In connection with Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating in 2023, three former Memphis, Tennessee, police officers were found guilty on Thursday of federal witness tampering charges.
It was alleged that Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, and Taddarius Bean violated Nichols’s rights by using excessive force, obstructed justice by manipulating witnesses, and committed other offenses. Entering a not guilty plea.
Haley was found guilty on one count of witness tampering conspiracy and one count of obstruction of justice. Bean and Smith were convicted guilty of tampering with witnesses on the only count of obstruction of justice.
Haley was found guilty of the lesser counts for each, which involved bodily injury, but none of the men were found guilty of the counts of deprivation of rights under color of law for using excessive force, failing to interfere, or displaying deliberate indifference.
The officers’ detention was mandated by the judge. In order to get input from the defense attorneys on their release until sentencing, he scheduled a hearing for Monday.
Sentences for witness tampering could go as high as 20 years in prison. The maximum sentence for Haley’s civil rights offense is ten years in jail. Those found guilty on the most serious crimes may have been sentenced to life in prison.
RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Nichols, told reporters as she exited the courtroom that she was relieved that all of the men had been found guilty of at least one felony, but she was still shocked.
“All of them have been convicted of something, and they’re all going to jail. That’s how I feel,” Wells stated. “This has been a long journey for family.”
Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., two more former cops, entered guilty pleas to the same offenses. Prosecutors offered Mills a plea deal that included a maximum 15-year jail sentence.
Martin stated in his testimony that Nichols was “helpless” as the officers beat him, and that following the incident, “they weren’t going to tell on me, and I wasn’t going to tell on them,” the officers realized. The plea deal stipulates that the prosecution would recommend a maximum 40-year prison sentence for him.
Despite the fact that body camera footage from the assault demonstrated Nichols’s lack of threat to the police, prosecutors charged the two cops with severely punching the 29-year-old after a traffic stop on January 7, 2023.
During opening remarks, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Rogers, one of the prosecutors, said to the jury, “They stood by his dying body and laughed.” They silently agreed to cover it up by lying about it, after that.
Bean’s defense attorney said that the cops’ main goal had been to subdue a subject who had disobeyed their orders.
Although Nichols was stopped for careless driving, the chief of police in Memphis has stated that there is no proof to back up the accusation.
During the four-week trial, Mills testified against his former colleagues and admitted to striking Nichols three times with his baton. Prosecutors played body camera footage of other cops beating and kicking Nichols, and he broke down in tears.
Three days after the beating, Nichols, who had a young kid, passed away in a hospital. His cause of death was indicated as strikes to the head in an autopsy report.
Following Nichols’s passing, the five officers—who belonged to the Scorpion Unit, a crime-fighting squad—were let go for breaking departmental rules. Their group was split up.
On Wednesday, Kathryn Gilbert, the federal prosecutor, requested the jury to find all of the defendants guilty.
She maintained that, at the crux of the matter, the police conspired and knowingly assisted and abetted in the attack that resulted in Nichols’ death, according to a local news outlet.
“Five officers beat Tyre Nichols. Five officers left him to die, and five officers covered it up,” she stated.
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John Keith Perry, Bean’s attorney, stated that there was a reasonable doubt regarding each of the charges against his client.
Stephen Leffler, Haley’s lawyer, refuted the prosecution’s assertion that Nichols never presented a threat to police, stating that Nichols was killed by the punches delivered by Martin, Bean, and Smith—not by Haley—as WMC reported on Wednesday.
State court has also charged the policemen with second-degree murder. They entered a not guilty plea, but Mills and Martin are anticipated to enter a guilty plea.
Following the federal sentencing decision and after consulting with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, who is in charge of the state trial, announced following Thursday’s verdict that “appropriate steps” will be taken in state court.
By: nbcnews.com
