A major update in the case of a white female Dallas police officer who killed an unarmed black man eating ice cream in his apartment has left the victim’s family furious.
Amber Guyger, now 35, was still in uniform when she returned to her apartment complex on September 6, 2018 and mistook Botham Jean’s apartment for her own – which was on the floor directly below his.
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 found guilty of murder in 2019 and was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.
But on Sunday – on 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 confirmed to CBS News.
Amber Guyger, now 35, is eligible for parole after serving five years behind bars for the murder of 27-year-old Botham Jean
‘His birthdays are always hard, but today is extremely hard,’ Jean’s sister, Allisa Charles-Findley told NBC DFW, as she and her family fight to keep Guyger behind bars.
‘She has only been in for five years, and we have a lifetime without Botham.’
‘She’s caused my family tremendous, tremendous hurt, tremendous pain,’ her mother, Allison Jean added. ‘She ought to remain where she is.
‘She needs to serve here entire 10-year term, which is well below a sentence that one receives for a murder, murder of an innocent man in the comfort of his home, doing nothing wrong.’
The family is expected to be interviewed by the Texas Parole Board in the coming days as it considers letting Guyger go free.
Other relatives are also writing letters to the parole board urging it to deny Guyger’s parole, and supporters of Botham’s family have started an online petition.
Jean was eating ice cream on his couch when Guyger shot and killed him on September 6, 2018
His mother, Allison Jean, is now trying to prevent Guyger from being released on parole
‘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 severity of the crime and the justice that was sought through the legal process.
‘Allowing Amber Guyger to be released early would not only be a disservice to Botham Jean’s memory, but also to the principles of justice and accountability,’ the petition, which has garnered nearly 1,700 signatures as of Tuesday evening, continues.
‘We believe that Amber Guyger should serve her full sentence as a reflection of the gravity of her actions and to uphold the integrity of our justice system.
‘We urge the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny her parole request and ensure that justice is fully served for Botham Jean and his family.’
Even the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office has said it sent a letter protesting her parole application, NBC DFW reports.
Guyger was still in her police uniform and had just returned from work when she fired at Jean. She was fired from the Dallas Police Department in the aftermath
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 fatally shot.
Guyger was fired from the Dallas Police Department in the aftermath, 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 to be her own apartment.
After she was found guilty of murder, Jean’s brother, Brandt, stunned the courtroom by embracing his brother’s killer at an emotional sentencing hearing and telling her Jean would have wanted her to turn her life over to Christ.
He said if she asked God for forgiveness, she would get it.
Judge Tammy Kemp also hugged the defendant and gave the ex-cop her own personal Bible to take with her to prison.
Kemp later said in an interview that she could not refuse Guyger a hug and argued that her act of compassion was appropriate because by then the trial was over.
But during her time behind bars, Guyger has repeatedly tried to appeal her conviction.
The appeal hinged on the claim that her mistaking Jean’s apartment for her own was reasonable, and therefore, so too was the shooting.
Her lawyer asked the appeals court to acquit her of murder or substitute in a conviction for criminally negligent homicide, which carries a lesser sentence.
Dallas County prosecutors countered that the error was not reasonable, that Guyger acknowledged intending to kill Jean and that ‘murder is a result-oriented offense.’
The court’s chief justice, Robert Burns III, and Justices Lana Myers and Robbie Partida-Kipness concurred with prosecutors, disagreeing that Guyger’s belief that deadly force was needed was reasonable.
In a 23-page opinion, the justices also disagreed that evidence supported a conviction of criminally negligent homicide rather than murder, and they pointed to Guyger’s own testimony that she intended to kill.
‘That she was mistaken as to Jean’s status as a resident in his own apartment or a burglar in hers does not change her mental state from intentional or knowing to criminally negligent,’ the judges wrote.
‘We decline to rely on Guyger’s misperception of the circumstances leading to her mistaken beliefs as a basis to reform the jury’s verdict in light of the direct evidence of her 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’s ruling.
But the court declined to hear her case in March 2022, upholding her sentence, according to WFAA.
‘She made four appeals, which really showed that she didn’t accept responsibility for what she did,’ Allison Jean, the victim’s mother, told the Dallas Morning News.
‘And so that doesn’t soften my own feelings about’ her getting parole.
Guyger had claimed in court that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own
Guyger will now appear before the Texas Parole Board to plead her case for an early release.
Members of the board will then ask her ‘how she has changed and what she thinks about all these things,’ former parole officer Zerita Hall explained, noting there is a chance Guyger may not appear at the hearing in-person.
The letter that Botham’s family have sent will then be considered.
‘This man was murdered. He was killed in his own home,’ Hall said.
‘So I would imagine letters of support for her staying in prison would probably be pouring in.’
A decision on her parole could then be made as early as this month.
