Amber Guyger, the white former Texas police officer convicted of killing her Black neighbor, has been released from prison after serving seven years.
Guyger, a former Dallas officer, was approved for parole on Thursday. She had been serving a 10-year sentence for the 2018 shooting death of Botham Jean.
Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, was shot and killed by Guyger, who is now 38, on the night of September 6, 2018.
Guyger said she was off duty but still wearing her police uniform when she mistakenly entered Jean’s apartment, believing it was her own. She told authorities she fired after thinking he was an intruder.
A jury convicted Guyger of murder in October 2019, and she was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The precise date of her release from the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, located roughly 40 miles from Waco, has not been made public.
Guyger was denied parole in 2024. However, a board spokesperson told The Dallas Morning News that her latest petition was approved because her prison record did not show a documented pattern of violent behavior.
The parole board also cited Guyger’s “satisfactory institutional adjustment” and her completion of a treatment program intended to improve her prospects of securing and keeping full-time employment, according to the newspaper.
Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer, was granted parole Thursday after receiving a 10-year sentence for the death of Botham Jean
Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, was fatally shot by Guyger on September 6, 2018
Lee Merritt, the civil rights attorney who represented Jean’s family, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the parole decision.
“Botham’s family and the community strongly opposed this parole,” Merritt said in a statement.
“They stood up again and again to ask that the full sentence be served. Releasing Ms. Guyger after seven years makes that loss feel even smaller in the eyes of the system. It is not smaller.”
Guyger previously said she became confused about which apartment was hers. She lived on the third floor of the building, while Jean’s home was directly above hers on the fourth floor.
Believing Jean was an intruder, the former officer fired two shots.
Though she was not on duty, Guyger was still wearing her uniform and used her service firearm during the shooting.
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Dallas police dismissed her several weeks after Jean’s death, and she was initially charged with manslaughter.
A grand jury later indicted Guyger on a murder charge. At trial, she maintained that mistakenly believing she was inside her own apartment supported her claim that the shooting was an act of self-defense.
Lee Merritt, the civil rights attorney who represented Jean’s family, said he was “deeply disappointed” by Guyger’s parole decision; she is pictured testifying in 2019
Jean has been remembered as a devout Catholic with a deep commitment to social justice
During her trial, prosecutors pointed to a series of text messages that Guyger exchanged with her partner, Officer Martin Rivera, at the time of the shooting.
Rivera, who was in a sexual relationship with Guyger, told the court that he would often send her provocative images of himself.
Just hours before the killing, the two of them sent sexually explicit messages to each other, including one where Guyger told her partner that she was ‘super horny today,’ NBC News reported.
She had worked a 13-and-a-half-hour shift that day, and at about 9.30pm, she sent a Snapchat message to Rivera that read: ‘Wanna touch?’ according to the report.
Guyger called 911 that night, and Jean was alive when officers and paramedics arrived, but he could not communicate.
Earbuds were found next to him in the home, suggesting that he might have had them on when Guyger entered his home. He was also eating ice cream when she came inside.
The case and Guyger’s trial garnered national attention, especially when Jean’s brother hugged her and said: ‘I forgive you.’
‘I love you as a person and I don’t wish anything bad on you,’ Brandt Jean, then 18, told Guyger at the time.
Another unlikely embrace then took place between Guyger and the judge who presided over her case.
After the trial wrapped up and she gave the ex-cop her sentence, Judge Tammy Kemp walked over and handed Guyger a bible.
She then wrapped her arms around Guyger and said something to her as they prayed together, The Texas Tribune reported.
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