Officers in Tyre Nichols death convicted of fatal beating, acquitted of federal charges

The three former Memphis, Tenn., police officers involved in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols were convicted Thursday of charges of witness tampering, but two were acquitted of federal civil rights violations.

Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith were all convicted by a jury Thursday afternoon after about six hours of deliberation. Bean and Smith were acquitted of the civil rights charges while Haley was acquitted of violating Nichols’s civil rights causing death. Haley was convicted of violating Nichols’s civil rights causing bodily injury.

RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’s mother, said she was “in shock” following the jury’s verdict.

“This has been a long journey for our family,” she said. “We’re happy that they all have been convicted and they have been arrested.”

The former officers were taken into custody, but the judge plans to hold a hearing Monday to hear about releasing them pending sentencing.

The convictions of witness tampering carry a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

“A win is a win. They’re all going to jail,” Rodney Wells, Nichols’s stepfather, told The Associated Press after the verdict was read.

Nichols, 29, was killed in Memphis after a traffic stop in January 2023 turned deadly.

Memphis police officers initially said Nichols was stopped for reckless driving, though authorities later acknowledged there was no evidence to substantiate the claim.

Graphic video footage of the encounter showed officers using pepper spray, deploying a stun gun and beating Nichols repeatedly. He can be heard throughout the video screaming for his mother throughout the incident. Jurors repeatedly watched clips from the police video during the trial against Bean, Haley and Smith.

Nichols died of his injuries on Jan. 10, three days after the stop.

Last September, a federal grand jury indicted all five former Memphis police officers involved in the death of Nichols on charges of deprivation of rights, conspiracy to witness tamper and obstruction of justice.

Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. pleaded guilty and testified against the other three members.

According to the AP, Mills testified through tears that he was sorry for the beating, noting that he left Nichols’s son fatherless. Mills added that he wished he had stopped the punches and testified that he went along with a cover-up in hopes that Nichols would survive and the whole thing would “blow over.”

Martin testified Tuesday that he, too, had punched a “helpless” Nichols at least five times while two of his colleagues held the 29-year-old’s arms and told Martin to “hit him.”

Martin faces up to 40 years in prison for federal civil rights violations while prosecutors agreed to recommend a prison sentence not to exceed 15 years for Mills, who pleaded guilty to federal charges of excessive force and obstruction of justice in November 2023.

All five former officers have also been charged in state court with second-degree murder. That trial will begin once federal proceedings are completed.

“It’s very important that the jury found all of them in some way anticipated in a crime,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Nichols’s family, said outside the courtroom Thursday. “Tyre Nichols’s death won’t go unnoticed.”

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