Ex-Memphis police officer enters a plea deal in state and federal Tyre Nichols cases

One of the five now-former Memphis police officers charged with the death of Tyre Nichols has accepted a plea deal in both his state and federal criminal cases.

Desmond Mills Jr., 33, was federally charged with excessive force, deliberate indifference, conspiracy to witness tamper and obstruction of justice in early September. On the state level, the five men were charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, official oppression, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and two counts of official misconduct in late January.

Mills pleaded guilty to excessive force and conspiracy to witness tamper in federal court Thursday morning. In state court, he pleaded guilty to the slew of charges related to Nichols' death.

"My use of force was excessive and I gave misleading statements," Mills told Judge Mark Norris when asked by the judge to give his account of what happened.

Moments earlier, U.S. Attorney David Pritchard had read a statement of evidence that would have been presented had Mills gone to trial. The evidence included some additional details that had not been previously reported.

According to Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy's office, both state and federal prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 15 years, to be served concurrently in the federal prison system. The exact charges in Mills' state case are to be determined, Mulroy said Thursday.

However, Norris has sentencing discretion and for the two counts Mills pleaded guilty to in federal court, the judge could hand down a sentence up to life in prison plus 20 years.

Federal prosecutors said that they may call on Mills for information but did not explicitly say that they would call him as a witness in the future federal criminal trial against the four other ex-MPD officers who have been federally charged. Mills will testify in the state criminal case, the DA's office said.

"We're not going to go into the details of the kind of evidence that we expect because it's an ongoing case," Mulroy told a group of reporters outside of the Odell Horton Federal Building Thursday. Mulroy attended the federal plea hearing. "But, he is fully cooperating and we expect him to continue to fully cooperate — answering questions truthfully, testifying to his role in the incident and what he saw the other defendants commit at the same incident — and, if he deviates from that, if he does not cooperate or if he provides anything less than truthful testimony, that deal's off."

Mills is also expected to cooperate with the Department of Justice's pattern or practice investigation, Mulroy said, adding that he believes that will be an important step in making "systemic reforms" to the police department.

Reaction to the plea deal

The deal comes just under two months after Mills was indicted in federal court, and just under ten months since he was indicted at the state level.

Thursday morning, notable civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Nichols' family in a civil lawsuit, said the pleas were "entirely consistent with our allegations in the civil lawsuit against the City of Memphis."

"We stand strong in our belief that these officers, including Mills, acted at the direction of a policy that not only violated civil rights of innocent civilians but which caused needless pain to many," Crump said in an email. "The MPD and its SCORPION unit directed, trained, and encouraged officers like Mills to commit baseless and horrific acts of violence against innocent individuals like Tyre Nichols. We vigorously restate our assertion that those policies were behind what ultimately caused Mills and four other Scorpion officers to kill Tyre Nichols."

Crump added: “Mills was not an individual actor, and as our civil suit continues to unfold, that will become even more apparent."

Nichols' parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, were in federal court Thursday morning alongside Crump and co-counsel Antonio Romanucci. RowVaughn Wells said she found it difficult to hear Pritchard read the evidence the prosecution had collected.

"As I'm sitting there, and I'm watching this Mr. Mills gentleman, and I'm looking at him and I'm noticing how big he is," Wells told reporters after the hearing. "Really, this big man, he looks to be about 200 pounds, was beating up on my son. So just imagine 200 times five [officers], that's 1,000 pounds beating up on my son."

Mulroy's office said the family of Nichols supported the plea agreement. Both RowVaughn and Rodney Wells said the plea was "a start," and Rodney Wells predicted Mills would be "the first domino to fall."

Blake Ballin, Mills' attorney, also spoke to reporters for the first time since the state charges were made public in January. He said that the plea was "a taking of responsibility."

"This is a situation where we've all seen this video," Ballin said. "I would suggest that there's overwhelming evidence of guilt of all people involved here. Mr. Mills and I watched this video together very early on, and he looked at me and said, 'I just can't believe this. This could have been my brother.' The exceptional empathy that he's had from the beginning of this is what's driving this plea. Mr. Mills is somebody who understands that he did something wrong, and he's taking responsibility for it.

"This is step one. The next step is to continue to cooperate with both the state and federal government."

Ballin also said that it was "unreasonable" for Mills to have taken responsibility the same night Nichols was beaten by the officers.

"I will tell you that very, very early on in this investigation Mr. Mills began to cooperate," Ballin said. "So, while your question asked why he didn't cooperate the second this happened, that's why he's charged with a crime. Because he failed to act in a way that he knows he should have acted. But immediately upon understanding that, he began to cooperate and today is the first step in publicly taking responsibility."

The federal case, according to Pritchard, the federal prosecutor, was death penalty eligible, but the Department of Justice declined to pursue it. Both the state and federal cases, should any of the other four defendants be convicted, carry life sentences.

There is no parole in the federal system, so people convicted must serve the entirety of their sentence.

“I join Tyre’s family in saying this is a fair result, given Mr. Mills’ level of involvement, and his willingness to cooperate with us,” Mulroy said in a statement.  “His cooperation will help us bring to justice all those criminally responsible while also identifying needs for systemic reform within the police department.”

