Amber Guyger, Ex-Dallas Officer Convicted in Botham Jean's Killing, Granted Parole After 7 Years
DALLAS (AP) — A white former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering a Black man in his own apartment — a home she mistook for hers — was granted parole Thursday after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence, a decision that is already reviving painful questions about race, policing and accountability in Texas.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, whose members are appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, denied Amber Guyger's first parole request in 2024. But as she became eligible to ask again, the board approved her release over the objections of the family of the victim, Botham Jean.
Guyger, 38, was convicted of murder in the 2018 death of Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia. Jean was eating a bowl of ice cream when Guyger entered his apartment and shot him. She was arrested three days later and fired before her murder trial.
She had faced up to life in prison or as little as two years. Prosecutors initially asked the jury to impose a 28-year sentence.
The killing drew national attention both because of its unusual circumstances and because it came amid a series of high-profile shootings of Black men by white police officers. The case also produced a memorable courtroom moment when Jean's brother and the Black judge presiding over the trial embraced a sobbing Guyger during the sentencing hearing.
At trial, Guyger testified that she had worked a long shift and was still in uniform when she went to Jean's fourth-floor apartment, which was directly above her own third-floor unit. She said she found the door unlocked, believed the apartment was hers, and thought Jean was an intruder when she drew her service weapon and entered.
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt said Thursday that Jean's family "strongly opposed this parole."
"They stood up again and again to ask that the full sentence be served," Merritt said. "A 10-year sentence was already a fraction of what was lost. Releasing Ms. Guyger after seven years makes that loss feel even smaller in the eyes of the system. It is not smaller."
In 2024, a jury ordered Guyger to pay Jean's family nearly $100 million in a federal civil trial.
In granting release, the parole board said it reviewed a "plethora" of information in her case. The board said Guyger's record did not include a documented pattern of violent or assaultive arrests or convictions, and that she had completed programs in her prison treatment plan aimed at helping her get and keep a job after release.
The board said the state prison system will determine when she is released. Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Guyger's legal defense team also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Dallas police said the department played no role in her parole request or in the decision to release her.
"The Dallas Police Department understands this decision may bring renewed attention and emotion surrounding the tragic death of Botham Jean. Our thoughts remain with the Jean family and all those impacted by his loss," the department said.
The parole decision is likely to intensify scrutiny of how Texas handles high-profile cases involving police officers, particularly when victims' families object to early release. For Jean's family, the outcome extends a yearslong fight for what they describe as a full measure of justice.
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