Photo Courtesy of CBS News
On November 17, former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger’s second appeal to overturn her conviction for the murder of Botham Jean was denied by a Texas appeals court.
As previously reported, Guyger already had a a previous appeal denied by the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas in Dallas. This time she decided to take her request to the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin but was further denied.
According to Fox 4, Guyger’s attorneys argue that her charges should be lowered from murder to negligent homicide.
The former officer’s story line since the night of Jean’s death in September 2018, is that she walked into his apartment by a mistake believing that it was her own home where she lived one floor beneath him and shot him in act of self-defense as she believed him to be an intruder.
“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.
Related Story: Former Cop Amber Guyger Will Appeal Botham Jean Murder Conviction Next Week
After hearing of Gugyer’s original appeals court loss, an attorney for Jean’s family told NBC 5 that they felt relieved after knowing the court’s decision and that they weren’t shocked by the results.
Currently Gugyer will remain in a Gatesville, Texas, prison, where she’ll serve a 10-year sentence. She will have a parole hearing in 2024.
At the time of his murder, Jean who was a 26-year-old accountant, was eating a bowl of ice cream in his home when Guyger shot him.
Following the incident, the Dallas Police Department fired Guyger and the court’s chief justice, Robert D. Burns III, and Justices Lana Myers and Robbie Partida-Kipness agreed with prosecutors, who said that Guyger’s use of deadly force was not needed or reasonable.
In a 23-page opinion, the justices also denied that evidence supported a conviction of criminally negligent homicide instead of murder.