Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer sentenced to a decade in prison for the 2018 murder of Botham Jean, has been granted parole, the Texas parole board confirmed Thursday to The Dallas Morning News.
A spokesman for the board said her request was approved this week after their review found Guyger’s record showed no documented pattern of violence, that she maintained a “satisfactory institutional adjustment” and that she completed a treatment plan that “should enhance” her chances of obtaining — and keeping — a full-time job.
It was not immediately clear when Guyger would be released.
On the night of Sept. 6, 2018, Guyger has said she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own; Guyger lived on the third floor of the South Side Flats building not far from downtown, while Jean lived on the fourth.
At her 2019 trial, Guyger testified she fired her service weapon twice, believing Jean was a burglar. Guyger, who was off duty, was still in uniform. She was fired from the Dallas Police Department a few weeks after the killing and jailed on a manslaughter charge, but a grand jury later indicted her for murder.
In her appeals, Guyger argued that her mistaken belief she was in her apartment negated her culpability for murder and that she had the right to use deadly force in self-defense.
Prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence Guyger to no less than 28 years in prison, a symbolic sentence as Jean would have turned 28 about the time of the trial.
Jean, who was devout and had a deep interest in social justice, was a native of St. Lucia. He dreamed of returning to run for prime minister.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
