One of the five Memphis cops who beat Tyre Nichols to death pleaded guilty to federal charges and is facing many years in prison.
News station WREG reports that former police officer Desmond Mills has copped a plea to the following federal charges: using excessive force and failing to intervene in the unlawful assault; conspiring to cover up his use of unlawful force by omitting material information; and providing false and misleading information to his supervisor and others, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee.
Mills faces up to 15 years in prison. He has also agreed to plead guilty to state charges.
“[Mills] is fully cooperating, and we expect him to continue fully cooperating, answering all questions truthfully, testifying to his role in the incident and what he saw the other defendants commit at the same incident,” District Attorney David Mulroy told the station.
Nichols, 29, was pulled over during a routine traffic stop on the evening of Jan. 10, 2023, when the five officers began beating Nichols mercilessly with their fists and batons even as he pleaded for his life.
Presiding Judge Mark Norris will decide on Mills’ sentencing at a hearing tentatively scheduled for May 22, 2023. As for now, Mills remains out on bond.
“This is the first domino to fall,” Nichols’ stepfather, Rodney Wells, said during a press conference outside the federal courthouse.
“It’s a start,” his mother RowVaughn Wells added.
The DA’s office said federal and state prosecutors have agreed to a recommended sentence of 15 years that would run concurrently, according to ABC24 Memphis. In exchange for his guilty plea, Mills has also agreed to cooperate with federal and state investigators.
ABC24 Memphis reports that the judge indicated the federal trial for the other four officers is scheduled to begin on May 6, 2024.
Famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump told the media assemblage outside the courthouse that the upcoming testimony from the other four officers would be “jaw-dropping.”
