Third announcement hearing set for Amber Guyger in murder case

Guyger will make another court appearance this Friday at her third announcement hearing.

Court records indicate Guyger’s defense team is looking into the background of the woman who shot video of the pacing, then off-duty Dallas police officer, following the shooting of Botham Jean.

“I did hear the actual shot, and that’s what prompted me to go outside and actually start recording the video,” said Ronnie Babbs, who recorded the video and uploaded it two days later after the shooting.

Babbs is a witness brought by family attorneys to the attention of the district attorney. She told her story to the online site, Advise Media Network, which was posted last month on YouTube.

“The next day, I’m looking on the news looking on social media trying to figure out what was going on,” Babbs recalled. “And I see a conflict in the story. I see it’s what she was saying and was completely contradicting to what I had seen.”

Babbs is the only witness who has come forward challenging Guyger's account of what happened that she thought Jean was an intruder in her third-floor apartment when she shot him. Guyger was not at her apartment, but at Jean's fourth floor flat.

“Witness credibility is everything,” said Demarcus Ward, an attorney who is not involved in the case.

Attorneys Toby Shook and Robert Rogers are representing Guyger. They’re now digging into Ronnie Babbs. They've filed subpoena applications with four of her former employers and are wanting to know her employment history and any termination and disciplinary documentation. They also want to know about two theft cases from 2013 and 2012 connected to Babbs.

“What they're trying to do with that is look into her background and also look into her life,” Ward said.

Ward says Guyger's defense attorneys will comb through the YouTube interview as well.

“They're a lot of things that she says in that interview, and so what they're gonna be looking for there are inconsistent statements that can go at the heart of her credibility,” he said.

Ward says it's a page from the defense attorney playbook by trying to impugn the credibility of a witness contrary to your client.

“You have to,” he said. “Any good defense lawyer would you have to look at the credibility of everybody.”