Updated as of 8/23/2024 as of 4:00 p.m. ET
It appears another former Memphis police officer charged in the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols is throwing in the towel instead of fighting to prove their innocence.
Court records show ex-cop Emmitt Martin III changed his not guilty to plea to a guilty plea to federal charges of deprivation of rights under the color of the law through excessive force/failure to intervene and conspiracy to witness tampering in connection to the horrifying incident. The other charges he faces are obstruction of justice through witness tampering deprivation of rights under color of law through deliberate indifference.
Martin, along with Desmond Mills Jr., Tadarrius Bean, Justin Smith and Demetrius Haley, was part of the SCORPION gang unit who was accused of brutally beating Tyre Nichols the evening of Jan 7. after he was pulled over for alleged reckless driving. Nichols’ injuries rendered him unrecognizable to his family. Three days after he beating, he succumbed to his injuries.
All five officers got smacked with not only the federal counts but state charges of second-degree murder as well. All of them originally pleaded not guilty.
Martin is accused of aiding and abetting the other officers in depriving Nichols of his rights, according to the plea. The document also accuses him of unlawfully assaulting Nichols, engaging in “misleading conduct” toward his supervisor to influence the incident report and failed to provide information to the dispatcher and medical personnel about how Nichols wound up injured.
According to the plea agreement, Martin accepted a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. Martin is now the second officer to change his plea.
“The dominoes are starting to fall. We expect the other officers to also do the same.”” civil rights lawyer Ben Crump said in a press conference.
The decision comes nearly a year after Mills changed his plea to a guilty plea on the same federal charges, per NBC News.
DOJ’s Allegations Against Desmond Mills Jr.
Read the details from Mills’ hearing via The Department of Justice:
Mills admitted to repeatedly and unjustifiably striking Nichols with a baton and to failing to intervene in other officers’ use of force against Nichols. Mills said he watched another officer repeatedly punch Nichols in the head while two other officers restrained Nichols.
Mills admitted that he did not provide any medical aid to Nichols after the beating, though he knew that Nichols had a serious medical need. He did not alert MPD or Memphis Fire Department EMTs that Nichols had been struck in the head and body.
In addition, Mills participated in conversations with other officers in which they discussed, using force against Nichols, hitting Nichols to make him fall, and believing they were on the verge of killing Nichols when they saw that Nichols did not fall from the blows.
Mills admitted to making false statements in connection with the arrest of Nichols, including telling his supervisor that they had done “everything by the book” and providing false information in his statements to an MPD detective tasked with writing the incident report.
The DOJ also claimed Mills submitted an MPD report that provided a false account of the force used on Nichols, including a claim that Mills saw Nichols “aggressively resisting” officers. Instead of admitting that he had seen an officer repeatedly punch Nichols in the head while Nichols was restrained by two other officers, Mills reported only that “Nichols was eventually put into custody.”
Mills’ only (and quite embarrassing) defense before this point was that he was not “able to see” because the officers accidentally pepper-sprayed themselves during the beating.
“Some of the questions that remain will require a focus on Desmond Mills’ individual actions; on what Desmond knew and what he was able to see when he arrived late to the scene; on what Desmond knew and what he was able to see after he was pepper-sprayed; and on whether Desmond’s actions crossed the lines that were crossed by other officers during this incident,” attorney Blake Ballin said in a statement via The New York Post.
Two down. Three to go. It’s unclear what the officers’ intentions are in terms of their pleas on the state charges. However, each officer faces life in prison if convicted on the federal counts.
The group was also named as the defendants in a civil rights suit filed by Nichols’ family and attorney Benjamin Crump.