Attorneys presented their opening statements Monday in the state trial of three former Memphis police officers charged in the beating death of Tyre Nichols.
The former officers, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, are accused of second degree murder and several other felonies stemming from Nichols’ violent arrest in January 2023.
While five officers were charged in the incident, two of them, Emmit Martin and Desmond Mills, have indicated they will plead guilty, just as they did to some federal charges last year in a deal with prosecutors.
Shelby County District Attorney Paul Hagerman told jurors Monday that although some of the men caused more harm than others, each still had a duty to intervene to protect Nichols.
“It doesn’t take monsters to kill a man,” Hagerman said. “It took five Memphis police officers who were frustrated, who were mad and who had adrenaline and anger overcome them.”
Body camera and surveillance footage from the night shows Nichols fleeing a traffic stop on foot that quickly escalated. A neighborhood police camera mounted to a pole captured officers either restraining, kicking, punching or striking him as they take him into custody. He died three days later.
Defense attorneys emphasized the chaos of the arrest and argued that Nichols created a high risk situation for officers by running from them before he was searched.
John Keith Perry, who represents Bean, said Nichols resisted attempts to handcuff him and that officers acted in accordance with their police training given the circumstances .
“No one is here to – in any way – diminish the fact that a person’s life was lost, simply saying that that person’ life was not lost because these officers had some bone to pick, or some gripe or trying to do something punitive to this person,” Perry said. “[They were] simply trying to do their job based off the information that they had.”
The trial’s sequestered jury was chosen from the Chattanooga area due to the case’s local publicity and is expected to last a number of weeks.
Nichols’ mother, RowVaugn Wells, who lives right down the street from where officers arrested Nichols also testified Monday. She recounted her emotional reaction to seeing her son bruised, bloodied and unconscious in the hospital.
“I immediately went over to him, and I fell out on him because my son was beaten to a pulp,” she said. “His head was the size of a watermelon.”
In the separate federal trial last fall, Bean and Smith were acquitted of charges of violating Nichols civil rights but found guilty of misleading or lying to their supervisors about their actions. A jury also found Haley guilty of that offense, in addition to civil rights violations of using excessive force and neglecting Nichols’ medical needs.
Mills and Martin pleaded guilty and testified against their former colleagues at trial.
Sentencing from a federal judge is set to take place later this year.