‘Justice Was Served’: Botham Jean’s Family Solemnly Welcomes $99 Million Verdict Against Amber Guyger

Amber Guyger and Botham Jean. | Source: Texas Department Of Corrections and Ben Crump Law

The family of a Black man who was killed in 2018 after a white off-duty police officer broke into his home and killed him under the purported guise she thought he was an intruder in her own apartment solemnly welcomed a nearly 9-figure judgment in the shocking shooting in Dallas.

Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering 26-year-old Botham Jean, was ordered on Wednesday to pay Botham Jean’s family $98.6 million in a wrongful death lawsuit. The amount is the combination of punitive and compensatory damages that far exceed what Jean’s family was asking for in their lawsuit.

The judgment may be largely symbolic considering Guyger remains in prison serving a relatively lenient 10-year sentence after being denied parole last month, making it unlikely Jean’s family will ever see much if any of what is now legally owed. However, Jean’s family said the judgment represented a semblance of closure and accountability.

“Whatever we do will continue Botham’s legacy,” Botham’s mother, Allison Jean said following the judgment. “And for me, that is my labor of love.”

The family runs a nonprofit organization called the Botham Jean Foundation that “exists to bring aid and compassion to our most vulnerable communities.”

Allison Jean also said that the “verdict really gives me some consolation that you saw the value of Botham.”

Botham’s father said he was “still heartbroken over the loss of my son” but that he also thought “justice was served, and we are very thankful, and we pray it will be a lesson for the authorities.”

Jean’s family had originally sued for $54,408,000, but a jury awarded them $60 million in punitive damages and an additional nearly $39 million in compensatory damages.

Fox 4 News in Dallas reported that Jean’s family felt that Guyger’s absence from the trial as a defendant “shows that Guyger still has not taken responsibility for her actions.”

Lawyers representing Jean’s family said the judgment should deter other police officers from acting so recklessly.

“This case laid bare critical issues of racial bias and police accountability that cannot be ignored,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Daryl Washington, Brooke Cluse and Gabrielle Higgins, along with Romanucci & Blandin’s Bhavani K. Raveendran, Antonio Romanucci, and Colton M. Johnson Taylor said in a statement sent to NewsOne. “Today’s verdict sends a clear message that law enforcement officers who commit crimes cannot be insulated from the consequences of their actions.”

Last month, Jean’s family made clear that they wanted Guyger to remain in prison.

“We have to deal with that sentence for the rest of our lives. So for the person responsible for taking Botham away from us just unjustly and senselessly, the logical thing to do is to have her serve her full sentence,” Allisa Charles-Findley, Jean’s sister, told ABC News. “And 10 years, to me, it’s a light sentence for murder.”

Charles-Findley also said of Guyger: “She has only been in for five years and we have a lifetime left without Botham.”

What happened to Botham Jean?

On September 6, 2018, Guyger said she mistakingly entered Jean’s apartment after a long day at work as a Dallas police officer. She says she mistook Jean for a crook and ordered him not to move. Then she shot him twice before realizing her catastrophic error. Jean, unarmed, was watching TV and eating ice cream on his sofa in his underwear.

Many people questioned Guyger’s story because of various factor, particularly her assertion that Jean’s door was ajar. Clips posted to social media by neighbors appeared to show that apartment doors in the apartment complex shut automatically, which suggests that Guyger was lying.

A little more than a year later, Guyger was found guilty and convicted of murder after less than 24 hours of deliberation following a seven-day trial.

Deleted text messages that weren’t allowed in the trial also showed that Guyger was racist.

In 2021, Guyger lost an appeal of her murder conviction after a three-judge panel ruled “The evidence is undisputed that Guyger intended the result of her conduct or acted knowingly with respect to the result of her conduct because she testified she intended to shoot and kill Jean.”

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