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Texas prosecutors said Monday that cell phone records, web searches and text messages from former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, the night she killed her neighbor, were to be admissible at of his murder trial.
Prior to the opening statements, Jason Hermus, chief attorney for Dallas County, explained that such evidence "testified to his state of mind" and that she was not paying attention to her when she was Arriving in her apartment complex on September 6, 2018, was right on the wrong floor of the car park, then mistakenly entered the home of Jean Botham, 26, who she would have mistaken for a burglar.
Hermus also revealed that the texts show that Guyger, 31, had sex with Martin Rivera, his partner in the Dallas Police Force, and that she was on the phone with him while she was went to the car park turning Jean.
Prosecutors also said that Guyger sent Rivera a sexually suggestive Snapchat message during the night of filming, saying, "Do you want to touch?" and that they had planned to meet later.
Guyger's defense team told state judge Tammy Kemp that text messages and other information from her phone did not allow her to think about her, and said she was still tired work.
Kemp decided that the jury could hear about SMS at the trial.
Legal experts have previously told NBC News that the prosecution is likely to focus on the trial on Guyger's mental state the night of the shot and on the fact that she had the ability to do so. prevent the chain of events deadly.
His defense team, on the other hand, could say that John's death was a mistake without criminal intent.
The Texas law devotes a defense of "mistake of fact" in convincing the jury that Guyger made a reasonable mistake when she thought she had killed an intruder at home and exercised her right of self-defense.
The case against Guyger, who was fired from the Dallas Police Department in the weeks following the shooting, has become one of the city's most anticipated murder trials in decades. The shooting involving Guyger, a white man, of Jean, an accountant from the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, revived the discussions on racial prejudice, the use of force by the police and the worry that law-abiding citizens are not safe even at home. .
Guyger was on leave but in uniform when she entered Jean's apartment and fired his service weapon twice. She then told the investigators that she had confused her apartment with hers and that she considered him an intruder when she had seen a "tall figure" in the dark.
Guyger said that she had tried using her electronic keychain to open the door, but that it had opened.
A gag order has been put in place among the lawyers since January. The trial should therefore shed light on unanswered questions about what Guyger was doing before returning home, how long she was working and how she might not have realized that she was at the guard post. bad apartment.
According to reports, Jean's unit had a red carpet in front of the front door.
Guyger faces a maximum prison sentence for life if convicted of murder.
During preliminary motions, Kemp stated that she would keep the jury sequestered for the duration of the trial. She also reprimanded a person in the courtroom who had challenged her previous instructions against the use of electronic devices.
"Our goal is to get a fair and impartial trial," she said.
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