'How can this be?' Victim's father testifies in Dallas wrong-apartment murder trial

The father of a man who was shot dead in his Dallas apartment last year as he ate ice cream provided tearful testimony on Wednesday to the jury that will determine what sentence the former police officer convicted of his murder will serve. The former officer, 31-year-old Amber Guyger, could spend the rest of her life in prison after the same jury on Tuesday found her guilty of murdering 26-year-old Botham Jean on Sept. 6, 2018, after she mistakenly entered the apartment a floor above hers and mistook him for a burglar.

"How could we lose Botham - such a sweet boy? He tried his best to live a good honest life. He loved God. He loved everyone," Bertrum Jean said, crying hard. "How can this be possible? I'll never see him again. I want to see him!" Jean's slaying by a white police officer had provoked street protests, particularly after prosecutors initially opted to charge Guyger with manslaughter rather than murder.

It is relatively rare for U.S. police officers to be convicted of murder for shooting people they view as suspects. But unlike other recent high-profile killings, such as those of Michael Brown in Missouri and Philando Castile in Minnesota, Guyger was not on duty or responding to a reported crime when she pulled the trigger. Also on Wednesday, a friend of Botham Jean told the jury how she had met him at Harding University, a Christian college in Arkansas they both attended.

Alexis Stossel told jurors how Botham, who went on to become a PwC accountant, was an outsized personality on campus, so much so that she said he "had always known of Botham" even before she had actually met him and became close friends. "Next to my husband, Botham was my 'absolute' person," Stossel said, wiping away tears with a tissue. "People gravitated to him. It didn't matter if you didn't know him, you just felt welcomed by his presence."

Stossel talked about how Botham was a stand-out student, was deeply involved in numerous sports, academic and religious activities at university, and how he was nearly always in a bubbly mood that elevated everyone around him. "I can't imagine living life without my 'other' person," she said, breaking down.

Upon hearing that her friend had been murdered, Stossel said, "I screamed out 'wait, wait, wait!" "I called him seven times, but he didn't answer," she said.

Lawyers for Guyger will have the chance to call their own witnesses later on Wednesday.

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