Dallas Police Officer goes home to the wrong apartment, kills man inside !!

[FunMonday]

Yep. This case is especially bad and CG basically nailed it. The city of Dallas/DPD has fucked up as their policies and procedures are called into question. The judge is in a compromising position with a lot of racial tension and public demands and the prosecution of all people knew not to violate that gag order. Sadly what most people do not realize is that it’s just another day in Dallas County. Corruption and incompetence at its finest. At this point Amber and the dude she killed are mere foot notes.

[cjoll]

The Texas Ranger testified outside the presence of the jury so the judge could evaluate him and his potential testimony in order to qualify or disqualify him as an expert. This is normal, and not worth the clown show speculation. A Texas Ranger is not the same as a police officer and if his experience does not substantially align with those of a DPD officer then he will not be allowed to testify as to what she should or shouldn’t have done. *EDIT* If they were attempting to qualify him as a use of force expert, he probably wouldn’t qualify as to that either due to not having specific training, research, or experience in evaluating uses of force. Investigation experience is probably not enough since the burden for investigators stops at probable cause.

As far as the juror goes, the trial was delayed again so the judge could conduct voir dire on the juror to asses the impact it might have had. Apparently it was determined to not be an issue. This happens more than people realize and only rarely results in an appeal on those grounds.

Change of venue is only proper when “great prejudice” or danger is proved by a preponderance of the evidence. This wasn’t established here. The case being publicly known and people having opinions doesn’t provide this.

The DA making a statement will also be reviewed based on the likelihood that it would impact the verdict. Simply making a statement and technically violating the order does not automatically bring repercussions.

Just a few thoughts by this Vulcanologist from Virginia

[rexdutchman]

Negligent Homicide at least , no real intent But a lot of stupid mistakes that I don't think a reasonable person would make , but we will see

[CG2014]

Recap of everything so far

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/sp...7-3d69aff27eb4

In that it said her blood was drawn at 3 am that same night to be checked for drugs and alcohol


and not 3 days later like many folks here speculated or thought.

[Chung Tran]

random thought..

if the Judge doesn't instruct the Jury that they can find for something short of Murder, and Amber is acquitted...

if I'm the Judge, I'm beating it out of town for a while. afraid some people would be looking for me. I can envision the hate speech that she would be subjected to by other black people. my Elementary School Niece told me the other day, that blacks in her school call each other "Oreo" with regularity. how much worse would the language directed at the Judge get?

[CG2014]

The prosecution rests.

Prosecutors have also emphasized Guyger’s state of mind before the shooting, sharing steamy texts she had exchanged with a former colleague to convince jurors she was distracted—and therefore negligent—in the moments leading up to Jean’s shooting. Moreover, they also questioned Texas Ranger Sgt. Adcock about the presence of blood on her uniform.
Adcock testified that investigators found no traces of blood on her uniform, and blue latex gloves in her uniform also appeared to be unused—signs, Assistant District Attorney Jason Hermus seemed to suggest, that Guyger made no attempt to save Jean’s life after realizing her fatal mistake.

She was distracted and she didn't have any blood of the guy on her uniform.


That still doesn't make her a murderer.

It's just conjecture and/or opinion.

I think she may be found not guilty of murder.

The prosecution has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that she murdered the guy.

Murder requires premeditation and willfulness with malice aforethought.

She didn't get up that day that morning and said that when she gets off work, she will go to one of the apartment of one of the residents in her building and murder the guy.

ALSO there has been NO TALK about whether she had a relationship with the guy prior to that day which means she didn't know the guy or met him before that night.

She DIDN'T KNOW HIM and she NEVER MET HIM prior to that night.

Hard to prove murder when she and he have no prior relationships, ties, and they haven't met.

All those talks about that he and her were secret lovers and so on were just that,

BS RUMOURS started on SOCIAL MEDIA

and by the MEDIA looking to SPICE UP a TRAGIC STORY

so THEY WOULD HAVE SOMETHING TO WRITE ABOUT EVERY DAY.

So she was texting her partner and she was distracted,

still that itself also does not prove that's the sole cause of her parking on the wrong garage level

and entering the wrong floor

and going to the wrong apartment while not noticing some vague and some not so vague telltale signs

that she was at the wrong apartment and on the wrong floor.

Again, if she is found not guilty of murder, it will be even more difficult for her to be found guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter.

The only reason she was charged with the higher charged of murder instead of the lesser charge of manslaughter, which was the original warrant for her arrest,

is because of POLITICAL PRESSURE and PRESSURE FROM THE BLACK COMMUNITY to MAKE AN EXAMPLE OF HER,

THEY ALREADY DECIDED IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION THAT SHE WAS GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT INSTEAD OF INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.

NOW if the situation was REVERSED and this was a case of a BLACK person, Police Officer or Civilian,

who did the same thing and killed a WHITE Person after entering the wrong residence and thinking that White person is an intruder,

and he was initially charged with Manslaughter and then the charges were UPGRADED TO MURDER because of POLITICAL PRESSURE,

PRESSURE from the WHITE COMMUNITY and PUBLIC OPINION,

You know FOR SURE the Black Community will be screaming racism, injustice and so on and they will want the prosecutors and judge removed and different prosecutors and judge reassigned to the case.

