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Murder conviction upheld for ex-Dallas police officer who shot and killed Botham Jean in his home

Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who shot and killed her neighbor inside his own apartment in 2018, failed in her first appeal of her murder conviction, a court ruled Thursday.

Guyger is serving a 10-year sentence for the killing of Botham Jean, a Black man who lived in the same apartment building as Guyger and was eating ice cream in his apartment when she entered and shot him in September 2018.

Guyger, who is white, testified that she believed she was entering her own apartment and thought Jean was an intruder. She was fired from the Dallas Police Department after the shooting.

Guyger's attorneys asked the court to overturn her murder conviction and order a new sentencing and trial or replace it with a conviction for criminally negligent homicide, a lesser charge that would carry a maximum punishment of two years in jail. They argued her trial in 2019 was not enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Guyger committed murder and said she had a "reasonable belief" that she was in her own apartment.

Her attorneys argued that because she had a "reasonable belief" she was in her own home, she was acting on her right to use deadly force in self-defense.

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USA TODAY Opinion: Amber Guyger's actions were murderous but also a terrible error. Her jury understood.

The 5th Court of Appeals did not dispute the facts of the case or that Guyger mistakenly entered Jean's apartment but agreed that the jury could have determined "Guyger's belief that deadly force was immediately necessary was not reasonable."

"That she was mistaken as to Jean’s status as a resident in his own apartment or a burglar in hers does not change her mental state from intentional or knowing to criminally negligent," the court said. "We decline to rely on Guyger’s misperception of the circumstances leading to her mistaken beliefs as a basis to reform the jury’s verdict in light of the direct evidence of her intent to kill."

Guyger could raise the case to Texas' Court of Criminal Appeals, but Thursday's ruling is a setback to her attempt to receive a reduced sentence. She could be eligible for parole as soon as 2024.

Guyger's attorney did not immediately return a request for comment from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amber Guyger murder conviction upheld for killing of Botham Jean