar in hers does not change his state of mind from intentional or conscious to criminally negligent,” the judges wrote.
“We refuse to rely on Guyger’s misperception of the circumstances that led to his erroneous beliefs as a basis for reshaping the jury’s verdict in light of direct evidence of his intent to kill.”
Guyger then asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest forum for criminal cases, to review the appeals court ruling.
But the court refused to hear his case in March 2022 and upheld his sentence. according to WFAA.
“He made four appeals, which really showed that he didn’t accept responsibility for what he did,” said Allison Jean, the victim’s mother. he told the Dallas Morning News.
And that doesn’t soften my own feelings about her getting parole.
Guyger had claimed in court that he mistook Jean’s apartment for his own.
Guyger will now appear before the Texas Parole Board to argue his case for early release.
Board members will then ask him “how he’s changed and what he thinks about all of these things,” former probation officer Zerita Hall explained, noting that there’s a chance Guyger won’t show up at the hearing in person.
The letter sent by Botham’s family will then be considered.
‘This man was murdered. “He was murdered in his own home,” Hall said.
“So I imagine letters of support for her remaining in prison would probably pour in.”
The decision on his parole could be made this month.