One of five fired Memphis cops seen beating Tyre Nichols to death on horrifying video plans to change plea, his lawyer says

One of five Memphis police officers charged with multiple federal offenses over the alleged killing of Tire Nichols plans to change his plea in court.

Desmond Mills Jr. is one of five officers facing a range of charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression, as well as four federal charges.

While Mills Jr. pleaded not guilty to the federal offenses in September, his attorney says his client plans to change his plea in court tomorrow.

If found guilty of the federal charges, Mills Jr. be sentenced to death.

Desmond Mills Jr. plans to change his plea to the federal offenses he faces for the alleged Nov. 2 murder of Tire Nichols.

It is unknown what his new plea will be and why he has decided to do so. As Mills Jr. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to death

The other four officers, Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith, remain in custody along with Mills and also pleaded not guilty to federal charges of excessive force and failure to intervene, deliberate indifference, conspiracy to witness tampering and obstruction of police. justice: tampering with witnesses.

Second-degree murder, described by the Memphis district attorney as an “intentional killing,” is punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison under Tennessee law.

Nichols, a 29-year-old FedEx driver, was arrested by Memphis police on January 7 for what was initially reported as reckless driving.

That interaction led to a violent confrontation that landed him in hospital, where he would die three days later (January 10) as a result of “extensive bleeding caused by a severe beating,” according to preliminary results of a commissioned autopsy from his family’s lawyers. .

He reportedly went into cardiac arrest and kidney failure after the allegedly brutal interaction with the officers who were in unmarked cars and reportedly wearing hoodies.

“He was a human piñata for those police officers,” family attorney Antonio Romanucci said at a news conference. “It was an unadulterated, unapologetic, non-stop beating of this young boy for three minutes.”

“We can say that preliminary findings indicate that Tyrus bled profusely as a result of a severe beating, and that his observed injuries are consistent with what the family and attorneys saw in the video of his fatal encounter with police on January 7, 2023 said attorney Benjamin. Crump said this in a statement at the time.

Crump said police bodycam footage showed Nichols was shaken, pepper-sprayed and restrained after being pulled away from his home for several minutes.

This combination of booking photos provided by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office shows, from top row from left, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, bottom row from left, Desmond Mills, Jr. and Justin Smith. The five former Memphis police officers have been charged with manslaughter and other crimes in the arrest and death of Tire Nichols, a black motorist who died during a traffic stop three days after a confrontation with officers, records showed Thursday, Jan. 1. 26, 2023

Family attorney Ben Crump said police bodycam footage showed Nichols shocked, pepper-sprayed and restrained after walking minutes away from his home

Tire Nichols is pictured in hospital after the incident. The 29-year-old from Memphis died of cardiac arrest and kidney failure on January 10, three days after he was stopped by police for reckless driving in unmarked cars.

He also said Ravaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, was unable to watch the first minute of footage after hearing Nichols ask, “What did I do?”

At the end of the footage, you can hear Nichols calling for his mother three times.

‘Our son fled because he feared for his life. He didn’t run because he was trying to get rid of drugs, no guns, none of that. He fled because he feared for his life.

“And when you see the video, you understand why he feared for his life,” his mother said.

During a briefing, DA Mulroy described the situation as a tragedy and Nichols was described as an “almost perfect son.”

Referring to the five officers charged, he said: “Although each of the five individuals played a different role in the incident in question, the actions of all of them resulted in the death of Tire Nichols, and they are all responsible.”

David Rausch, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said of the incident that resulted in Tire Nichols’ death: “In a word, it’s absolutely horrible… What happened here does not reflect proper police action at all. This was wrong. This was criminal.’

He later added that after three decades of police work, he was “shocked” and “sickened by what I saw and what we learned through our investigation.”