Three former Memphis officers were found guilty Thursday of witness tampering charges in the 2023 fatal beating of Tire Nichols, and two were acquitted of federal civil rights violations in a death that sparked national protests and calls for broad changes in policing.
Jurors deliberated for about six hours before returning with a mixed verdict for Tadarius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith.
They were all convicted of at least one charge, but Penn and Smith were acquitted of civil rights charges. Healy was acquitted of violating Nichols’ civil rights causing death, but was found guilty of the lesser charge of violating his civil rights causing bodily injury.
The court remained silent while the rulings were read.
The judge ordered the officers detained, but planned to hold a hearing on Monday to hear from defense lawyers about releasing them pending sentencing. Witness tampering charges carry potential penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
“A win is a win,” Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, told The Associated Press outside the courtroom. They will all go to prison.”
Five officers were charged in Nichols’ death, but two of them pleaded guilty and testified against members of the old Crime Suppression Unit, eliminating any defense strategy that would have relied on them sticking together. Jurors repeatedly watched clips from police video that showed officers punching and kicking Nichols and hitting him with a police baton just steps from his home, while the 29-year-old called for his mother.
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Prosecutors said Nichols was beaten for fleeing a traffic stop, saying it was part of a common police practice referred to in officers’ slang as a “street tax” or running tax. They said the officers lied — to a supervisor, to medical professionals treating Nichols and in required written reports — about the extent of force they used.
Nichols, who is black, ran from the traffic stop despite being beaten with pepper spray and tasered. The five officers, who were fired after the beating, are also black.
Some of the most emotional testimony at trial came from one of the officers, Desmond Mills, who agreed to a plea deal in which prosecutors asked for up to 15 years in prison. He tearfully testified that he regretted the beating, that he left Nichols’ young son an orphan and that he wished he had stopped the punches. Later, he testified that he agreed to the cover-up in hopes that Nichols would survive and the whole thing would “blow up.”
Nichols died on January 10, 2023, three days after the beating. His son is now 7 years old.
The other officer who reached a plea deal with prosecutors, Emmett Martin, testified that Nichols was “helpless” while the officers were beating him, and that the officers then understood “they weren’t going to tell me, and I wasn’t going to tell him.” “On them.”
Under the plea agreement, prosecutors will propose a prison sentence of up to 40 years.
Defense lawyers questioned whether the officers had received proper training. They also pointed to Martin, who admitted punching and kicking Nichols in the upper torso and head, as the main assailant.
Police video shows officers walking around and talking while Nichols suffers from his injuries. The autopsy report shows that he died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, cuts and bruises to his head and other areas.
The five officers were also charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they have pleaded not guilty, although Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. No trial date has been set in state court.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
