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An appeals court in Texas upheld former Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger’s 2019 murder conviction on Thursday despite her claims that the charge should be lessened to criminally negligent homicide, according to reports.
Guyger argued she shouldn’t have been convicted of murder because she mistook neighbor Botham Jean's apartment for her own when she walked in, saw him on the couch and fatally shot him, the Dallas Morning News reported.
She testified during the trial that she fired at Jean with the intent to kill because she thought he had broken into her third-floor apartment after she’d arrived home from work around 10 p.m. She had gone to the fourth floor instead.
"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 Fifth District Court of Appeals Justices Lana Myers, Robbie Partida-Kipness and Chief Justice Robert D. Burns III 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."
A demonstrator holds a sign for Botham Jean while marching during a demonstration on June 9, 2020, in Revere, Massachusetts. (Getty Images)
Guyger was sentenced to 10 years for shooting her upstairs neighbor while he ate ice cream on his own couch on Sept. 6, 2018. He was unarmed.
Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years for shooting her upstairs neighbor while he ate ice cream on his own couch on Sept. 6, 2018. He was unarmed.
She told the appeals court her murder conviction should be replaced with the lesser charge, which carries a maximum two-year sentence. She could have been sentenced to a maximum of 99 years, according to The New York Times.
Prosecutors had asked for her to be sentenced to at least 28 years, the age Jean would have turned during the trial.
Her appeals lawyer argued she shot in self-defense, according to the Morning News.
Both Guyger and another officer testified in the trial that she could have alternatively retreated and called for backup or checked to see if Jean was armed and taken cover, the Morning News reported.
She can now appeal to the state’s highest criminal court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
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Despite her conviction, Jean’s brother immediately offered her forgiveness in court.
"I wasn’t going to ever say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don’t even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you," he said before sweeping her into a hug, according to The Times.
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