Update: The Ex Dallas Police officer has been convicted of murder!
The punishment phase of Amber Guyger’s murder trial began Tuesday afternoon, two hours after a Dallas jury found the former police officer guilty of murder according to Fox News
The jury took only five hours to decide that Guyger, a white cop who shot her black neighbor Botham Jean when she mistook his apartment for hers, was guilty of murder. She was the first Dallas police officer to be convicted of murder since the 1970s and faces up to 99 years in prison.
The jury first heard from Jean’s mother, Allison. Prosecutors walked her through several pictures of her son during various stages of his life. Allison Jean spoke fondly of her son’s academic and extracurricular accomplishments as well as his commitment to his church.
After the judge read the guilty verdict around noon, Jean’s sister sobbed while his mother raised her fists in the air and said, “God is good.”
The cheif of the department to which the officer who shot and killed her neighbor in his apartment has posted to twitter about the fate of the officer involved earlier this year.
Prosecutors said Jean was watching television and eating a bowl of ice cream in his living room when Guyger burst inside. Prosecutors said the trajectory of the bullets showed that Jean either was getting up from his couch or was cowering when Guyger fired her service weapon….
FoxNews Originally reported that Amber Guyger, the Dallas police officer who was fired earlier this year following the fatal shooting of her black neighbor inside his apartment, was indicted by a grand jury Friday on a murder charge, according to court records.
Guyger was arrested and initially charged with manslaughter in September in connection with the shooting of 26-year-old Botham Jean, a native of the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia who was employed at the accounting and consulting firm PwC in Dallas.
The online records from Dallas County were posted ahead of a news conference in which authorities announced the decision of the grand jury.
The former police officer shot Jean on the night of Sept. 6 when she returned to her home after ending her shift, according to investigators. She reported the shooting to dispatchers and told responding officers that she had mistaken Jean’s apartment for her own.
Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson on Friday thanked and praised the grand jury for the “diligence they have given to this case.”
“We presented the evidence and we explained the law,” she said.
The district attorney’s office made sure its investigative efforts were thorough “so we would know all the pieces of evidence we need to take before the grand jury,” Johnson said.
She added that she believed Jean’s family were “very happy” with the indictment.
Members of Jean’s family spoke to reporters after the district attorney, including his parents. His mother said she was “satisfied” with the murder indictment “because I truly believe that she inflicted tremendous evil on my son.”
“I look forward to the next step, which is a conviction of murder of Amber Guyger and more so, of a penalty, the proper penalty, that will cause her to reflect on what she has done and the pain that she has caused, not only my son, but my family, my church, my country,” she said.
Her husband took the microphone next, saying that their family is “hurting deeply” but take solace by the indictment.
“We really hope that our hearts will be comforted even more,” he said. “It is such a hard thing to go through. We miss our boy dearly. He…