AUSTIN, Texas — Just months after a Texas Appeals Court upheld Amber Guyger’s murder conviction, she’s hoping the state’s highest court for criminal cases — The Court of Criminal Appeals — will review hers. Michael Mowla, Guyger’s defense attorney, filed a petition for discretionary review on Jan. 18 in her last attempt to get her 2019 conviction overturned.

What You Need To Know

  • Attorneys on behalf of Amber Guyger have filed a "petition for discretionary review" in the murder case of Botham Jean

  • Guyger was convicted of murder in the 2019 case

  • The petition is related to Guyger's assertion that she walked into the wrong apartment, thinking it was hers, and felt Jean was an intruder within 

  • Guyger is currently serving a 10-year sentence in state prison

Mowla filed the petition because:

(1): The Court of Appeals erred by affirming Guyger’s conviction for Murder because (1) through mistake, Guyger formed a reasonable belief about a matter of fact—that she entered her apartment and there was an intruder inside—and (2) her mistaken belief negated the culpability for Murder because although she intentionally and knowingly caused the death, she had the right to act in deadly force in self-defense since her belief that deadly force was immediately necessary was reasonable under the circumstances. A mistake-of-fact claim can coexist with a self-defense claim.

(2): The Court of Appeals erred by not acquitting Guyger Murder, convicting her of Criminally Negligent Homicide, and remanding for a new hearing on punishment.

In the 63-page petition, Mowla asserts that a mistake-of-fact claim under Tex. Penal Code § 8.02(a) can coexist with a self-defense claim under Tex. Penal Code § 9.31(a) and Tex. Penal Code § 9.32(a).

Petition for Discretionary Review by Spectrum News 1 SoCal on Scribd

Guyger, a Dallas Police Department officer, told authorities back in 2018 that after ending a nearly 14-hour work shift, she mistook her apartment for Jean’s. She lived one floor below the 26-year-old St. Lucian transplant and accountant. During the trial, jurors learned that moments before he died Jean was sitting on his couch eating ice cream. Her appeal rested largely on the fact that mistaking her apartment for Jean’s was in fact reasonable along with the shooting, causing her lawyer to ask the appeals court to acquit her of murder or find her guilty of criminally negligent homicide--- a lesser sentence.

However, the 5th Texas Court of Appeals court’s chief justice, Robert D. Burns III, and Justices Lana Myers and Robbie Partida-Kipness sided with the prosecution who countered the defense’s claim by saying that deadly force was not, in fact, reasonable. In the state’s response to the petition, they state “oral argument is not necessary” adding that the facts of the case are not “complex.”

“Appellant entered Botham Jean’s apartment, pointed a gun at him, and shot him. The legal issue isn’t complex either. When, intending to kill, you shoot an unarmed man in the chest while he’s sitting on his couch eating ice cream, that’s murder regardless of where you think you are when you do it.”

In its 21-page response, the state addressed Mowla’s grounds for review:

(1): A mistake-of-fact claim can coexist with a self-defense claim, but it can’t overlap it. The court of appeals correctly differentiated the statutory mistake-of-fact defense from the statutory defense of justification.

(2): The court of appeals correctly determined that there is no evidence at all that Appellant was criminally negligent with respect to the result of her conduct. The evidence was undisputed that appellant intended the result of her conduct, and her mistaken belief about the circumstances did not change her culpable mental state.

State's Reply to Appellant's Petition for Discretionary Review by Spectrum News 1 SoCal on Scribd

Guyger is currently serving a 10-year sentence in a state prison.