Attorneys for the ex-Dallas police officer who shot her neighbor after walking into the wrong apartment will make their case for an appeal on Tuesday.
Amber Guyger, 33, was convicted of the murder of 26-year-old Botham Jean in 2019, and she was sentenced by a jury to serve 10 years in prison.
Guyger’s legal team is expected to argue before the Court of Appeals in the Fifth District of Texas in Dallas that their client should receive a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide and be resentenced, according to Fox 4 of Dallas.
Prosecutors are asking a three-judge panel to deny the request, arguing, in part: “Because intentionally killing a man in his own apartment is murder, the State of Texas submits that Appellant’s conviction is just fine, and this Court should affirm it.”
In appealing the murder conviction in August, Guyger’s attorneys asserted she acted in self-defense since she believed Jean was an intruder in her apartment, though she mistakenly opened the door to her neighbor’s place.
“A rational jury would have concluded that Guyger was reasonable in her belief that she entered her apartment, saw an intruder who did not show his hands, and was justified in using deadly force in self defense,” her lawyers wrote.
Jean died in August 2018 after Guyger, who was off-duty, shot him as he sat on his couch.
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If her murder conviction gets downgraded to criminally negligent homicide, Guyger’s maximum sentence will be two years in prison.
