Former police officer Amber Guyger had her dreams shattered once again when she was told on Nov. 18 that she wouldn’t be going home early in her latest appeal process to commute her ten-year sentence.
Guyger was convicted of killing Botham Jean in 2018 as he sat in his living room eating ice cream. The former police officer killed Jean and claimed she thought she was entering her own apartment when she allegedly mistook Jean for an intruder and then shot and killed him. She was sentenced in 2019 to 10 years in prison, but her defense attorneys attempted to get her murder conviction tossed in a Dallas, Texas appeals court in August 2021.
On Aug. 5, the court upheld the murder conviction and a panel of three state judges ruled that a Dallas County jury had sufficient evidence to convict Guyger of murder in the fatal shooting of the 26-year-old accountant. Not satisfied with the decision, she appealed to a higher court in Austin, but the Texas 5th Court of Appeals overruled her appellate issues and upheld the conviction and trial judgment.
Botham Jean’s mother Allison Jean spoke with Loop News following the decision and stated that she was surprised by the second appeal and just wants Guyger to accept her punishment.
“I think it’s time for her to settle down and accept her sentence. My family is still going through deep grief at the loss of my son. It is now three years, but it feels like yesterday. I just really wish that all of these things to be settled by now so that we can grieve properly and move on with our lives,” Allison Jean told the Jamaican newspaper.
“My family is very surprised that she made a second attempt because we were not aware of this at all. So this came as a shock to us. I believe I’m seeing from her some persistence in trying to get off and I really think that she needs to accept the judgment because by her own admission, she intended to kill my son and that is what is required of a murder charge,” she further commented.
