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Former Memphis police officer pleads guilty in federal case against Tyre Nichols

Former Memphis police officer Emmitt Martin III pleaded guilty Friday morning to violating the civil rights of Tyre Nichols.

The last-minute deal came about just two weeks before the federal criminal proceedings were scheduled to begin. Martin is the second of five defendants to plead guilty.

Each of the five officers – Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Martin, Desmond Mills and Justin Smith – was charged by federal authorities with excessive use of force, willful indifference, conspiracy to tamper with witnesses and obstruction of justice by witness tampering.

Martin Friday pleaded guilty to excessive use of force and conspiracy to tamper with witnesses. The Justice Department recommended a maximum sentence of 40 years.

They all faced a maximum sentence of life in a federal prison. The U.S. Department of Justice could have sought the death penalty in this case, but informed the defense shortly after the indictment was released that it would not seek it.

There is no parole in the federal system.

Martin is now the only police officer besides Mills to agree to a deal. Mills pleaded guilty in November 2023 to excessive use of force and conspiracy to tamper with a witness. Mills also pleaded guilty in the state criminal case, but it is not yet clear what charges will be included in that case. The sentence, Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said in November, will be the same as the federal sentence and is to be served concurrently with the state sentence.

Each of the officers charged in the case is charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, two counts of abuse of authority and one count of misconduct in office. It is not clear which charges Mills and Martin will plead guilty to in state court.

It was unclear Friday afternoon whether Martin would plead guilty in his state trial. The Shelby County District Attorney's Office did not respond to questions about whether Martin had entered a guilty plea to their prosecutors and whether it would be similar to Mills' confession if Martin had entered one.

Both the state and federal charges stem from actions by officers who stopped Nichols in the evening hours of January 7, 2023. Memphis police initially said Nichols was driving recklessly and then got into an altercation with officers, but Memphis Police Interim Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis later said there was no evidence Nichols was driving recklessly.

Footage later released by the City of Memphis showed Nichols complying with officers' instructions, despite the officers who stopped Nichols shouting conflicting commands at him. During the initial stop, Nichols was dragged from his car by officers and taken to the ground with a taser.

Officers sprayed Nichols with pepper spray, and he eventually jumped out of the crowd and ran toward his mother's house in Hickory Hill.

Less than 100 yards from his mother RowVaughn Wells' home, Nichols was attacked by more officers. Over the next few minutes, they punched, kicked, sprayed him with pepper spray, and beat him with a baton. At some points, officers held Nichols' arms down while he was beaten.

At no point during the recording did the officers appear to attempt to help Nichols. Nichols was eventually taken to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition. He died three days later. His autopsy report listed the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and the manner of death as homicide.

Three weeks after Nichols' death, charges were filed against the five officers. The state trial was delayed because lawyers agreed not to open the case until the federal trial was completed.

The trial in the federal case is scheduled to begin on September 9.

Brooke Muckerman of The Commercial Appeal contributed to this story.

Lucas Finton is The Commercial Appeal's crime reporter. Reach him at [email protected]

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