Second Memphis police officer pleads guilty in death of Tyre Nichols

By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) - A second former Memphis police officer pleaded guilty on Friday to federal charges in the death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols, whose videotaped beating by five Black officers in January 2023 shocked the United States.

Emmitt Martin III, one of five fired officers facing criminal charges, was also expected to plead guilty to related Tennessee state charges, the Shelby County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.

Martin pleaded guilty to two of the four federal counts against him - one for depriving Nichols' civil rights, and another for witness tampering - and agreed to cooperate with the investigation, according to his plea agreement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

That raises the possibility he may testify against fellow former officers, as Martin admitted to conspiring with the others to provide a misleading account of the beating. Members of his defense team did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In November, another fired Memphis police officer, Desmond Mills, pleaded guilty to federal charges and also agreed to plead guilty to related Tennessee state charges, part of a deal in which he pledged to cooperate with both state and federal prosecutions, the Shelby County District Attorney's Office said at the time.

In exchange for his guilty plea, Mills, who was facing life in prison, agreed to a 15-year sentence with state and federal prosecutors, the statement said.

Under Martin's deal, federal prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than 40 years, and that Martin may seek a term of less than that.

Martin and Mills were among five officers who had previously pleaded not guilty to federal civil rights offenses and state charges of second-degree murder.

The federal trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 9. The state trial is on hold while the federal case develops.

The case is one of a series raising the national debate about racism and police brutality in the United States.

Police video showed the officers kicked, punched, pepper-sprayed and struck Nichols with a baton on Jan. 7, 2023.

Nichols, 29, died in hospital three days later.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Aurora Ellis)