Trial Begins for Ex-Dallas Cop Who Shot Neighbor in His Own Home
The ex-Dallas cop opening statements are set to begin Monday in the murder trial of a white police officer accused of shooting her black neighbor in his Dallas apartment.
Amber Guyger, 31, is expected in a city courthouse Monday morning, where she will stand trial for the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Botham Jean last year.
The case has attracted intense national scrutiny for its strange circumstances and as one in a chain of shootings of black men by white police officers.
Lawyers for Guyger are likely to argue she fired in self-defense based on the mistaken belief that she was in her own apartment and that Jean, an accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia, was a burglar.
The case may hang on whether the jury believes that this was a reasonable mistake, according to legal experts.
Twelve jurors and four alternatives were selected to hear the case earlier this month, but their demographics aren’t yet public.
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Guyger was off duty but still in uniform when she shot Jean in his home.
She told investigators that after a 15-hour shift she parked on the fourth floor of her apartment complex’s garage — rather than the third floor, where she lived — and found the apartment’s door ajar.
Three days after the shooting, Guyger was arrested for manslaughter.
Ex-Dallas Cop was subsequently fired from the Dallas police department and charged by a grand jury with murder.
The jury will have to decide whether Guyger committed murder, a lesser offense such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, or no crime at all.
