Share this @internewscast.com

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas appeals court on Thursday upheld the murder conviction of a former Dallas police officer who was sentenced to prison for fatally shooting her neighbor in his home.

A panel of three state judges ruled that a Dallas County jury had sufficient evidence to convict Amber Guyger of murder in the 2018 shooting of Botham Jean.

The decision by the 5th Texas Court of Appeals in Dallas means Guyger, who turns 33 on Monday, will continue to serve her 10-year prison sentence and largely dashes her hopes of having the 2019 conviction overturned. She will become eligible for parole in 2024, under her current sentence.

The ruling comes in a case that drew national attention because of the strange circumstances and because it was one in a string of shootings of Black men by white police officers.

The appeals court justices did not dispute the basic facts of the case. Guyger, returning home from a long shift, mistook Jean’s apartment for her own, which was on the floor directly below his. Finding the door ajar, she entered and shot him, later testifying that she thought he was a burglar.

Jean, a 26-year-old accountant, had been eating a bowl of ice cream before Guyger shot him. She was later fired from the Dallas Police Department.

Guyger’s appeal hung on the claim that her mistaking Jean’s apartment for her own was reasonable, and therefore, so too was the shooting. Her lawyer asked the appeals court to acquit her of murder or substitute in a conviction for criminally negligent homicide, which carries a lesser sentence.

Dallas County prosecutors countered that the error was not reasonable, that Guyger acknowledged intending to kill Jean and that “murder is a result-oriented offense.”

The court’s chief justice, Robert D. Burns III, and Justices Lana Myers and Robbie Partida-Kipness concurred with prosecutors, disagreeing that Guyger’s belief that deadly force was needed was reasonable.

In a 23-page opinion, the justices also disagreed that evidence supported a conviction of criminally negligent homicide rather than murder, and they pointed to Guyger’s own testimony that she intended to kill.

“That she was mistaken as to Jean’s status as a resident in his own apartment or a burglar in hers does not change her mental state from intentional or knowing to criminally negligent,” the judges wrote. “We decline to rely on Guyger’s misperception of the circumstances leading to her mistaken beliefs as a basis to reform the jury’s verdict in light of the direct evidence of her intent to kill.”

Defense attorneys could still ask the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — the state’s highest forum for criminal cases — to review the appeals court’s ruling. A message to Guyger’s attorney was not immediately returned.

Source: huffpost

Share this @internewscast.com
You May Also Like

Man Convicted for Stabbing Teen 22 Times and Concealing Her Body

Background: News footage of Nathaniel Bevers-McGivney in court (KCCI). Inset: Michele “Luna”…

E. Jean Carroll Wins Another Court Battle Against Trump

Left: E. Jean Carroll, a former magazine columnist, enters a vehicle outside…

Family of woman purportedly killed by roommate initiates lawsuit

Tamilore Odunsi (GoFundMe). The family of a Texas nursing student, who was…

“Incident at Florida Motel Involving Alleged ‘Sugar Daddy’ Results in Shooting, One Fatality: Police Report”

Inset: Ronald Davis (Broward County Sheriff”s Office). Background: Plantation Motel in Plantation,…

Man Arrested in Connection with New York Child Sexual Battery Case

Staff report from Gainesville Police Department social media post GAINESVILLE, Fla. –…

Nurse Alters Plea in Unauthorized Foot Amputation Case

Background: Spring Valley Senior Living and Healthcare Campus in Spring Valley, Wisconsin…

“Who could be responsible for this?’: Firebombing attack targets new childcare center”

A newly opened childcare centre has become the target of a firebombing…

Man Arrested for Stalking and Threatening Ex-Wife and Child

Inset: Taylor Warford (23rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office). Background: The Jefferson County…

Girlfriend of Bali bombing survivor has clinic targeted in arson attack

A Melbourne skin-care clinic that was firebombed overnight is owned by the…

Tragic Discovery: Toddler Found Emaciated and Wrapped in Plastic After False Kidnapping Report

The boyfriend of a Maryland woman charged with killing her 3-year-old daughter…

Man Caught on Camera Before Shooting Claims Memory Loss: Police

Background: The apartment complex in Rochester, Minn. where the alleged shooting took…

Woman fatally shot her partner in the head, then transported the body in her car

Left: Tahj Matthias Ji’Reh Wall (Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Melvin Hopper…