Prosecutors say former Dallas police officer shot dead neighbor distracted by police partner

On the first day of the trial, prosecutors claimed that a former Dallas police officer accused of murdering a man whom she mistakenly believed in her own apartment had been distracted by sending sexually explicit SMS to his partner in the police force.

Counsel for Amber Guyger, age 31, argued that she had shot in self-defense, mistakenly believing that she was in her own apartment and that Botham Jean was a burglar.

Jean, a 26-year-old Saint Lucia accountant, "was not hurting anyone, which was his way," said District Attorney Dallas County Jason Hermus. Jean was in his living room eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream on September 6, 2018, when Guyger walked into the apartment just above his apartment, Hermus said.

Fox 4 reported that Guyger was distracted by Martin Rivera, his partner in the police.

Prosecutors questioned Rivera extensively about a 16-minute phone conversation he had had with Guyger while she was heading to her apartment that night in September 2018. Asked about it , he replied that he thought it was mainly police work, but he remembered the call. foggy. Again, however, he denied that it was a project to see Guyger later in the evening.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Robert Rogers rejected the prosecution's arguments.

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Guyger "was on autopilot," he said about his entry into Jean's apartment. "She had a tunnel vision."

Rogers also described as "ridiculous" Guyger's sexual relationship with his partner, which stems from Jean's death.

Guyger was on leave but was still in uniform when she shot Jean. She told investigators that after 15 hours of work, she had parked on the fourth floor of the resort's garage (rather than on the third floor where she lived) and had found the door of the house. Apartment ajar.

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Three days after the shooting, Guyger was arrested for manslaughter. She was then removed from the Dallas Police Department and charged by a grand jury.

The jury will have to decide whether Guyger committed a murder, a less serious offense such as manslaughter or a criminal negligent homicide, or no crime at all.

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