Four other former Memphis police officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin and Justin Smith — were indicted alongside him, and face identical charges at both the state and federal level.

The federal trial is slated to begin in May 2024. It was not immediately clear if that timeline would change following Mills' plea.

What was learned of Mills' involvement in Nichols' death from plea deal

According to a statement of facts read in court by Pritchard Thursday morning, which outlined the evidence federal prosecutors planned to present at Mills' trial, Mills and Bean were driving their patrol car the night Nichols was pulled over when they received a call for help from the other officers who have been charged.

As Mills parked the car, Bean ran out of it to chase after Nichols. By the time Mills arrived at the scene, he saw Smith and Bean on the ground with Nichols, asking him to give them his hands. Neither officer, according to the statement, attempted to handcuff Nichols and instead hit him.

Mills approached, according to the statement, and pepper sprayed Nichols three times. On the third round of pepper spray, Mills sprayed himself and walked away.

"Defendant Mills walked a few steps back to the scene, drew his ASP baton, and expanded it," the statement read. "Defendant Mills stepped towards Nichols and warned Martin, Smith and Bean to 'watch out.' Defendant Mills then told Nichols, 'I'm about to baton the f--k out of you.'"

Mills then yelled for Nichols to give him his hands, at which point two officers responded, "hit him." Smith pulled Nichols' left arm, which was handcuffed, and Mills hit Nichols' other arm with his baton repeatedly. Smith held Nichols while he was being hit over and over again.

After Mills stopped hitting Nichols with the baton, he walked away as the other officers punched and kicked Nichols.

"Defendant Mills thought to himself that Martin needed to stop punching Nichols, but he said nothing to Martin, Bean and Smith," the statement went on. "Defendant Mills recognized that this use of force by Martin, Bean and Smith violated MPD policy and training."

Mills' role in the attempted cover-up revealed in court documents

After the officers stopped hitting Nichols, they began speaking about the incident. At one point, while Mills was discussing Martin hitting Nichols repeatedly, Martin "used hand signals to warn defendant Mills that his body-worn camera was still running." Mills then paused his discussion and removed his body camera, placing it a few steps away to continue the conversation.

When a supervisor got to the scene, Mills "expressed concern about Nichols' survival" and then "falsely told his supervisor that they had done 'everything by the book.'"

Mills and Bean escorted the ambulance as it took Nichols to Saint Francis Hospital from the scene, and the statement from the DOJ said they did not provide any information about what had happened to Nichols to doctors.

Later that day, the DOJ said the officers all met and asked if Mills' body camera captured Haley's conduct and Mills said it only showed Haley getting there when he reviewed the footage. The officers are then said to have "understood and agreed" to omit any information about Haley's misconduct and the multiple hits to Nichols.

This materialized in the officers providing "false and misleading" information, and leaving out facts to the MPD detective tasked with writing the incident report. That report was requested through a public records request by The Commercial Appeal and was not filled.

Mills also filed a response to resistance form that gave a false account of that night, the statement of facts added. The CA has also requested that document, which also has not been provided.

New information in the statement of facts from the DOJ, which Crump emphasized after the hearing, said that "Mills understood from his experience working with SCORPION Team One officers, and from his conversations with Bean, Smith, Haley and Martin, that no one was going to admit that unlawful force had been used on Nichols."

Smith would later call Mills and tell him that Haley and Martin kicking Nichols in the head was "f--ked up" and that "it wasn't personal." Mills also learned from Smith that Haley and Martin's shoes from that night had been confiscated because of those kicks.

Charges stem from beating, death of Nichols

Indictments at the state level came three weeks after Nichols was initially pulled over by the Memphis Police Department.

He was pulled over in the evening hours of Jan. 7 and pulled from his car by officers who then forced him to the ground, shouting multiple conflicting commands as they held him down.

After moments of being held down and pepper sprayed, Nichols jumped up from under the officers and began running towards his mother's house. He was caught, and tackled, by other officers about 100 yards from the home.

More: MPD Chief Davis' past with Atlanta PD will remain in Tyre Nichols civil suit, judge rules

Over the following minutes, officers punched, kicked, pepper sprayed and hit Nichols with a baton. At some points, he was held up by his arms while being hit. The officers eventually leaned him against an unmarked police cruiser until medical personnel arrived.

He was taken to Saint Francis Hospital in critical condition and died three days later. The cause of Nichols' death has been listed as blunt force trauma to the head.

Months after his death, Crump filed a $550 million civil lawsuit against the City of Memphis, MPD Chief Cerelyn "C.J." Davis, the five criminally charged officers, two additional MPD officers and three Memphis Fire Department personnel.

The city and Davis have filed a motion to dismiss the civil suit, saying the five criminally charged officers were "rogue" and should be the only ones held responsible. If the case is not dismissed, and a settlement is not reached, that civil suit is slated to go to trial in January 2025.

A stay was issued for the five criminally charged officers, but Romanucci, who is also part of the team of attorneys representing Nichols' family, said he will argue that since taking the plea means Mills cannot be charged with the same crime again, he expects the stay will be lifted for Mills.

Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal covering healthcare, hospitals, resource access, and anything else that pops up. She can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Desmond Mills, ex-Memphis cop, takes plea deal in Tyre Nichols case