DALLAS, Texas—A Dallas police officer who said she mistook a neighbor’s apartment for her own and fatally shot him in his living room was sentenced Wednesday to a decade in prison in a stunning courtroom scene that included the dead man’s brother and the judge embracing the sobbing officer.
Victim Botham Jean’s brother had addressed Amber Guyger directly from the witness stand.
Brandt Jean told Guyger that his brother would have wanted her to turn her life over to Christ, and that if she asks God for forgiveness, she will get it.
“I love you as a person. I don’t wish anything bad on you,” he said to the 31-year-old Guyger, before asking the judge, “I don’t know if this is possible, but can I give her a hug?”
The judge said he could, and Brandt and Guyger stood up, met in front of the bench and embraced. Guyger burst into tears. Judge Tammy Kemp also hugged Guyger before she was led from the courtroom.
The shooting in September 2018 drew widespread attention because of the strange circumstances. Media covered the shooting as part of a string of incidents involving white police officers and unarmed black men.
Jurors could have sentenced the former officer to up to life in prison or as little as two years, but prosecutors asked them to send her to prison for 28 years, which is how old Botham Jean would have been if he were still alive.
Guyger will be eligible for parole in five years, after serving half of her sentence.
At a Dallas church where the Jean family gathered to worship and Botham Jean had led the congregation singing, video of Brandt Jean embracing Guyger in court drew applause and “amens” when showed Wednesday night.
Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, a former trial judge, called Brandt Jean’s embrace of Guyger “an amazing act of healing and forgiveness that is rare in today’s society … especially for many of our leaders.”
If Jean’s 18-year-old brother “can heal and express healing in that fashion, in his words and in his deeds, I would hope that the greater community, not just Dallas but all of Texas and all of the United States, could gain a message from that,” he told reporters.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson issued a statement saying he would “never, ever forget the incredible examples of love, faith and strength personified by Botham, Brandt and the entire Jean family.”
Guyger’s attorney asked jurors to show mercy, pointing to the good she did for people, including some who spoke at the hearing.
Among them was officer Cathy Odhiambo, who described Guyger as a longtime friend who dreamed of being a police officer when they waited tables at a TGI Fridays. She said the two of them went through the academy and them came through the police ranks together.
“Everybody that knows her knows that Amber is the sweetest person,” Odhiambo said.
LaWanda Clark said she met Guyger when the former officer busted a drug house, and that it helped change her life. She was struggling with a crack cocaine addiction. Guyger, while ticketing her, told her it could be the catalyst for turning around her life. She said Guyger treated her as a person, not an addict, and that she’s now sober.
As Clark spoke, Guyger’s lawyers showed jurors a photo of Guyger attending Clark’s graduation from a community drug treatment program.
Jean’s father told jurors about how his son’s death upended his life back in St. Lucia.
Bertrum Jean said that after his son left their Caribbean island for college in Arkansas, he would call home every Sunday after church to catch up with the tightly knit family. Now, he said, his Sundays “have been destroyed.”
“How could we have lost Botham? Such a sweet boy. He tried his best to live a good honest life. He loved God. He loved everyone. How could this happen to him?” the father said, breaking into tears.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Jean’s mother, Allison Jean, criticized the police training officers to shoot to kill.
If Guyger “was trained not to shoot in the heart, my son would be alive today. He was no threat to her. He had no reason to be a threat to her, because he was in his own apartment,” Allison Jean said.
The basic facts of the shooting were not in dispute. Guyger, returning from a long shift that night, parked on the wrong floor and mistook Jean’s apartment for her own, which was directly below his. Finding the door ajar, she entered and shot him, thinking he was a burglar. He had been eating a bowl of ice cream before she fired.
