Opening statements began on Wednesday in the federal trial of three former Memphis police officers charged in connection with the January 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Rogers presented the prosecution’s case, explaining to jurors what evidence they can expect to see and warned them that they will watch and hear “horrifying” body camera video and audio over the course of the trial, according to WATN, the ABC affiliate in Memphis covering the case in the courtroom.
“They stood by his dying body and laughed,” Rogers said, describing what happened after the officers were finished beating Nichols, according to WATN. “These will not be easy days.”
Defense attorneys for the former officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith — also began presenting opening statements.
John Perry, Bean’s defense attorney, told jurors that they can expect to see that the evidence will show the officers did their job, according to WATN.
“It will take you 5 minutes to deliberate,” Perry said, according to WATN.
Michael Stengel, Haley’s attorney, said that Nichols did not stop for 2 miles after officers turned on their police lights, according to WATN. Stengel claimed that there is no evidence that the officer knew who was driving at the time and there was no personal vendetta concerning rumors of a woman.
“When they got the wallet [of Nichols] after the stop, that’s when they learned who it was,” Stengel said, according to WATN.
Bean, Haley and Smith, along with two other officers involved in the incident, were charged on Sept. 12, 2023, with violating Nichols’ civil rights through excessive use of force, unlawful assault, failing to intervene in the assault and failing to render medical aid – charges that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The 4-count indictment also charged all five officers with conspiring to engage in misleading conduct by attempting to falsify or intentionally withholding details of the arrest in statements and to a supervisor – charges that carry up to 20 years in prison, per the DOJ.
Bean, Haley and Smith have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin III, the two additional officers who were also charged in this case, have pleaded guilty to some of the federal charges.
Martin pleaded guilty to excessive force and failure to intervene, as well as conspiracy to witness tamper, according to court records. The other two charges will be dropped at sentencing, which has been scheduled for Dec. 5, according to the court records.
Mills pleaded guilty to two of the four counts in the indictment — excessive force and failing to intervene, as well as conspiring to cover up his use of unlawful force, according to the DOJ. The government said it will recommend a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, based on the terms of Mills’s plea agreement.
Tyre Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, who attended opening statements, told reporters on Wednesday that she hopes the jury will return a guilty verdict.
“Our hope is that they’re found guilty and to show the world that my son was a good person and he wasn’t the criminal that they’re trying to make him out to be,” she said.
ABC News reached out to the attorneys representing the officers but requests for comment were not immediately returned.
Nichols, 29, died on Jan. 10, 2023 – three days after a traffic stop captured in body camera footage and surveillance footage, which allegedly shows officers violently striking Nichols repeatedly and walking around, talking to each other as Nichols was injured and sitting on the ground. He was also pepper-sprayed and tased during the incident. The beating triggered protests and calls for police reform.
Police said Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, though Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said she has been unable to substantiate that.
Body camera footage shows Nichols getting away from the officers after the initial stop, but he was apprehended minutes later by the officers. He then sustained multiple punches, kicks and hits from a baton from the officers.
Nichols was transferred to the hospital in critical condition where he later died. The medical examiner’s official autopsy report for Nichols showed he “died of brain injuries from blunt force trauma,” the district attorney’s office told Nichols’ family in May 2023.
While Nichols’ mother has said that first responders told her he was drunk and high, the autopsy report shows that his blood alcohol level was .049, the DA’s office said. The district attorney’s office told the family that was “well less than the legal limit to drive.”
The five former officers charged in this case were all members of the Memphis Police Department SCORPION unit – a crime suppression unit that has since been disbanded after Nichols’ death.
Rogers told the jury on Wednesday that the SCORPION unit followed an alleged rule that they called the “run tax,” according to WATN, where it was understood that the first person to reach a running suspect would beat them.
Perry claimed that his client, Bean, was not present at the initial stop and only arrived at the second scene after hearing a call on dispatch radio, according to WATN.
The five officers charged in connection to Nichols’ death were all fired for violating the policies of the Memphis Police Department.
All five former officers also face state felony charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping, in connection with Nichols’ death. They pleaded not guilty.
