DALLAS — Amber Guyger walked into the Dallas Police Department interrogation room sobbing. It is the first seconds in a video released to WFAA through a public records request.
It shows Guyger's interview with the Texas Rangers the day after the shooting of Botham Jean.
It was the first chance in front of investigators for Guyger to tell her story. Guyger was sentenced in 2019 to 10 years in prison for the murder of Botham Jean.
Guyger shot and killed Jean while he was eating ice cream and watching football in his own apartment. Guyger testified that she had entered the wrong apartment.
"It's just interesting that it exists," said long-time defense attorney Todd Shapiro about the release of the video.
In the video, a nervous Guyger sat with two attorneys on one side and the Texas Rangers on the opposite side.
Todd Shapiro is not connected to this case. He said Guyger's defense attorneys Toby Shook and Robert Rogers are stellar but said any time a client sits down with investigators, it is a risky proposition.
"If there was a crack in her armor, if there was an opportunity to show something from the video that contradicted something she said from the witness stand they would have jumped on it," Shapiro said.
The jury never saw the video because it was never admitted by the prosecution. Shapiro said if Guyger had strayed from her story the state would have used it. In the one-and-a-half-hour video, Guyger told investigators about what she did at work before returning to the apartment.
She demonstrated where she stood when she shot Jean and also showed how she tried to do CPR while on the phone with dispatch.
"It seems like the raw emotion that we saw from her on the witness stand during the trial is the same emotion you saw from this interview as well," Shapiro said.
"I still felt like that guy was going to kill me. I wish he was alive," Guyger is recorded saying in interviews with the Rangers.
The video has no bearing on the conviction or likely even the appeal.
Watch the full video below:
More on WFAA:
- Ex-officer Amber Guyger responds to federal lawsuit filed by Botham Jean's family
- 'I'm not angry, I'm disappointed': Dallas County DA defends himself against accusations from Amber Guyger trial
- Contempt case against Dallas DA to be dismissed, court records show
- Moment of 2019: Brandt Jean hugs ex-cop who killed his brother
- Jean family files notice of appeal after judge dismisses City of Dallas from civil lawsuit