DALLAS _ The state presented opening statements Monday afternoon on the first day of the murder trial of Amber Guyger, who shot Botham Jean last year in his own apartment.
Guyger, 31, was an off-duty Dallas police officer still in uniform when she killed Jean at the South Side Flats just south of downtown. Guyger told police that she mistook Jean's apartment for her own the night of Sept. 6, 2018, and thought he was a burglar. She also said his door was unlocked.
In opening statements, lead prosecutor Jason Hermus explained how Guyger missed ample opportunities to realize that she had parked on the wrong floor of her apartment complex. He stood in front of jurors, but at times glanced at Guyger.
She had worked a long shift that day _ 13.5 hours _ before she left the police substation where she worked around 9:30 p.m., Hermus said.
Hermus made a point to say that Guyger spent several hours of her shift indoors at Dallas police headquarters, where she and a few other officers had transported three suspects for an interview.
"I don't want to give the impression that she was running around chasing criminals all day," he said.
Throughout the day of the shooting, Guyger and her partner Martin Rivera, with whom she had a sexual relationship, had been texting about meeting up later that evening, after her shift ended. She wrote that she was "super horny today," Hermus told jurors.
Just before the shooting, she sent him a Snapchat message that said, "Wanna touch?"
Guyger and Rivera had been in a relationship for about a year that "ebbed and flowed." It had been ramping back up around September, Hermus said.
Guyger had been on the phone with Rivera as she drove home. At one point, after she pulled into the parking garage, she pulled over to continue the conversation. At 9:55 p.m. Sept. 6, 2018, the call ended.
At that point, Jean had "less than 3 minutes to live," Hermus said.
Guyger parked on the fourth floor, backing into a spot in her white Dodge pickup, Hermus said. Then, she missed several clues, he said.
One of Guyger's former neighbors, for example, had a large decorative planter outside her third-floor apartment, Hermus said, but no such thing was on the fourth floor. Lighted signs display the apartment numbers outside each unit.
"She walks past 16 different apartments and fails to register the number 4 on any one of them," Hermus said.
Hermus held up a bright red doormat that Jean had outside his door. Guyger, on the other hand, had no mat _ just gray concrete outside her door, Hermus said.
She entered Jean's apartment through an unlocked door. Once inside, Hermus said she missed more clues.
He said Guyger failed to notice the smell of marijuana in Jean's apartment _ presumably, hers did not smell of marijuana, he said. And her apartment was very neat, Hermus said. Jean's was cluttered and missing a large table near the entryway that hers had.
He said Guyger made a series of unreasonable errors that lead to Jean's death.
"For her errors, for her omissions, Bo paid the ultimate price," Hermus said.
Guyger sat next to one of her attorneys, Toby Shook, in court. She had her head turned slightly to the left and appeared to be watching Hermus as he spoke.
The jurors appeared fixated on what Hermus was saying.
Hermus noted that Guyger sent two texts to her partner, Martin Rivera, while she was on the phone with 911. One said "I need you ... hurry," and the other said, "I f----- up."
Guyger was outside the apartment when first responders arrived.
"She should have made it her point of existence to take care of that man," Hermus told jurors.
The trial got underway around 12:30 p.m., after more than two hours of delays due to a pretrial hearing in the morning.
Defense questioned whether Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot violated a gag order in place by discussing the Guyger case in an interview with KDFW-TV.
The interview aired Sunday night, Guyger's attorneys said. In it, Creuzot spoke about whether Guyger should have been charged with manslaughter or murder based on the facts of the case. He told the station murder was the appropriate charge.
"And so this issue of manslaughter that it was manslaughter _ I wrote no, this is more appropriately a murder case based on the facts as reported," Creuzot said in the short clip. "I've studied what we have and I feel comfortable going forward on it, but I don't have any idea as to how it will end up."
Judge Tammy Kemp was visibly frustrated to learn of the interview, shaking her head. There's a gag order in place that prevents prosecutors and the defense involved from publicly discussing the case.
Guyger's defense moved to renew their motion to change the venue for the trial and asked for a mistrial, which Kemp denied. She questioned each of the 12 jurors and four alternate jurors individually about Creuzot's interview. All told Kemp they had not seen it or any media coverage about the case since they were chosen as jurors. The jury will be sequestered for the entire trial.
Earlier in the morning, prosecutors asked the judge to allow them to admit evidence including text messages Guyger sent to her partner the day of the shooting, which was later presented during opening statements.
Eight women and four men make up the jury, and all four alternates are women. The jury, selected more than a week ago, won't have to decide whether Guyger killed Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from St. Lucia. That is not in dispute. Instead, the jurors will listen to the evidence and decide if Guyger killing Jean was a crime.
And, if it was a crime, is it murder? Or a lesser charge like manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.
Guyger's attorneys are expected to argue she made a "mistake of fact": believing she was in her apartment and that she needed to defend herself from someone she thought was a burglar.
If the jury believes a "reasonable" person could have also made that mistake, Guyger could be found not guilty of murder. If they don't, the jury could find her guilty. If the jury does find Guyger not guilty of murder, they would then deliberate the lesser charges.
Murder is punishable by up to life in prison. Criminally negligent homicide is punishable by up to two years in a state jail.
Jean worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers after graduating from Harding University in Arkansas. He was buried in a cemetery by the sea in St. Lucia the same day Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall fired Guyger.
Jean, who loved to sing and was a song leader in his church, dreamed of returning to St. Lucia and becoming prime minister.
Guyger was originally arrested on a manslaughter charge, but a Dallas County grand jury indicted her on a murder charge. Dallas attorneys not involved with the case say murder is the appropriate charge because, in Texas, manslaughter is a reckless act and she intended to pull the trigger.
Guyger is free on bond during the trial. She posted a $200,000 bond when she turned herself in on the murder charge and a $300,000 bond when she was arrested previously on a manslaughter charge.
The trial is expected to last two weeks. The jurors were told to pack a suitcase with enough clothes for two weeks _ or one if they wanted to do laundry.
They won't have access to their phones during the trial, Kemp told them during jury selection.
