Amber Guyger appeal: Texas’ highest court upholds conviction
Two justices – Choose Kevin Yeary and Choose Michelle Slaughter – wrote dissenting opinions but the rest of the court docket voted to not listen to her attraction.
DALLAS — Editor’s note: The video clip posted over is a appear back again at Guyger’s sentencing.
The murder conviction and 10-12 months prison sentence for Amber Guyger, the previous Dallas police officer who fatally shot Botham Jean in his apartment in 2018, was upheld by Texas’ greatest legal court on Wednesday.
The Court docket of Prison Appeals refused to listen to Guyger’s petition to review a reduced court’s selection to uphold her 2019 conviction and sentence. Two justices – Choose Kevin Yeary and Judge Michelle Slaughter – wrote dissenting views but the relaxation of the court docket voted to not listen to her enchantment.
The 9-member courtroom has the last appellate jurisdiction in legal situations, so the determination means Guyger has very likely exhausted all avenues to charm her conviction and sentence.
Guyger will continue serving her 10-year sentence at a prison in Gatesville, Texas. She is up for parole in 2024.
Civil legal rights lawyer Lee Merritt, who represented Jean’s loved ones in the course of the trial, informed WFAA’S Rebecca Lopez that they are relieved the doorway has been shut on this circumstance and Guyger can provide the rest of her sentence.

What took place the night time Botham Jean was killed?
Throughout the demo, Guyger reported she had just ended a 13-hour shift when she said she mistook Botham Jean’s condominium as her have.
She told investigators that she parked on the fourth flooring as a substitute of the third at the South Aspect Flats residences, arrest records show. But prosecutors reported the fourth ground of the garage is open-air, even though the 3rd flooring, the place Guyger typically parked, is not.
Prosecutor Jason Hermus explained Guyger, who was however in uniform, also missed various visible clues in the course of her wander down two extended hallways.
She also unsuccessful to discover Jean’s pink doormat, the only 1 with this kind of a noticeable doormat on the third or fourth floor, and the smell of marijuana in his household — all indicators she had gone to the wrong door.
In the course of the demo, it was exposed that Jean’s apartment was a lot more cluttered than Guyger’s, which was sparsely furnished. Guyger’s condominium had a 50 percent-circle entry table with a vase of flowers in the dwelling place of her condominium.
She did not have a rug nor a espresso desk. Jean experienced a massive spherical ottoman in entrance of his sofa. Guyger did not have any artwork driving her sofa, compared with Jean.
Linked: ‘A ripple of Bo’: Three-calendar year anniversary of Botham Jean’s death will come with new perspective of a legacy touching quite a few
The doorway was unlocked and Jean was on the sofa taking in vanilla ice product and observing Television when Guyger walked in. She shot twice, putting Jean as soon as in the lessen upper body. The bullet ripped downward by way of his physique, Hermus explained.
Prosecutors explained Guyger was additional concerned with texting her spouse than with trying to help Jean. Immediately after the taking pictures, she texted her husband or wife 2 times indicating she desired him.
“She should’ve been supplying 100% of her notice to that guy,” Hermus claimed of Jean, who was lying on his living room ground though Guyger waited outside the house for first responders.
Guyger’s keys had been in Jean’s doorway when the initial officers arrived. The doors at the flats consider an electronic lock, which turns like a ordinary critical.
Jean hadn’t locked his door when he returned property from running an errand. Crime scene pics display the strike plate, which is where by the door latches closed, was a little warped.
The door was not totally shut and latched the night of the taking pictures. Typically, the doorways at the South Facet Flats ought to fully shut automatically, since of the way they are weighted.
Texas Ranger David Armstrong, the lead investigator on the situation, testified he analyzed the closing of Jean’s door a number of times. It did not regularly slam shut each individual time, he stated.
Guyger testified she was so disoriented that she had to stroll outside of the unit to get the condominium quantity for the 911 dispatcher.
Jurors experienced to identify irrespective of whether Guyger moderately assumed she was inside of her personal apartment at the time of the taking pictures and regardless of whether a fair man or woman in her position would have shot Jean in self-defense, as she alleges.
The jury identified her responsible of murder.
