The Eyrie

DALLAS, TX — Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger is set to be released on parole Friday after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence for the murder of Botham Jean.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles approved her release after previously denying her first parole request in 2024. The decision came over the objections of Jean’s family, who had urged the board to make her serve the full sentence.

Guyger, now 38, was convicted in the 2018 killing of Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from St. Lucia, after she walked into his apartment and shot him. Jean had been eating ice cream when she entered the home.

How the shooting unfolded inside the wrong apartment

At trial, Guyger said she returned home after a long shift, still in uniform, and went to the fourth-floor apartment above her own third-floor unit. She testified that she found the door unlocked and believed she had entered her own apartment.

According to that account, she thought Jean was an intruder when she drew her service weapon and fired. The case centered on that mistaken entry and the fatal shooting inside a place she said she believed was hers.

Guyger was arrested three days after the shooting and later fired from the Dallas Police Department before her murder trial. She had faced a possible life sentence and as little as two years behind bars.

A case that drew national attention and grief

The killing drew wide attention because of the unusual circumstances and because it came amid a series of police shootings involving Black men and white officers. The case quickly became one of the most closely watched criminal trials in the country.

Prosecutors initially asked jurors to sentence Guyger to 28 years in prison. Instead, the court imposed a 10-year sentence after her murder conviction.

Her sentencing hearing also drew intense public interest after Jean’s brother and the Black judge presiding over the case embraced a sobbing Guyger in the courtroom, a moment that spread far beyond Dallas.

Family opposition and civil rights criticism followed the parole decision

Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt said Thursday that Jean’s family strongly opposed Guyger’s parole. He said they had repeatedly asked that she serve the full term because the sentence was already far less than what the family had lost.

Merritt said releasing Guyger after seven years made the loss feel even smaller in the eyes of the justice system, while making clear that the family did not see it that way. The parole decision renewed anger around a case that has remained deeply painful for Jean’s relatives.

In 2024, a jury also ordered Guyger to pay Jean’s family nearly $100 million in a federal civil trial, adding another major legal outcome to the case.

Texas parole board cites prison record and release planning

In explaining the decision, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles said it reviewed a “plethora” of information in Guyger’s case. The board said her record did not show a documented pattern of violent or assaultive arrests or convictions.

It also said she completed programs in her prison treatment plan that were designed to help her get and keep a job after release. Those findings helped support the board’s decision to approve parole after her first request had been rejected a year earlier.

The board is appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, though the governor was not part of the release decision itself. Guyger became eligible to seek parole again this year and received approval on her second try.

Dallas police distance the department from the release

The Dallas Police Department said it played no role in Guyger’s parole request or the board’s decision. In a statement, the department said it understood the release would bring renewed attention and emotion around Jean’s death.

Police added that their thoughts remained with the Jean family and everyone affected by the loss. The department’s response reflected how the case still resonates in Dallas years after the shooting and the conviction.

Guyger’s release Friday will close one chapter of the criminal case, but the broader fallout from Jean’s death, the parole approval and the civil verdict is likely to continue drawing attention.