Fired Dallas police Officer Amber Guyger visits with her attorneys before proceedings. Guyger is facing a murder charge in the 204th District Court at the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, Wednesday, September 25, 2019. Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean, an unarmed 26-year-old neighbor in his own apartment last year. She told police she thought his apartment was her own and that he was an intruder. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/Pool)
Texas’ highest criminal court upheld the murder conviction and 10-year prison sentence of Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who fatally shot Botham Jean in his apartment in 2018 after she said she mistook him for an intruder.
The Court of Criminal Appeals refused Wednesday to hear Guyger’s petition to review a lower court’s decision to uphold her 2019 conviction and sentence. Two justices — Judge Kevin Yeary and Judge Michelle Slaughter — filed a dissent.
During her appeal, Guyger argued that her mistaken belief that she was in her own apartment negated her culpability for murder.
Jean was sitting at home and eating ice cream in his Lamar Street apartment on Sept. 6, 2018, when Guyger, who lived on the floor above him, walked into his apartment, thinking it was her own. Guyger, who was off duty but in uniform, said she believed Jean was an intruder and shot him.
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