Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer convicted of murdering her unarmed neighbor Botham Jean in 2018, was released on parole from a Texas prison on Friday morning after serving seven years of a ten-year sentence.
Guyger, 38, walked out of the Christina Melton Crain Unit in Gatesville shortly after 10 a.m. on Friday, October 16, 2026, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Her early release comes roughly two weeks after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles approved her application on October 1. The board had previously denied her initial parole request in September 2024.
The 2018 Shooting at South Side Flats and Subsequent Murder Conviction
The case began on the night of September 6, 2018, when Guyger returned home following a 13-hour shift. Still wearing her Dallas police uniform, she parked on the fourth floor of the parking garage at the South Side Flats apartment complex near downtown Dallas, rather than the third floor where her own residence was located.
Jean, a 26-year-old accountant originally from St. Lucia who worked at PwC, was inside his fourth-floor apartment eating a bowl of ice cream and watching television. Guyger testified during her trial that she mistook Jean’s apartment for her own, pushed the unlocked door open, and drew her service weapon. Believing an intruder was inside, she shot Jean twice, fatally wounding him.
Police arrested Guyger three days after the shooting, and the department dismissed her from the force before the case went to trial. On October 1, 2019, a Dallas jury found her guilty of murder, rejecting her self-defense claims and sentencing her to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors had urged jurors to hand down a 28-year sentence, representing the age Jean would have reached at the time.
Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger will be released on parole today after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence for the 2018 murder of Botham Jean. Officials said she will face strict parole conditions when she's out. https://t.co/BTNVNtWutd
Parole Board Approval and Strict Conditions Governing Guyger’s Release
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles cleared Guyger’s release after noting that she maintained a satisfactory institutional adjustment, lacked any documented pattern of violent or assaultive arrests, and completed required rehabilitation programs intended to help her secure stable employment.
Because she is leaving prison early, Guyger will remain under strict parole supervision until her sentence officially expires in September 2029. Her mandatory conditions include regular check-ins, travel restrictions, home visits, and employment verification. State regulations bar her from residing in Dallas County, attempting to contact the Jean family or Dallas police officers, or leaving Texas without explicit permission from her parole officer.
Before her release, her former trial attorney Robert Rogers told local reporters that his client had secured housing and employment arrangements designed to keep her out of public view. Rogers reiterated that she remains remorseful for the shooting.
Family and Community Condemn Early Parole Release
The parole decision reopened deep wounds for Botham Jean’s family and local civil rights advocates. Lee Merritt, an attorney who previously represented the family, issued a sharply critical statement regarding the early release.
Botham’s family and the community strongly opposed this parole. They stood up again and again to ask that the full sentence be served. A 10-year sentence was already a fraction of what was lost. Releasing Ms. Guyger after seven years makes that loss feel even smaller in the eyes of the system. It is not.
Lee Merritt, attorney
In a statement, the family asked for privacy following what would have been Botham’s 35th birthday, expressing gratitude to supporters who continue to keep his memory alive.
The Dallas Police Department released a statement acknowledging that the release would bring renewed emotion and attention to the case, while emphasizing that parole decisions rest entirely with the state board and fall outside departmental authority.
Beyond her criminal sentence, Guyger continues to face substantial financial accountability. In 2024, a federal civil jury found her liable for Jean’s death and ordered her to pay his family nearly $100 million in damages.
