Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering Botham Jean inside his own apartment, was released from prison on parole Friday after serving seven years of her 10 year sentence.
Guyger, 38, walked out of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility in Gatesville a little after 10 a.m. She was released into community supervision with her parole papers, a temporary ID, and a prepaid card or check for the money left in her inmate account. She will have to follow her parole conditions until September 2029.
On Sept. 6, 2018, Guyger came home from a long shift, got off on the wrong floor of her apartment building, and walked into Jean’s apartment, which was directly above her own. Jean, a 26 year old accountant from St. Lucia, was on his couch eating a bowl of ice cream. Guyger said she believed she was in her own home and that a stranger was inside, and she shot and killed him.
Guyger was arrested three days later and fired from the Dallas Police Department before her trial. In October 2019, a jury convicted her of murder and sentenced her to 10 years in prison, far less than the 28 years prosecutors asked for. The sentencing ended with a moment that was debated for years afterward, when Jean’s brother and the judge presiding over the case both embraced Guyger in the courtroom.
Amber Guyger first went up for parole in 2024 after serving half her sentence. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied her then, saying she was not rehabilitated or ready for release. More than 6,000 people signed an online petition opposing her parole that year.
This time, the board approved it. The board said Guyger had a satisfactory record while incarcerated, no documented pattern of violent or assaultive arrests or convictions, and had completed the programs in her treatment plan meant to help her get and keep a job after release.
Jean’s family fought the decision and asked the board to make Guyger serve her full sentence. The parole news came just days after what would have been Botham Jean’s 35th birthday. “The loss of Botham has left our family forever dismembered, and that is something we continue to live with every day,” the family said in a statement.
The Next Generation Action Network, a North Texas civil rights group, said it was outraged by the decision. The Dallas Police Department said in a statement that it understands the decision may bring renewed attention and emotion surrounding Jean’s death.
Guyger’s trial attorney, who no longer represents her, told The Dallas Morning News that she has a job and a living arrangement lined up that will keep her out of public life. Her attorney Robert Rodgers told CBS News Texas earlier this month that she still feels regret over the shooting.
Amber Guyger’s legal troubles are not completely behind her. In 2024, a jury in a federal civil trial ordered her to pay Jean’s family nearly $100 million.
