On the evening of September 6, 2018, off-duty Dallas police officer Amber Guyger had just finished a 13-hour shift and drove home. She entered her apartment building, walked to her front door, and couldn't get in. Her key wasn't working, but the door was unlocked due to a malfunction in the electronic key system. Upon hearing the commotion, 26-year-old Botham Shem Jean got up to see what was going on. Guyger, seeing Jean as a threat, accused him of breaking into her home. Within moments, Guyger shot Jean dead. The problem? It wasn't Guyger's apartment. The officer shot an unarmed, innocent man inside of his own home.
Almost immediately, Guyger realized her mistake and, unsurprisingly, the news of the incident circulated in the media like wildfire. It took weeks before Guyger was officially arrested on charges of manslaughter, but a grand jury changed that to murder. Guyger's trial kicked off on Monday, and during the prosecutor's opening statements, they took a jab at Guyger's defense.
According to the former officer, she was exhausted after working such a long shift and was disoriented, resulting in her walking into the wrong apartment. However, her text messages claim otherwise, and just minutes before she made it to Jean's door, she was sexting with her Dallas Police Department partner, Martin Rivera.
The texts suggest that Guyger and Rivera made plans to get together after she told him she was "horny today" and asked him "Do you wanna touch?” However, her defense attorneys insist she was operating on "autopilot" and when she saw a dark figure in the apartment, she truly believed Jean was a threat. Guyger is claiming self-defense but if convicted, she faces life in prison.
