Understanding State of Texas v. Roy Oliver Last week, a Dallas County jury found former Balch Springs Police Officer Roy Oliver guilty of murder in the shooting death of a fifteen-year-old African-American young man named Jordan Edwards. The jury sentenced Oliver to fifteen years in prison. The guilty verdict was justifiably heralded in the national media as historic. Nevertheless, some questioned whether Mr. Oliver should really have been convicted of murder, as opposed to a lesser offense, such as negligent homicide. Still, others felt that he should have been found not guilty at all.