The former Dallas cop who fatally shot an unarmed black man in his own apartment has been convicted of murder.
The jury in Amber Guyger's trial delivered their verdict Tuesday morning after beginning their deliberations Monday. Cheers erupted in the hallways of the courthouse as the verdict was announced.
The jury will reconvene to decide her punishment. She could face life in prison.
Guyger had fatally shot Botham Jean on Sept. 6, 2018, after coming home from work and walking into his apartment that she said she mistook for her own.
Her lawyers argued that she simply made a mistake when she arrived at her apartment building after a 13-hour shift. They said a tired Guyger thought she was walking into her own apartment and mistook Jean for an intruder in her home. Therefore, they said, she shot him in self-defense.
Guyger wept on the witness stand as she testified at her trial, saying she feels like "a piece of crap" and repeating “I’m sorry."
“I wish he had had the gun and had killed me. I never wanted to take an innocent person's life,” she said. “I was scared that he was going to come at me and kill me.”
But prosecutors argued that she was not drained on her way home from work, saying she was making plans with her police partner, with whom she was in a sexual relationship. They also claimed that upon entering Jean's apartment, she did not experience a reasonable threat that required deadly force.
Guyger was fired from the force after the shooting.
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