MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Three former Memphis officers were found guilty Thursday of witness tampering charges in the 2023 fatal beating of Tire Nichols.
Meanwhile, two former officers 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 a mixed verdict for Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith.
All of them were convicted of at least one charge, but Bean and Smith were acquitted of civil rights charges. Haley was acquitted of violating Nichols’ civil rights causing death, but convicted of the lesser charge of violating his civil rights causing bodily injury.
The court remained silent as the verdicts were read.
The judge ordered the officers detained, but a hearing was scheduled to be held Monday to hear defense attorneys argue for their release pending sentencing. The witness tampering charges carry possible sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, spoke to The Associated Press outside the courtroom. “It’s a victory, it’s a victory. They will all go to jail,” he said.
Five officers were charged with Nichols’ death, but two pleaded guilty and testified against members of his former crime suppression unit, thus eliminating any defense strategy that had relied on them sticking together. Jurors repeatedly watched graphic clips of police video showing officers kicking Nichols and hitting him with a police baton just steps from his home, while the 29-year-old man called his mother.
Prosecutors argued that Nichols was hit for fleeing a traffic stop, saying it was part of a common police practice known in officers’ jargon as a “street tax” or “running tax.” They said the officers lied — to a supervisor, to medical professionals who treated Nichols and in required written reports — about the extent of force they used.
Nichols, who was black, fled the scene of the traffic stop despite being shot with pepper spray and a stun gun. The five officers, who were fired after the beating, are also black.
One of the most emotional testimonies of the trial was that of one of the agents, Desmond Mills, who accepted a plea deal, which calls for up to 15 years in prison. He tearfully declared that he regretted the beating, that it had left Nichols’s young son an orphan, and that he wished he had stopped beating him. He later testified that he had continued the cover-up in the hope that Nichols would survive and that the whole affair would “pass over.”
Nichols died on January 10, 2023, three days after the beating. His son is now 7 years old.
The other former police officer who struck a deal with prosecutors, Emmitt Martin, testified that Nichols was “defenseless” while officers beat him, and that afterward the officers agreed that “they weren’t going to snitch on me, and I wasn’t going to snitch on them.” Under his plea agreement, prosecutors will suggest a prison sentence of up to 40 years.
Defense attorneys questioned whether the officers were properly trained. They also pointed to Martin, who admitted punching and kicking Nichols in the upper torso and head, as the main aggressor.
Police video shows officers pacing and talking as Nichols suffered from his injuries. An autopsy report shows he died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries and cuts and bruises to the head and other areas.
The five officers have also been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they have pleaded not guilty, although Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date has not been set in state court.
