Ex-Memphis officers face trial in death of Black motorist Tyre Nichols

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tyre Nichols’ parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, plan to be in the courtroom as fired Memphis detectives Justin Smith, Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley go on trial Monday in the beating death of their son after a traffic stop in 2023.

“You're the mother. You want to make sure that what they're saying is correct and you want to make sure that everything is going accordingly,” says RowVaughn Wells. “So you have to sit there and listen, even though you don't want to.”

The former police officers are charged with depriving Tyre Nichols of his rights through excessive use of force, failure to intervene and obstruction of justice for conspiring to cover up what happened.

The felony charges carry a possible sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. Two other former policemen indicted in the case have pleaded guilty.

The ex-detectives were part of the now disbanded Scorpion Task Force, a specialized unit created to root out street crime, and known for aggressive policing tactics.

Disturbing surveillance and body cam video released by the Memphis police department shows the officers, all also Black, using pepper spray and a taser on Nichols after a traffic stop. Nichols can be heard saying he didn’t do anything wrong and trying to cooperate with the police until he flees. Later, the footage shows Nichols back in custody, on the ground as the officers repeatedly beat him. One lashes him on the back with a baton; another kicks him in the head. Nichols cries out for his mother several times. He’s left visibly and audibly struggling on the ground as more law enforcement arrives at the scene.

Nichols, 29, died three days later. An autopsy classified his death a homicide from blunt force trauma.

“I'm curious to see how they're going to try to maneuver out of this, because the video don't lie,” says RowVaughn Wells.

"Thank God for that skycam video,” adds Rodney Wells, referring to surveillance video from the neighborhood.

Will trial reveal the motive behind the beating?

The Wells are bracing for defense lawyers to make it sound like their son was in the wrong for resisting the officers, but they say the video makes clear he was confused and in fear.

“He ran because he was scared for his life,” RowVaughn Wells says. “He was just trying to get home….and calling his momma.”

She struggles to understand the motivation behind the attack. “I want them to look at me and say why we did this to your son.”

The broader Memphis community is also looking for answers from this trial.

“Why was he pulled over?” asks attorney Van Turner who was president of the Memphis Branch of the NAACP when Nichols was killed.

“Why was there such an aggressive frisk, takedown? And then when you pepper sprayed him, he started to run. You caught the guy. Why was there the need to beat him to death? I mean, what is the motivation?”

Aware of the fact that winning convictions against law enforcement officers is difficult, he says the stakes are high for the outcome of this trial.

“This really could set the course for Memphis for years to come,” Turner says. “I'm hopeful and I’m prayerful that we will get it right and that those officers who beat Mr. Nichols to death that night for no reason at all will have a long time to think about what they did in jail.”

U.S. Attorney Kevin Ritz declined to comment on the prosecution, and defense lawyers for the ex-officers set to go on trial declined to speak to NPR.

Two of their former colleagues could be key witnesses in the case after changing their pleas and cooperating with prosecutors.

Last month Emmitt Martin pleaded guilty to excessive use of force, and misleading superiors and others about his conduct.

“Today we are all witness to Mr. Martin accepting responsibility for what he did,” said Stephen Ross Johnson, Martin’s attorney.

“Driven by anger, Emmitt Martin used excessive force on Tyre Nichols on January 7, 2023. Driven by fear, he tried to cover it up.”

As part of the plea agreement, two other charges against Martin were dropped, and prosecutors are recommending a prison sentence of up to 40 years.

Another former detective, Desmond Mills, Jr., changed his plea last year, admitting to repeatedly and unjustifiably striking Nichols with a baton, making false statements about the arrest, and failing to intervene or provide medical aid. For him, prosecutors are recommending a maximum sentence of 15 years.

A call to examine the culture of policing

The killing of Tyre Nichols has amplified calls for police reform, and sparked the U.S. Justice Department to launch what’s known as a pattern or practice investigation looking at, among other things, the Memphis Police Department’s use of force, and whether officers engage in discriminatory policing.

The Rev. Jason Lawrence Turner of the Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis says seeing the video footage of police brutally beating Nichols is part of a recurring trauma for African-Americans.

“No sense of humanity, no sense of compassion by any of those officers. And so it brought a lot of feelings,” says Rev. Turner. “But particularly in this instance, all the officers were Black. And so it really brought to light there is a culture that has to be dismantled, not only in Memphis policing, but in policing across this country.”

Turner is founder and president of the Memphis Black Clergy Collaborative, formed in the aftermath of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, also recorded on video. Turner served on a Memphis committee that recommended ways to re-imagine policing in a city struggling with high crime.

“We are in a really tight place,” he says. “We want to see reform of policing, but also we want a safe community.”

Turner says the best opportunity for change will likely be from federal intervention — for instance a legal agreement or consent decree that could come from the Justice Department's pattern or practice probe.

In the aftermath of the killing of Tyre Nichols, the Memphis city council passed an ordinance that curtailed the way police enforced minor traffic violations, but Tennessee lawmakers objected.

“The state legislature weighed in and basically nullified those ordinances,” says Rev. Turner. “So for Memphis, it looks like a consent decree might be our best hope to move towards reform.”

Trial is seen as a chance to send a message

Protesters who took to the streets after Nichols was killed will also be watching to see what comes from the courthouse as the ex-Memphis officers are tried on the federal civil rights charges.

“I think that there's going to be a lot of things that come out of this trial that affirm the same things we've been saying about the practices of the police department, especially around how they brutalize people,” says Amber Sherman with the official Black Lives Matter Memphis chapter.

“I don't think they'll be able to explain why,” she says. “We’ll see exactly what we've been saying is that policing is a white supremacist system that's built to surveil and brutalize Black people.”

Others are tempering their expectations.

“I don't think we anticipate to see a systemic change,” says Chase Madkins, West Tennessee organizing manager with the Equity Alliance.

He says the best hope is to see the ex-officers handed a just-due verdict and punishment.

“Because they were just simply caught. Right? It's a bad look,” Madkins says. “It compromises people's trust of the system, if you will, of the government. So they got to punish them harshly for that.”

“Memphis is a beautiful city and it has a lot of stains on it right now,” says Tyre Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells.

She sees the trial as an opportunity for Memphis to right a wrong.

“We want the world to see that when police officers do wrong, that they're held accountable,” she says. “I have faith. We're going to get our justice.”

The family has also filed a $550 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city.

“Ty, he loved Memphis. And I just hate the fact that Memphis took something very important to me.”

But Wells says residents here have wrapped their arms around her family.

Jury selection in the federal case is set to begin Monday. The former detectives Justin Smith, Tadarrius Bean and Demetrius Haley also face separate murder charges in state court.