Amber Guyger’s Murder Trial Will Remain in Dallas
Judge rules Amber Guyger’s murder trial will remain in Dallas
Testimony is slated to begin Sept. 23 as jurors determine whether Amber Guyger committed a crime by shooting and killing Botham Jean.
State District Judge Tammy Kemp ruled Monday that Amber Guyger’s murder trial will remain in Dallas.
The jury was chosen Friday. But prosecutors and defense attorneys sparred in court Monday on whether to move the case to another county.
Kemp, who is presiding over the case, had told the attorneys she would rule by the end of the day on whether to move the trial. The trial is expected to begin Sept. 23.
Neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors could comment on the judge’s ruling because there is a gag order in the case.
Jurors must ultimately decide whether it was a crime when Guyger, 31, shot Botham Jean in his own apartment. And if it was a crime, was it murder or a lesser crime such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide? They also could find Guyger not guilty.
Guyger’s attorneys wrote in a motion seeking a change of venue that “media hysteria” surrounding the case has been prejudicial.
Guyger fatally shot Jean on Sept. 6, 2018, at the South Side Flats apartment building near Dallas police headquarters. She was off-duty but still in uniform when she confused Jean’s apartment with her own and mistook him for a burglar, she told investigators. Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from St. Lucia, was shot once.
SOURCE ⇒ DALLASMORNINGNEWS
