Day 3 proceedings ended around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday. The trial will resume Thursday at 8:30 a.m. NBC 5's Jack Highberger and Larry Collins will cover the trial every day from the courthouse and will provide context to the proceedings in the live blog below.
Day 3 of testimony in the murder trial of Amber Guyger began with the defense cross-examination of prosecution witness Texas Ranger David Armstrong, who led the investigation into Botham Jean's death.
Before testimony began, Judge Tammy Kemp told the court she was notified that a juror had a professional relationship with Armstrong. Kemp called a brief recess but the juror remained when proceedings continued.
Armstrong grabbed the courts attention when he was asked by Guyger’s defense, "Do you believe today that you have probable cause to believe that Amber Guyger committed a crime," Attorney Robert Rogers asked. "Based on the totality of the circumstances, based on the complete investigation, no sir," Armstrong replied.
Armstrong later said, "I believe that she (Guyger) did perceive him (Jean) as a deadly threat."
During the exchange, the jury was not in the courtroom. Kemp later ruled Armstrong could not offer any testimony about Guyger's state of mind or the position he believed Jean's body was in.
Armstrong testified that his investigators found Guyger and Jean's apartments, as well as the third and fourth floors of the South Side Flats, to look similar. Photos of the similarities were shown to jurors, along with photos and a video of Jean's door that did not latch all the way.
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According to Armstrong, the door's latch was not correctly installed and when the weather was humid, as it was the night of the shooting, the door would not always fully close.
Wednesday's Testimony
Following Armstrong, Christin Noebel, a digital multimedia analyst with the Dallas County District Attorney's Office certified in video forensics testified before the court that she used phones, video sources and other metadata to draw up a timeline of Amber Guyger's movements on the night of the shooting. That timeline was shown to the jury and entered into evidence.
In the afternoon, the court heard testimony from four people who lived at the South Side Flats at the time of the shooting and who were home when Jean was shot.
First up was Taydra Jones, who confirmed for the jury that she heard the gunshots from inside of her apartment.
Whitney Hughes said she was in her bedroom painting her nails when she heard two gunshots. She said when she looked outside her door she saw the defendant Amber Guyger in the hallway. Thinking the police had already been called, because Guyger was in her uniform, she didn't call the police.
Alyssa Kinsey told the court she was sitting on the couch having a Facetime conversation with her boyfriend when the both heard two gunshots. She said she looked out her peephole but didn't see anything. She said it was silent for a few minutes before she heard a woman in the hallway calling 911.
Shanel Bly said she heard a noise from her apartment on the 13th floor, but that she wasn't convinced that night that it was gunshots. She said it sounded more like a car backfiring. Bly testified that she had a large vase and bright-colored mat outside of her apartment from February 2018 until she changed apartments in 2019.
Dr. Waleska Castro is a trace evidence examiner with the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences or the Dallas County Crime Lab. She testified she found gunshot residue on Jean's door and the stucco walls.
Dallas County Medical Examiner Dr. Chester Gwin testified the bullet struck Jean in the left ventricle of his heart, which caused him to lose blood quickly. He concluded Jean died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The manner of death was homicide.
Using a dowel stick, Gwin showed the direction the bullet traveled in Jean's body. Prosecutors said it proved Jean was standing up from his sofa when he was struck. Defense attorneys said Guyger perceived Jean as a deadly threat.
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Source/Credits: Larry Collins, Jack Highberger, NBC 5, Attorney Firms
