Amber Guyger Sentenced After Verdict: Watch Live

FacebookAmber Guyger is being sentenced.

Amber Guyger, a former Dallas police officer, was found guilty of murder for shooting a Saint Lucian businessman in his own apartment. Now, a judge is passing sentence. You can watch the live video later in this article.

Guyger had just gotten off work from her job as a Dallas police officer after a night of overtime when she barged into the apartment of Botham Shem Jean, a stranger to her, and shot and killed the promising man, who sang in church and was the son of prominent parents from Saint Lucia. Guyger’s argument was that she was overtired and mistakenly thought Jean’s apartment was her own.

He wasn’t doing anything wrong; Jean was just eating ice cream and watching TV when he was shot. Jurors rejected Guyger’s contention that she was operating in self defense because she thought he was an intruder. She used her service weapon to shoot him. The judge allowed the jury to consider a Castle Doctrine or Stand Your Ground defense for Guyger as well as whether she was guilty of murder or manslaughter. The jurors chose murder.

FacebookAmber Guyger and Botham Jean. Jean didn’t know the Dallas cop, reports say.

According to NBC Dallas, Guyger could face between 5 and 99 years in prison on a murder conviction. She could have faced between 2 and 20 years in prison on a manslaughter conviction. Jurors asked for definitions of manslaughter and the Castle Doctrine at one point in their deliberations.

Watch the sentencing phase:

The Castle Doctrine allows a person to use deadly force to protect their own home; but Guyger wasn’t in her own home. Thus, Prosecutors argued that the Castle Doctrine should only have applied to Jean, not Guyger, because he was the one in his own home. Guyger’s defense team labeled the shooting the culmination of “a series of horrible mistakes.” The Texas jury started deliberating on September 30, 2019.

The prosecutor read the jury one of Guyger’s statements: “I never want anybody to have to go through or even imagine going through what I felt that night.” He then retorted: “Are you kidding me?”

On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on the murder charge. The case has increased racial tensions because Jean was black and Guyger white.

Botham Shem Jean was from a prominent Saint Lucian family of parliamentarians and government ministers. He was also a recent college graduate who studied accounting and was known for his leadership on campus and his beautiful singing voice in his Christian Church.

Here’s what you need to know:

Guyger Cried in Court But Prosecutors Didn’t Buy Her Story

Guyger took the stand in her own defense at trial. “I was scared this person in this apartment was going to hurt me, and I’m so sorry,” an emotional Guyger testified. “…I have to live with that every single day. No police officer would ever want to hurt an innocent person.”

According to NBC News, Guyger lived one floor above Jean in the apartment complex. He was likely startled when she burst into his apartment and was either getting up from the sofa or “cowering” when Guyger shot him, prosecutors argued.

For her part, Guyger alleged Jean came toward her and shouted “Hey! Hey! Hey!” according to NBC.

For his part, the prosecutor, Jason Fine, told the jury, “A guilty verdict in this case does not mean you hate police.” He alleged that Guyger should have known that she was entering the wrong apartment. According to the Dallas Morning News, Fine ticked off several clues that Guyger missed, including a red mat in front of Jean’s door. “…she should’ve known she was in the wrong apartment,” he told the jury.

Fine said that Guyger’s fears were not reasonable. “It sounds so absurd all the things that she missed and all the things that she thought and yeah she thinks it but she is not a reasonable person,” he said to the jury.

Assistant District Attorney Jason Hermus said: “Killing this man was unnecessary and it was unreasonable.” Cheers erupted in the courthouse hallway as prosecutors left. “There was no other floor mat like this is the entire building. This sticks out, literally, like a red thumb,” Hermus said, showing jurors the red floor mat. “And she walked up to it and stood on top of it.”