Trial of ex-cop who shot neighbor begins

DALLAS — A white Dallas police officer went on trial Monday in the shooting death of a black neighbor as attorneys sparred over whether the officer was distracted by a phone call when she mistook the neighbor’s apartment for her own and the victim for an intruder.

Prosecutors contend Amber Guyger, 31, was distracted by the conversation with a colleague with whom she had a sexual relationship. Guyger’s attorneys argued that she fired in self-defense based on the mistaken belief that she was in her home and that Botham Jean was a burglar.

Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia, “was doing no harm to anyone, which was his way,” Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Jason Hermus said in an opening statement.

He was in his living room eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream on Sept. 6, 2018, when Guyger entered the apartment, which was one floor directly above her apartment, Hermus said.

Guyger had worked overtime that day, Hermus said, mostly involving office work that was not strenuous.

He said jurors will see sexually explicit messages that Guyger exchanged that evening with Martin Rivera, Guyger’s colleague at the time and her former lover, that discussed meeting up after her shift ended.

Guyger had been on the phone with Rivera as she drove home, Hermus said. At one point, after she entered the parking garage, she pulled over to continue the conversation. At 9:55 p.m. Sept. 6, 2018, the call ended.

At that point, Jean had “less than 3 minutes to live,” Hermus said.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Robert Rogers rejected the prosecution argument that there were unique signs that would have signaled to Guyger that she was on the wrong floor. In fact, he said, the identical look of the apartment complex from floor to floor often led to confusion among tenants, with dozens regularly parking on the wrong floor or attempting to enter the wrong apartment.

Rogers said the floors of the parking garage were not clearly marked so it was understandable when Guyger, tired from a long shift, pushed open a door and believed an intruder was inside.

Guyger “was on autopilot,” he said of her entrance to Jean’s apartment. “She had tunnel vision.”

Rogers also dismissed as “preposterous” the relevance to Jean’s death of Guyger’s sexual relationship with her partner.

Rivera acknowledged having a 16-minute telephone conversation with Guyger as she headed home from work the night of the shooting. He said the two exchanged

sexually explicit messages and images earlier that day but denied making plans to rendezvous with Guyger later that night, as prosecutors suggested.

When prosecutors asked Rivera what the conversation was about, he said he believed it was mostly about police work but his memory of the call was hazy.

After the shooting, prosecutors said, Guyger deleted the logs of her text exchanges with Rivera from her cellphone. Rivera acknowledged doing the same thing.

Allisa Findley of New York, Jean’s older sister, testified that she was the first in the family to be informed of his death via a phone call from a hospital social worker.

“I just immediately became cold,” Findley said. “It just didn’t make sense.”

Findley said she broke the tragic news to their mother and that she still sometimes calls her brother’s phone hoping that he will answer.

“I haven’t accepted it yet,” she said.

The trial’s outcome may hang on whether the jury believes that Guyger’s mistake was reasonable, according to legal experts.

The jury, if it decides to convict, could find the officer guilty of murder or of a lesser charge such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide. The question for the jury is not whether Guyger shot Jean — that is not in dispute — but whether the jury believes it was a case of mistaken identity, as Guyger claims, and that she thought she was acting in self-defense.

Seven of the 12 jurors and four alternates are African American, four are white, and five are of other races and ethnicities.

The trial got underway around 12:30 p.m., after more than two hours of delays due to a pretrial hearing in the morning that included debate over whether Guyger’s text messages to Rivera should be entered into evidence.

The defense also questioned whether Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot violated a gag order in place by discussing the Guyger case in an interview with KDFW-TV.

Judge Tammy Kemp was visibly frustrated to learn of the interview, shaking her head.

Guyger’s defense moved to renew their motion to change the venue for the trial and asked for a

mistrial, which Kemp denied. She questioned each of the jurors and alternates individually about Creuzot’s interview. All told Kemp they had not seen it or any media coverage about the case since they were chosen as jurors.

Guyger, who was subsequently fired from the Dallas Police Department, is free on bond during the trial. She posted a $200,000 bond when she turned herself in on the murder charge and a $300,000 bond when she was arrested previously on a manslaughter charge.

The jury will be sequestered for the entire trial, which is expected to last two weeks.