Botham Jean killing: Dallas cop Amber Guyger appeals murder conviction, asks for lesser charge and sentence
Former Texas police officer Amber Guyger has reportedly filed an appeal to overturn her murder conviction for killing Botham Jean in his apartment in 2019. Guyger's defense team is reportedly hoping to overturn the former cop's murder conviction to negligent homicide by citing insufficient evidence, according to reports. The officer is currently serving a 10 years prison sentence in Texas.
Guyger, a four-year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, was arrested and imprisoned in the September 2018 killing of her 26-year-old Black neighbor Botham Jean inside his apartment. The former officer, in her defense, had said that she fired the shots thinking Jean was inside her apartment, after confusing it as her own. Guyger was subsequently charged with manslaughter.
Guyger, during her trial, had testified that she had gone to the wrong floor and mistook Jean's apartment for her own, she then shot Jean assuming him to be an intruder. Guyger's lawyer, during a brief filed on Tuesday, August 4, argued that her client's belief that Jean was an intruder justified her use of deadly force against him.
"The evidence was legally insufficient to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Guyger committed murder because (1) through mistake, Guyger formed a reasonable belief about a matter of fact — that she entered her apartment and there was an intruder inside," court documents read. "And (2) her mistaken belief negated the culpability of murder because although she intentionally and knowingly caused Jean's death, she had the right to act in deadly force in self-defense since her belief that deadly force was immediately necessary was reasonable under the circumstances."
Guyger's team had previously argued that the layout of the complex where they both lived was confusing. Reports state that the former officer lived directly above Jean on the fourth floor. Her lawyers, in Guyger's appeal, said that other residents had also struggled to find their own apartments, with many of them sharing that they have previously parked on the wrong floor. Out of 71 tenant interviews, around 44 percent said that they had walked into the wrong floor before, according to court documents.
On the night of September 6, Guyger walked into Jean's apartment in uniform, mistaking it for her own, after returning from a 12-hour shift. She said she fired her gun twice at Jean, who died later at a nearby hospital, only after he ignored her "verbal commands", according to a Texas Ranger's arrest affidavit.
Officer Guyger, in her defense, claimed she was able to enter Jean's apartment as the door was slightly open. She initially believed it was her own apartment before realizing her mistake. Lee Merritt, the attorney representing Jean's family, however, said that there are two witnesses who directly contradict the officer's version of events. Meritt said that witnesses heard a woman knocking on the door and saying "Let me in" before the shooting. Jean was a "meticulous" person and would not have carelessly left his door ajar, the attorney said. Jean's death had sparked widespread protests in Dallas, leading to Guyger's prompt arrest and subsequent firing.