DALLAS — Editor's note: The video published above is a look back at Guyger's sentencing.
The murder conviction and 10-year prison sentence for Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who fatally shot Botham Jean in his apartment in 2018, was upheld by Texas' highest criminal court on Wednesday.
The Court of Criminal Appeals refused to hear Guyger’s petition to review a lower court’s decision to uphold her 2019 conviction and sentence. Two justices – Judge Kevin Yeary and Judge Michelle Slaughter – wrote dissenting opinions but the rest of the court voted to not hear her appeal.
The nine-member court has the final appellate jurisdiction in criminal cases, so the decision means Guyger has likely exhausted all avenues to appeal her conviction and sentence.
Guyger will continue serving her 10-year sentence at a prison in Gatesville, Texas. She is up for parole in 2024.
Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who represented Jean's family during the trial, told WFAA'S Rebecca Lopez that they are relieved the door has been shut on this case and Guyger can serve the rest of her sentence.
What happened the night Botham Jean was killed?
During the trial, Guyger said she had just ended a 13-hour shift when she said she mistook Botham Jean's apartment as her own.
She told investigators that she parked on the fourth floor instead of the third at the South Side Flats apartments, arrest records show. But prosecutors said the fourth floor of the garage is open-air, while the third floor, where Guyger normally parked, is not.
Prosecutor Jason Hermus said Guyger, who was still in uniform, also missed several visual clues during her walk down two long hallways.
She also failed to notice Jean’s red doormat, the only one with such a noticeable doormat on the third or fourth floor, and the smell of marijuana in his home — all indicators she had gone to the wrong door.
During the trial, it was revealed that Jean's apartment was more cluttered than Guyger's, which was sparsely furnished. Guyger's apartment had a half-circle entry table with a vase of flowers in the living room of her apartment.
She did not have a rug nor a coffee table. Jean had a large round ottoman in front of his couch. Guyger did not have any artwork behind her couch, unlike Jean.
The door was unlocked and Jean was on the couch eating vanilla ice cream and watching TV when Guyger walked in. She shot twice, striking Jean once in the lower chest. The bullet ripped downward through his body, Hermus said.
Prosecutors said Guyger was more concerned with texting her partner than with trying to help Jean. After the shooting, she texted her partner twice saying she needed him.
“She should’ve been giving 100% of her attention to that man,” Hermus said of Jean, who was lying on his living room floor while Guyger waited outside for first responders.
Guyger's keys were in Jean's door when the first officers arrived. The doors at the apartments take an electronic lock, which turns like a normal key.
Jean hadn't locked his door when he returned home from running an errand. Crime scene photos show the strike plate, which is where the door latches closed, was slightly warped.
The door wasn't fully closed and latched the night of the shooting. Typically, the doors at the South Side Flats should fully close automatically, because of the way they are weighted.
Texas Ranger David Armstrong, the lead investigator on the case, testified he tested the closing of Jean's door several times. It didn't consistently slam shut each time, he said.
Guyger testified she was so disoriented that she had to walk outside of the unit to get the apartment number for the 911 dispatcher.
Jurors had to determine whether Guyger reasonably thought she was inside her own apartment at the time of the shooting and whether a reasonable person in her position would have shot Jean in self-defense, as she alleges.
The jury found her guilty of murder.