this morning former cop amber Geiger is
awaiting sentencing after spending her
first night in jail following her swift
conviction jurors deliberated for about
five hours before the stunning verdict
we the jury unanimously find the
defendant Amber Geiger guilty of murder
as charged in the indictment no
outbursts the family of the man Geiger
killed erupted in cheers she sat silent
in testimony last week Geiger claims she
had feared for her life when she shot
her unarmed neighbor both Amjad
mistaking him for a burglar in her
apartment her panics scene on police
body camera video in fact she'd
accidentally barged into his unlocked
apartment on the wrong floor perhaps the
trials key moment when Geiger was
cross-examined and pressed on her intent
at the time now the emotional sentencing
is underway
Bopha was shot late tuesday john's
mother took the stand my life has not
been the same it's just been the most
terrible time for me
Geiger faces 5 to 99 years in prison her
punishment will be up to jurors
prosecutors are showing them offensive
text messages and social media posts
from Geiger's past including jokes about
a Martin Luther King Day Parade last
year and a meme about shooting to kill
it's a sad reality that this community
waited on pins and needles to decide
whether or not someone could be fit held
guilty for killing an unarmed black man
in his home while eating ice cream
Geiger's defense team has insisted that
this case is not about race but simply a
horrible mistake today they'll try to
convince jurors to spare Geiger from the
harsh rent of those sentencing
guidelines
ivenna all right Gabe thank you so much
we bring in our NBC News legal analyst
Ari Melbourne ari good morning for you
one of the most remarkable things about
this case well everything is remarkable
about this case but it was striking that
the prosecutor charged her with murder
not just manslaughter which would have
been criminal negligence
but murder a more serious charge and got
the conviction they added that charge
and I think this goes to the way these
types of cases are being taken very
seriously it's traditionally difficult
to get juries to go that far with an
officer even off-duty we are seeing that
here and they want what evidence do you
think made the difference here to get
that more serious charge this murder
conviction on the physical evidence it
was clear that the jury accepted the
finding that this individual appeared to
be seated crouching did not a victim did
not do anything according to the
evidence presented that would appear to
support the kind of claim of oh I
thought they were charging me or had a
weapon number two as we just saw in that
reporting the prosecutors were able to
bring in other things the officer had
previously said in a different context
to be sure that didn't make her look
open-minded or good that cut into the
idea this was a quote-unquote tragic
honest mistake yeah you had those those
messages that had it certainly subdued
seem to be influenced by by race and
then you also had explicit text messages
that she had shared with someone she was
having an affair with that came into
evidence the prosecutors were saying
look she was distracted she's texting
with this boyfriend are you surprised
that that was able to come into evidence
and the juries where it was able to
consider it I think it's a great
question we've seen this go both ways in
different cases sometimes people say
wait it seems unfair to have so much
thrown in here though I think the
prosecutors were able to say look this
is relevant to understanding whether as
you just phrased it legally was this a
negligent tragic mistake manslaughter or
was this something that had that much
higher requisite intent that this was a
bad act done with the wrong state of
mind and that's why I think they were
able to get that stuff in last thing
amber Geiger the officer took this stand
she said she was obviously heartbroken
and what had happened risky move always
to put a defendant on the stand but did
they have any choice in this
but to have her tell her version of
events you're absolutely right Savannah
it's always a huge risk especially here
when the innocent victim looks so
sympathetic this was an effort to try to
humanize the officer in some way they
may have felt their case looked so bad
they had few other moves
you