Former Dallas police officer who shot man in his own apartment now eligible for parole

Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering a man in his own apartment in 2018, became eligible for parole Sunday after serving half of a 10-year sentence.

Guyger shot and killed Botham Jean on Sept. 6, 2018, after entering his Dallas apartment.

Guyger, who is white, told authorities that she had entered Jean’s apartment by mistake, thinking it was her own, and that her actions were justified under the assumption that she had to defend herself. She did not have her body camera turned on because she was off duty, she said.

Jean’s killing sparked outrage and protests in Dallas, and garnered national attention amid ongoing controversies and conversations about police killings of Black men.

She was convicted of Jean’s murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison in September 2019. An appeals court upheld that conviction in 2022.

It is unclear when the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles will decide whether to let Guyger out of prison five years early. Calls to the Parole Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice were not answered Sunday.

Jean’s family reacts to the possibility of Guyger receiving parole

Jean’s family strongly opposes Guyger’s possible release., the timing of which held added significance to his mother and sister. Sunday would have been Jean’s 33rd birthday.

His sister, Allisa Charles-Findley, told The Dallas Morning News that Guyger receiving parole would be “very traumatic” for her and her family, and that having it happen on his birthday would be like “losing Botham all over again.”

Speaking to CBS News on Friday, Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, said that Guyger had caused her family “tremendous pain.” She added that Guyger should remain in prison until her sentence is complete, noting that the term she was given is “well below a sentence that one receives for murder.”

A petition to the Pardons and Paroles board to deny Guyger parole on Change.org had accumulated almost 400 signatures as of Sunday afternoon.

Other police officer parole cases

Guyger is one of just two Dallas police officers to have been convicted of murder. Darrell L. Cain was sentenced to five years in prison for the murder of Santos Rodriguez after forcing the 12-year-old to play Russian roulette in the back of a squad car in 1973. He served half of that sentence.

Former Wichita Falls police officer Teddie Lynn Whitefield served a quarter of the eight-year sentence he received for three counts of manslaughter after he killed two young women and an unborn baby in a June 2011 crash. A toxicology report revealed that he was under the influence of several prescription drugs at the time of the crash.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles approved just under 35% of parole requests in 2023, according to its annual report.