Left: Amber Guyger (Texas Department of Public Safety). Botham Jean (Harding University).
Amber Guyger, the former Dallas, Texas, police officer who was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2019 after she was convicted of murdering 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean in his own apartment while off-duty on September 6, 2018, was just denied a chance at parole, meaning she will have to wait two more years to try again.
Records reviewed by Law&Crime show that the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole on Thursday set Guyger’s next parole review date for October 2026 after denying her a “favorable parole action.”
The reason for the denial? Guyger is still considered a danger to society.
The “nature of [the] offense” for which she was found guilty contained “elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior, or conscious selection of [the] victim’s vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety,” the board determined.
Guyger, 36, could two years from now again seek an early prison exit, but unless that happens her sentence is set to run until Sept. 9, 2029.
At trial, Guyger testified in her own defense that she entered Jean’s apartment thinking that it was her own and opened fire after she accidentally drove to the wrong floor of her apartment complex while she was distracted by a phone call following a grueling overtime work shift.
“I hate that I have to live with this every single day of my life,” Guyger testified. “And I ask God for forgiveness, and I hate myself every single day. I feel like I don’t deserve the chance to be with my family and friends.”
She added that she felt “like a piece of crap” and wished Jean was the one with the gun and killed her instead.
“I never wanted to take an innocent person’s life,” Guyger said.
Jean, prosecutors said, lived in the same apartment complex as Guyger but on different floors. He was in his own living room getting ready to eat ice cream and watch TV in the moments before he was murdered.
In the end, Guyger was convicted of murder and exhausted all of her appellate options.
Botham Jean’s mother Alison Jean expressed “relief” after learning her son’s killer wouldn’t immediately walk free.
“My family feels a sense of relief having gone through the process and made a strong petition for denial. So news coming in that the board considered our petition is a sense of elation, a sense of relief,” she told local CBS affiliate KTVT.
The report added that Jean earlier said Guyger “needs to serve her entire 10-year term” because she murdered “an innocent man in the comfort of his home, doing nothing wrong.”
Botham Jean’s sister Allisa Charles-Findley similarly told ABC affiliate WFAA that Guyger’s parole denial was “like a load lifted.”
“So we have another two years of peace before we have to go through that again,” Charles-Findley reportedly said. “I will sleep so much better.”
Prior to the denial, a petition with thousands of supporters urged the parole board to keep Guyger locked up.
“Allowing Amber Guyger to be released early would not only be a disservice to Botham Jean’s memory but also to the principles of justice and accountability,” the petition said in part. “We believe that Amber Guyger should serve her full sentence as a reflection of the gravity of her actions and to uphold the integrity of our justice system.”
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
