$98.65 Million Verdict for Family of Botham Jean, Shot in His Own Apartment by Off-Duty Dallas Officer

On the evening of September 6, 2018, Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant from St. Lucia, was sitting in his apartment at the South Side Flats in Dallas when former officer Amber Guyger came to his door. Guyger, who lived one floor below, claimed she mistook his unit for her own and believed Jean was an intruder. She shot him once in the chest. He died at a hospital shortly after.

Guyger was convicted of murder in 2019 and sentenced to ten years in prison. Jean's family then pursued a civil rights lawsuit in federal court, arguing that Guyger was acting in her capacity as a law enforcement officer at the time of the shooting, which brought the case under the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable use of deadly force.

The three-day civil trial in November 2024 played out before U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn in Dallas. Guyger did not appear and had no attorney present. The family's legal team, which included Romanucci and Blandin attorneys Colton Johnson Taylor and Bhavani K. Raveendran alongside co-counsel Daryl K. Washington and Ben Crump, presented evidence that Jean was likely rising from his couch when shot and posed no threat consistent with Guyger's account.

After roughly three hours of deliberation, the jury of six men and six women found that Guyger used excessive force, that she was acting within the scope of her duties as a Dallas officer, and that she violated Jean's Fourth Amendment rights. The jury awarded $10.25 million to Jean's estate for his pain, loss of life, and lost earnings; $14.2 million each to his mother and father for past and future loss and mental anguish; and $60 million in punitive damages against Guyger personally. The total came to $98,650,000.

The verdict exceeded the $54.4 million the family's attorneys had requested. At the time of the award, attorneys and legal observers described it as the largest civil judgment of its kind against an individual officer in a police excessive-force case. As of early 2026, the Jean family's lawyers had filed a separate suit against the City of Dallas, arguing that Dallas is obligated to satisfy the judgment under its officer liability plan.