Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday afternoon for the Sept. 6, 2018 murder of her 26-year-old neighbor upstairs neighbor Botham Jean.
As ESSENCE previously reported, on the night that Guyger murdered Botham Jean, she claimed that she was so exhausted after working a 14-hour day that she parked on the 4th floor of the South Side Flats apartment building, instead of the 3rd floor.
Consequently, Guyger claims that she walked down the wrong hallway and mistakenly entered apartment number 1478–Botham Jean’s apartment, instead of her apartment 1378—and killed him because she perceived him as a dangerous threat.
During the hearing Wednesday, Guyger’s text messages and social media posts were allowed to fact into the sentencing decision. Those messages included texts in which Guyger joked about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In another text to a friend, Guyger admitted that she was racist.
Guyger faced 20 years to life in prison.