The murder trial for an ex-Dallas police officer who is accused of murdering a man in his own apartment after she mistook it for her own, was distracted at the time of the shooting because she was sending sexually explicit text messages to her partner on the force, prosecutors revealed on Monday.
Attorneys for Amber Guyger, 31, contends that the former police officer fired in self-defense based on the belief that she had entered her own apartment and that the victim, Botham Jean, was a burglar. Prosecutors say Guyger failed at every opportunity to prevent the fatal shooting the night of Sept. 6, 2018. Guyger was initially charged with manslaughter, but a Dallas grand jury later indicted the former officer in November 2018 on a murder charge.
On Monday, prosecutors introduced Guyger's cell phone records, including texts, and web searches from the night of the shooting. According to lead prosecutor Jason Hermus, the texts show that Guyger had been engaged in a relationship with Martin Rivera, her partner at the Dallas Police Department and that she was speaking with him that night in a phone call that lasted 16-minutes the night of the incident.
Guyger also reportedly sent Rivera a sexually suggestive Snapchat message that read, "Wanna touch?" and that the pair had made plans to meet up later that night.
Defense attorney Robert Rogers said that Guyger thought of Rivera as her 'rock' and they'd developed their relationship while partnered up had been "ramping down" because she was looking for something more stable. Rogers also dismissed prosecutor's arguments that Guyger had been distracted at the time of the shooting and that instead, she was tired and acting on "autopilot."
"What was going through Amber's mind was that, 'I'm done with my day's work. I'm going home,'" Rogers said.
Guyger's state of mind is expected to be a major point of contention for the jury in their decision whether that the former police officer committed murder, or whether it was a lesser offense, such as manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide or even no crime at all. Texas law allows the jury to consider a 'mistake of fact' defense, in which Guyger made a reasonable error when she believed she was killing an intruder in her own home and exercising her right to self-defense.
Guyger was off duty at the time of the shooting but still in her uniform when she got into Jean's apartment and fired her service weapon twice. The apartment's doors are opened using key fobs, which Guyger said she tried to use, but, the door pushed open. Following the shooting, Guyger was arrested for manslaughter, and later fired by the Dallas Police Department.