As the prosecution rested its case against Guyger on Thursday, a clear line of argument has emerged: that even if Guyger mistook her upstairs neighbor’s apartment for hers—and subsequently, mistook him for an intruder—she didn’t follow proper protocol in her confrontation with him, nor should she have feared for her life.

AGAIN, CONJECTURE!

The members of the prosecution weren't there.

They can't know how she felt and her state of mind when she saw someone in the apartment while thinking it was her apartment and he was an intruder.

All they can do is SPECULATE.


CRIMINAL CASES are won on evidence, not on SPECULATION and OPINIONS.


Look at O.J. Simpson.


All that physical evidence against him and they still were not able to PROVE BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT that he was guilty of the murder of 2 people.


It's not easy to prove murder.


It's not like you see on CSI and on weekly TV cop shows,


everything falls into place nice and neat


and it's wrapped up in 60 minutes, 43 minutes if you take out the Commercial breaks.

[Ralph Fults]

Murder does not require premeditation.

A person commits criminal homicide if he intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence causes the death of an individual.

[Lucas McCain]

All I know is that nitwit cop is completely unemployable for the rest of her life, so even if she is found not guilty, she is still going to be living in shit unless her family has any wealth to support her for the rest of her life. Or maybe she'll score a man who is stupid enough to support her so he can be shot when he comes home after a hard day at work and that idiot shoots him because she believes he is an intruder.

That dipshit should never have any access to a gun ever again... dude was high and eating ice cream. I highly doubt he was as aggressive as a blind mouse. There was no threat to her to justify deadly force... now, I'll be surprised if she even gets a slap on the wrist because of what I've read just now in the news.

[Chung Tran]

the Prosecutor did a fantastic job this morning, I was seriously impressed... but.. his best effort can't make this a conviction for Murder.. I was surprised Amber admitted she intended to kill Botham Jean.. I would have said "I was trying to stop the threat" or something.. applaud her for being straight honest.

I think it's an open and shut Criminal Negligence conviction, assuming the jury is charged to accept that. I predict they will deliberate until Monday afternoon, the trial should wrap up by 3:00 today.

I predict Amber will get a 2 year sentence. forget any previous predictions (like 6 months).

I think I would have retreated and asked for backup. it would have been so easy and preferable, the prosecutor hit on that idea brilliantly. if I walked in on an Intruder, I THINK I would do that. a few days ago I came home and a strange person was parked in my driveway, blocking me.. I had no clue who it was.. I parked and walked slowly to them.. my mindset wasn't fearful, but something was out of order.. turned out to be a Home Health Worker who was given a bad address, she had documentation that was false. I think Amber's mindset should have been like mine, "something is wrong here", but not to jump to "I have to kill this guy" in 3 seconds! technically, under Texas Law, I might have been justified shooting the Home Health Aid, she was parked in my driveway, door closed, it was dark, I couldn't tell if she was male or female, I just knew someone was on my property who should not be. it mortifies me to think anyone could justify my shooting her.

[CG2014]

https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/09/27/...kes-the-stand/

[cjoll]

She didn’t have a duty to retreat. All the talk about taking a defensive position was to do just what it’s doing here, confuse the issue and by association make the actual use of deadly force seem less reasonable. She should be convicted of manslaughter because, in my horribly uneducated opinion as a mid-Saharan botanist, she wasn’t reasonably justified in shooting based on the man standing there and not showing his hands (her story). I’ve never seen a murder charge not include, lesser included charges, but I’m also not a criminal trial attorney.

No, you cannot shoot someone for mere trespassing. This is especially true outside your home. So if you kill the minivan lady, you’ll need to decide your prison menu and rates.

[TheWanderer]

I spoke to my criminal defense lawyer friend today in another state who has been closely following the case and he said that he doesn't feel the prosecution has done enough to dispute the "mistake of fact" defense. He predicted that the defense will try to reintroduce the Texas Ranger's testimony to the jury, although he said that will probably require a separate hearing. He also said the defense will probably bring in additional experts to testify as to the lighting in the room, trajectory of the shots and other evidence that will demonstrate to the jury how all this occurred and the speed of escalation that will further their case.
In his opinion, the prosecution has an uphill battle here. However, he said juries are notoriously dumb and can rule outside the facts presented and even outside the pertaining law as instructed to them.

[FunMonday]

I only feel sorry for Amber because the prosecutor pinned murder on her when it’s obvious that’s not the case. Then the prosecutor talked to the media when instructed not to. This cheap shot should be used for a monster. Not a dim wit. And if she is sentenced I wonder how many additional years she will get just to appease the masses to minimize rioting.

[cjoll]

I agree they haven’t done a very good job of refuting the mistake of fact especially with all the testimony of other residents with stories of going to, and even inside, the wrong apartment. I wish they would have focused more on the reasonableness of her use of force. I missed a lot of the first two days and I was working on my free range penguin ranch so I could have missed something, but her story amounted to “I thought he was in my home and didn’t show me his hands so I killed him, oh yeah I was scared he was going to kill me because reasons.”

[cjoll]

Lesser included offense:

A case for those who wanted to know, the Judge can include a jury instruction for a lesser included offense even if the parties object.

https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/f...-00918-cr.html

Today I learned, manslaughter is not a lesser included offense of murder.
https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/c...d-1675-10.html

I basically just skimmed these, so if I'm wrong please point it out.