State murder trial begins for police beating death of Sacramento native Tyre Nichols
Three former Memphis police officers went on trial Monday on second-degree murder charges in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Sacramento native who was killed by police more than two years ago.
The opening statements in the Tennessee courtroom marked the start of the state criminal proceedings against Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith. The Associated Press reported that the three defendants, all former Memphis police officers, have pleaded not guilty to charges that also include aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
Prosecutors accused the officers of killing Nichols after he fled a traffic stop near his Memphis home on Jan. 7, 2023. Video of the beating, captured by a police pole camera, showed Nichols being held by his arms as officers punched, kicked and struck him with a baton, according to reports from the AP and The Commercial Appeal newspaper.
Nichols, who moved to Memphis in 2020 to be closer to his mother, died three days later from blunt force trauma, an autopsy found.
The trial represents the latest legal chapter in a case that has drawn national attention to issues of police brutality and accountability. The five officers involved — including Bean, Haley and Smith — were part of the Memphis Police Department’s now-disbanded SCORPION Unit, which had been tasked with crime suppression.
Two other officers, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., who were also charged in the beating, are expected to change their not guilty pleas in the state case, the AP reported. All five men were previously convicted or pleaded guilty in federal court on related civil rights and witness tampering charges.
Prosecutor Paul Hagerman told the jury that the officers were “overcome by the moment” but emphasized that they had a duty to stop the assault and failed to do so. “It doesn’t take monsters to kill a man,” Hagerman told the court, as reported by the AP and Memphis newspaper.
Defense attorneys argue that Nichols resisted arrest and characterized the situation as volatile and dangerous for police. Lawyers for Bean, Haley and Smith argued their clients were acting on their training and discipline, The Commercial Appeal reported.
The jury was selected from outside Memphis due to widespread publicity surrounding the case.
Nichols’ death reverberated in Sacramento, where family members and community activists have held vigils and called for justice. Nichols, an avid skateboarder, had spoken in past interviews about his life in California and his love for photography and the outdoors.
The sentencing for the officers in the federal case has been postponed until after the conclusion of the state trial.