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(CNN) - A jury found former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger guilty of murder after less than 24 hours of deliberation. Guyger was charged last year after fatally shooting his unarmed neighbor, Botham Jean, in her apartment, which she said she confused with his.
Jurors had the option of convicting Guyger of the misdemeanor of involuntary manslaughter. With the murder conviction, Guyger, 31, now faces life imprisonment.
The verdict follows a case that has captured national attention in the US. and that caused outrage. Guyger, who is white, testified that he parked on the wrong floor of the Dallas apartment complex where he lived on September 6, 2018. Then he walked to the apartment directly above his own - which belonged to Jean, who was black - and shot when She met Jean.
Prosecutors said Jean had been on the couch in shorts, watching television and eating vanilla ice cream when Guyger entered.
Although the issue of race did not occupy a prominent place in the trial itself, outside the courtroom, Jean's case had become a focal point in the national conversation about surveillance and the threat of violence faced by women. People of color in daily life.
After the verdict, S. Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Jean's family, called the murder conviction a "great victory" not only for the victim's family but also "for blacks in the United States." Few police officers face trial for death shots, and even fewer are convicted.
Jean's mother briefly threw both arms in the air. Another woman who started screaming in praise was punished by a court officer. Jean's family members sobbed. There were hugs between family members and prosecutors after the jury left the courtroom.
The exagent, with her head down, cried at the defense table. His mother collapsed in the courtroom.
'I wish he had been the one with the gun'
In uniform but out of service, Guyger testified last week that he wanted to "find the threat" after hearing movements in his apartment. She said she saw the silhouette of a man and demanded to see his hands. He approached on a “fast walk,” he added, and shot twice what he thought was an intruder.
Prosecutor Jason Hermus told the jury that the bullet's trajectory suggests that Jean was rising from a chair when Guyger shot, or was on his knees, trying to hide from it. Experts have not been able to determine Jean's exact position when he was shot.
A bullet wounded and killed Jean. A coroner testified that the bullet entered just above Jean's upper left nipple and traveled down, damaging his heart and several other major organs before landing on the psoas muscle.
"I apologize to God and hate myself every day," Guyger told the jury, his voice shaking. “I wish he had been the one with the gun that killed me. I never wanted to take the life of an innocent person. ”
Guyger was distracted that night, prosecutors argued, texting with his married police mate, with whom he had had sex. They said she ignored numerous signs in the hallway leading to Jean's apartment that indicated she was on the wrong floor.
Hermus also criticized Guyger for entering the department instead of stepping back and seeking coverage or asking for help on his police radio. He argued that she did not give enough first aid to Jean.
"When you aimed and pulled the trigger against Mr. Jean, shooting him in the center mass, exactly where you are trained to do it, your intention was to kill Mr. Jean," said Hermus.
"I did it," Guyger said.
Speaking on the phone with a 911 operator that night, Guyger said 19 times he thought he had been in his apartment. Guyger said he performed a "small" resuscitation maneuver and a sternum massage on Jean.
Hermus said she never used first aid supplies from her backpack. Guyger testified that his mind was agitated while talking on the phone with a 911 operator. She said it did not occur to her that she had first aid supplies.
Texas ranger David Armstrong, the principal investigator, said in court last week, while the jury was not in the courtroom, that he believed that Guyger's actions were reasonable and that she did not commit murder, manslaughter or wrongful death. The judge did not allow him to offer his opinion before the jury.
Guyger was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter in September 2018, but an investigative jury later charged her with murder. The Dallas Police Department fired Guyger.
The trial was full of dramatic and emotional moments, while lawyers reproduced graphic images of the police body camera trying to resurrect Jean and read explicit sexual messages between Guyger and his police partner.
Murder
