She was granted parole on Thursday, two years after the state parole board denied her on first review.
By Jamie Landers, Karen Brooks Harper, Michael Cuviello
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murder for the fatal shooting of an unarmed Black man inside his apartment, will be released from prison next week, according to records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Guyger, 38, is scheduled to be released Oct. 16 from the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville.
The former officer will have served seven years of the 10-year sentence she received in 2019 for killing Botham Jean in his Cedars apartment. Guyger, who was off-duty but still in uniform, said she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own and believed he was a burglar.
Jean lived on the fourth floor; Guyger lived on the third.
Guyger was granted parole on Thursday. The decision sparked a new wave of emotion from the Jean family.
“The past eight years have been an incredibly traumatic and painful experience for Botham Jean’s family,” the family said in an official statement released Friday. “The loss of Botham has left our family forever dismembered, and that is something we continue to live with every day.”
Guyger’s parole conditions were not released but her trial attorney, who no longer represents her, told The Dallas Morning News last week that she has a job that will keep her out of the public life and a living arrangement that will stay private.
“She’s hopeful, optimistic, tremendously remorseful,” attorney Robert Rogers said. “That’s probably something she’ll always live with.”
Jean’s killing drew widespread attention, sparked protests and led Texas lawmakers to pass the Botham Jean Act, also known as Bo’s Law, to require officers to keep their body cameras on for the entirety of their participation in an investigation.
That same year, Dallas renamed part of South Lamar Street for Jean.
A spokesperson for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles last week said Guyger’s request for parole was granted after a review found her record showed no documented pattern of violence, that she maintained a “satisfactory institutional adjustment” and that she completed a treatment plan that “should enhance” her chances of obtaining — and keeping — a full-time job. She was previously denied parole in 2024.
Attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who were involved in a federal civil suit on behalf of the family that resulted in a nearly $100 million judgement against Guyger, said in a joint statement Thursday that freeing her after just seven years in prison “reopens a wound the Jean family has carried since 2018.”
“Botham Jean was an innocent man whose life was tragically taken in his own home. His family has been left to endure a lifetime of grief, and this decision only deepens the pain of a loss that can never be undone,” the statement said. “We cannot ignore the troubling message this sends about accountability when a law enforcement officer takes an innocent life.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Senior Breaking News Reporter
Jamie Landers is the senior breaking news reporter at The Dallas Morning News, where she covers crime, courts and capital punishment. She is a graduate of The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, where she studied journalism and political science. Jamie previously reported for The Arizona Republic and Arizona PBS.
Staff Writer
Karen Brooks Harper is a senior writer covering Texas politics. A Mizzou Tiger with nearly 30 years in Texas journalism, she has also covered the cartel wars along the border, Congress in Mexico City, 3 presidential races, and 6 hurricanes. Raised on blues in the MS Delta, she lives in ATX with her son, her boxing gloves, and her guitar. In that order.
Breaking News Reporter
Michael Cuviello is a breaking news reporter for The Dallas Morning News. He previously reported for the Amarillo Globe-News, where he led on-the-ground coverage of the Smokehouse Creek fire, the largest wildfire in Texas history. A graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso, he served as the sports editor for the student publication, The Prospector. Cuviello is a combat veteran who served more than a decade in the military.
