[MUSIC PLAYING]
AMBER GUYGER: I was alone with him,
and that's the scariest thing you can ever imagine,
that I'd shot an innocent man.
I was scared that he was gonna kill me.
Amber Guyger's a Dallas police officer
who's been indicted for murder.
Using her service revolver, she shot
and killed Botham Jean, an unarmed man
who lived in her building.
Returning home from a patrol shift,
Guyger says, she thought she'd surprised an intruder.
But there was a huge problem--
Amber Guyger was in the wrong apartment.
OMAR VILLAFRANCA: Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger returned
home after working her shift, and she apparently
thought she was on the correct floor
and going into the correct apartment.
AMBER GUYGER: There's a guardrail
and it looks over the balcony of the courtyard.
That's where I know my door is.
OMAR VILLAFRANCA: And the door was cracked open.
When she put her key in, the door moved.
And all of a sudden, I come home,
and then there's somebody inside my apartment.
My heart rate just shot up.
OMAR VILLAFRANCA: And she pulled her service weapon.
And I'm saying, let me see your hands.
Let me see your hands.
ROBERT ROGERS: What were you focused on?
Him.
ROBERT ROGERS: Just him?
Yes.
ROBERT ROGERS: And then he began coming towards you.
Yes.
OMAR VILLAFRANCA: And shot this person.
Botham Jean was in his own apartment.
He had been eating a bowl of ice cream.
One of the most difficult things about these cases
is that you learn so many good things about the people
who you represent.
You know, my only regret is that I never get to meet them.
I haven't met anyone that had anything
bad to say about Botham.
ROBERT ROGERS: We knew from day one
that Amber was gonna have to testify.
The only way to have the world understand her remorse
was to have her testify.
ROBERT ROGERS: The apartment she lived in, she
parked on the wrong floor.
We had to show that those floors are so indistinct--
there's no clear markings--
anyone else could have made the same mistake
because everything looked alike on every floor of her building.
What was your state of mind as you went down
that first hall [INAUDIBLE]?
AMBER GUYGER: I was just ready to go home.
ROBERT ROGERS: We had to put the jurors in her shoes.
We had to get them to understand the feelings of a small female
that's opening what she believes is the door of her apartment
to see an intruder in there.
AMBER GUYGER: He started coming towards me.
I couldn't see his hands.
How fast this is happening?
Real fast.
It's seconds.
They tried to portray Botham as someone
that came towards her, and that she didn't have a choice
but to shoot.
I was scared that he was gonna kill me.
DARYL K. WASHINGTON: But when you look at the trajectory
of the shot, the only logical explanation
is that when that door opened, Botham was getting up to see
who it was and she shot him.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
DARYL K. WASHINGTON: I'll be honest,
Amber Guyger made a great witness.
I mean, she came off as being remorseful.
DARYL K. WASHINGTON: The prosecution had to make sure
that the jury could not let sympathy guide their decisions.
Yes, we were.
No, I did not.
DARYL K. WASHINGTON: That was the thing
that was just the hardest for the family to hear, the fact
that she did not even attempt to save Mr. Botham's life or even
prolong his life.
AMBER GUYGER: Yes, I did go in.
AMBER GUYGER: Yes, sir.
I could have.
Yes, sir.
It was her intent at the moment she shot to kill him.
Killing this man was unnecessary and it was unreasonable.
If you find the state has failed to prove that she was
unreasonable in her belief that Mr. Jean was in her apartment
and that he was an intruder, you must
find Amber Guyger not guilty.
The jury, having reached a verdict,
Miss Guyger and your team, would you please stand?
We, the jury, unanimously find the defendant
Amber Guyger guilty of murder as charged in the indictment.
OMAR VILLAFRANCA: When they announced that she was guilty,
there was an audible exhaling you could
hear from Botham Jean's family.
[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]
JUDGE: We, the jury, assess the defendant's punishment
at 10 years imprisonment in the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice.
BAILIFF: All rise.