A jury reached verdicts Thursday in the federal trial of three former Memphis police officers charged in the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols, according to NBC News affiliate WMC.
Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith and Taddarius Bean are accused of depriving Nichols of his rights through excessive force, obstructing justice through witness tampering and other crimes. They pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Two other former officers, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., pleaded guilty to the same charges.
Prosecutors accused the former officers of viciously beating Nichols, 29, after a traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023, even though body camera video of the assault showed Nichols posed no threat to the officers.
“They stood by his dying body and laughed,” one of the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Rogers, told the jury during opening statements. Then “they silently agreed to lie about it to cover it up.”
A defense lawyer for Bean said the officers had been trying only to subdue a suspect who failed to follow officers’ instructions.
Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, but Memphis’ police chief has said there was no evidence to support the allegation.
Mills testified against his former colleagues during the four-week trial and acknowledged striking Nichols with his baton three times. The former officer wept as prosecutors showed body camera video of other officers punching and kicking Nichols.
“I made his child fatherless,” Mills said of Nichols. “I’m sorry.”
Nichols, who had a young son, died in a hospital three days after the beating. An autopsy report listed his cause of death as blows to the head.
The five officers, who were members of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit, were fired after Nichols’ death for violating police department policies. Their unit was disbanded.
Federal prosecutor Kathryn Gilbert asked the jury Wednesday to find the defendants guilty on all counts.
She argued that at the heart of the case, the officers acted together and willfully aided and abetted in the assault that killed Nichols, NBC affiliate WMC of Memphis reported.
“Five officers beat Tyre Nichols. Five officers left him to die, and five officers covered it up,” she said.
Bean’s lawyer, John Keith Perry, said there was reasonable doubt for each of the crimes his client was charged with.
Haley’s attorney, Stephen Leffler, disputed the prosecution’s claim that Nichols never posed a threat to officers and said it was Martin, Bean and Smith’s blows that killed Nichols, not Haley’s, WMC reported Wednesday.
The officers also face charges of second-degree murder in state court. They pleaded not guilty, though Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas to guilty.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
