From left: Amber Guyger in court. At right: Prosecutor Jason Hermus holds up Botham Jean’s red doormat. (Photo credit: CBS 11 photos)
(CBSDFW.COM) – The state has rested its case in the murder trial of former Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger.
Her defense team will begin presenting its case on Friday.
Prosecutors wrapped up their case focusing on two things:
First, telltale signs around the Southside Flats apartment building that Amber Guyger missed, but they say were too obvious to forgive her actions.
Second, her decision to use a gun if she really thought she had confronted an intruder.
A series of crime scene experts were among the last prosecution witnesses to take the stand against Guyger.
Photos of both Botham Jean’s and Guyger’s apartment were compared with the prosecutor pointing out the differences and the defense pointing out the similarities.
But the red doormat outside Jean’s apartment is what prosecutors continued to bring up as something they argue was too obvious for Guyger to miss when she shot her neighbor claiming she walked inside the wrong apartment.
Prosecutors went over every possible defensive weapon on her police uniform belt she could have resorted to if Jean were an actual threat, including a taser, OC spray, and a knife.
But an attorney for Guyger got a Texas Ranger to suggest those would not have been a trained officer’s first option.
Defense Attorney: “If an officer is faced with a deadly threat which of these is an officer taught to use as a deadly threat?”
Texas Ranger Michael Adcock: “Deadly threat would be the handgun. The weapon.”
Crime lab witnesses testified they found no blood on Guyger’s police uniform which she was wearing when she shot and killed an innocent man.
Prosecutors believe its evidence she made no effort to save Jean’s life moments after shooting him.
The testimony came from a series of crime scene experts were among the last prosecution witnesses to take the stand against Guyger.
After the state rested its case, Jean’s family left the courtroom now expecting to hear Guyger’s side of the story in the coming days.
CBS 11 has been told Guyger will testify, but it’s not clear what day.
With the argument she’s using that this was a terrible mistake, legal experts say she has no choice if she wants to be acquitted.
The defense has several expert witnesses its planning to call, and with the jury sequestered, the judge has announced plans for the trial to continue on Saturday.
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