LaWanda Clark told jurors Wednesday
during Guyger’s murder trial that she struggled with a crack cocaine addiction and that Guyger wrote her a ticket on the day of the drug bust.
Clark said Guyger treated her as a person, not as “an addict,” and said she is now sober.
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12:35 p.m.
A high school friend who played in an all-female mariachi band with
Amber Guyger says the former Dallas police officer feels “immense remorse” for fatally shooting a neighbor in his own apartment.
Maribel Chavez testified Wednesday that she met Guyger in ninth grade during orchestra practice. They later went on to play in a mariachi band, with Guyger playing violin and trumpet.
Chavez said Guyger is typically bubbly and extroverted, but that since she killed her neighbor, Botham Jean, in September 2018, “It’s like you shut her light off.”
She described her friend as selfless, caring and a protector of those around her.
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12:25 p.m.
Officer Cathy Odhiambo, who is black, described Guyger as a longtime friend and the “sweetest person.”
Odhiambo wasn’t asked about text messages introduced as evidence during the trial that indicated a lack of sensitivity by Guyger toward black people. However, another fellow officer,
Thomas MacPherson, told jurors that some of those texts sounded “out of character” for Guyger.
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11:35 a.m.
Karen Guyger said Wednesday that Amber Guyger is the youngest of three children, and defense attorneys showed several family photos to the jury.
Upon questioning from defense attorneys, Karen Guyger testified that her daughter had been sexually assaulted by an adult male when she was a young child.
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10:50 a.m.
Bertrum Jean tearfully told jurors on Wednesday that after Botham left their home in St. Lucia for college in Arkansas, he would call home every Sunday after church.
Now, Bertrum Jean said,
“My Sundays have been destroyed.”
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10:25 a.m.
Alexis Stossel said Wednesday that she met Jean when they attended Harding University in Arkansas. She says she and Jean quickly became close friends, and they both moved to Dallas after graduating.
Stossel says Jean was the emcee at her wedding and was a natural leader whom people gravitated toward.
Stossel, who is white, also touched on Jean’s sense of humor, saying Jean always insisted that she refer to him as “my black friend Botham” when posting photos on social media.
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10:15 a.m.
The judge in the trial of a Dallas police officer convicted of murder for killing her black neighbor in his home says the jury will get instruction on a legal defense that could reduce the officer’s sentencing range.
But
Judge Tammy Kemp said Wednesday that jurors will receive written guidance on the law regarding a so-called
“sudden passion defense.”
If the jury accepts that Guyger’s actions were taken in the heat of the moment, it could reduce the sentencing range to two to 20 years.
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9:35 a.m.
It was unclear how long the punishment phase of the trial would last. Testimony began shortly after the verdict, starting with friends and family of the victim,
Botham Jean.
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