Dallas police officer who shot man in his own apartment indicted on murder charge

can't have what hasn't yet been brought into evidence, therefore no judgement on my part other than if she's guilty, hang her arse... no one should 'cling' to the accused's statements as gospel ...

do i believe she's guilty on it's face? yep, because she's a trained officer and training doesn't include open fire in a darkened domicile at an unidentified 'target', that alone is enough to hang her imo.

 

That is exactly what she did, what the hell do you think she was indicted for.

 

He didn't have to, she was in his home.

You are taking her story as truth, how do you know she actually went to the wrong apartment or that it happened the way that she claims. We will never hear his side of the story.

 

Who’s home did she enter?

I’m not saying she is lying. I’m saying it’s not a reasonable defense. If I fail to see a highway speed limit sign decrease the speed limit from 75 to 60, is it a valid defense that I thought the speed limit was 75? “Reasonable “ is the word we are arguing over. Botham Jean didn’t give her a reason to be alarmed. She made it up, most likely by accident, but she took an innocent life for no reasonable cause. Murder 2 as a minimum.

 

Would not surprise me if they had some sort of relationship.

 

Something was going on.

 

So....you do not have a US equivalent of our Section 24 (which also applies to manslaughter?)

 

Believe me, if I could I would. It wasn't a mistake but a deliberate act on her part.

 

Never ignore human nature.

 

Texas Penal Code 9.32
(a) A person is justified in using deadly force against another:

(1) if the actor would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.31 ;  and

(2) when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary:

(A) to protect the actor against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force;  or

(B) to prevent the other's imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery.

(b) The actor's belief under Subsection (a)(2) that the deadly force was immediately necessary as described by that subdivision is presumed to be reasonable if the actor:

(1) knew or had reason to believe that the person against whom the deadly force was used:

(A) unlawfully and with force entered, or was attempting to enter unlawfully and with force, the actor's occupied habitation, vehicle, or place of business or employment;

(B) unlawfully and with force removed, or was attempting to remove unlawfully and with force, the actor from the actor's habitation, vehicle, or place of business or employment;  or

(C) was committing or attempting to commit an offense described by Subsection (a)(2)(B);

(2) did not provoke the person against whom the force was used;  and

(3) was not otherwise engaged in criminal activity, other than a Class C misdemeanor that is a violation o



She was given no reason to believe that she was in her own apartment. Nobody tricked her or misled her and she was under no threat. I wouldn't call that a reasonable belief and an excuse to kill somebody.

 

See my previous post. #160

I think that's the applicable statute for the case at hand. I'm not a lawyer or a cop, but I study the law because I carry here and it is to my benefit to know. Whether it's murder or manslaughter, I can't tell you with any authority.

 

I have no idea what your section 24 is.

Texas Criminal Code

Sec. 19.03. CAPITAL MURDER. (a) A person commits an offense if the person commits murder as defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:

(1) the person murders a peace officer or fireman who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or fireman;

(2) the person intentionally commits the murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation, or terroristic threat under Section 22.07(a)(1), (3), (4), (5), or (6);

(3) the person commits the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;

(4) the person commits the murder while escaping or attempting to escape from a penal institution;

(5) the person, while incarcerated in a penal institution, murders another:

(A) who is employed in the operation of the penal institution; or

(B) with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;

(6) the person:

(A) while incarcerated for an offense under this section or Section 19.02, murders another; or

(B) while serving a sentence of life imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section 20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;

(7) the person murders more than one person:

(A) during the same criminal transaction; or

(B) during different criminal transactions but the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct;

( the person murders an individual under 10 years of age; or

(9) the person murders another person in retaliation for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a justice court, or a municipal court.

(b) An offense under this section is a capital felony.

(c) If the jury or, when authorized by law, the judge does not find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of an offense under this section, he may be convicted of murder or of any other lesser included offense.


Sec. 19.04. MANSLAUGHTER. (a) A person commits an offense if he recklessly causes the death of an individual.

(b) An offense under this section is a felony of the second degree.


Sec. 19.05. CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE. (a) A person commits an offense if he causes the death of an individual by criminal negligence.

(b) An offense under this section is a state jail felony.

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.19.htm

 

Is there any publicly available information that backs up this rank speculation?

 

Everything I've seen locally is just speculation and reporters trying to hypothesize to consider all options. I've heard of no "love letters" or previous interactions between the 2. I've heard that she patrolled the apartment grounds in uniform for a discount on her rent. Many cops do that in Dallas.

 

Here too and not even "patrol" just their cars being parked there and people knowing they live there is a bonus for the apartment owners.

 

They discounted any personal relationship of any kind early on.

 

How in the world could you know that?

 

CRIMINAL CODE 1899 - SECT 24
Mistake of fact
24 Mistake of fact
(1) A person who does or omits to do an act under an honest and reasonable, but mistaken, belief in the existence of any state of things is not criminally responsible for the act or omission to any greater extent than if the real state of things had been such as the person believed to exist. (2) The operation of this rule may be excluded by the express or implied provisions of the law relating to the subject.

 

That is why I asked you those step by step questions.

If it did happen in her apartment.....what is she guilty of, given the paucity of the facts known?

 

It DID NOT happen in HER apartment, what part of that don't you understand.

 

She came home after a 12 hour shift of serving warrants. She said that she mistakenly parked on the wrong floor and walked into the identical apartment to hers on that wrong floor. She lived directly above or below him. She went into an innocent man's apartment and shot him, thinking that she was in her apartment.

If it DID happen in her apartment, then she is defending herself from a burglar who had no business being in her home and I would celebrate him being killed. That didn't happen.

 

I KNOW it did not happen in her apartment. I am asking what you reckon she is guilty of...IF IT DID?

See my Post # 168 above.

 

If she entered HER apartment and there someone unknown and she felt in danger and shot him she wouldn't be guilty of anything, but she wasn't in her apartment and she killed someone on HIS apartment.

 

Good, this is progress Grasshopper. So....for the sake of discussion, now apply this Queensland Law to what you have just said:

CRIMINAL CODE 1899 - SECT 24
Mistake of fact
24 Mistake of fact
(1) A person who does or omits to do an act under an honest and reasonable, but mistaken, belief in the existence of any state of things is not criminally responsible for the act or omission to any greater extent than if the real state of things had been such as the person believed to exist. (2) The operation of this rule may be excluded by the express or implied provisions of the law relating to the subject.

 

It all comes down to the interpretation of the word "reasonable". Nobody misled her to think that it was her apartment. Nobody threatened her. Nobody switched apartment numbers or put her doormat on his doorstep. Her mistake was totally hers and it led to her going into an innocent man's apartment and killing him. I don't think it was a "reasonable" mistake. I would be convicted of murder for the same mistake.