Tyre Nichols case: what to know about additional video, trial dates

A trial date for the five now-former Memphis police officers charged with the death of Tyre Nichols is looming, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Jones Jr. said during a Friday morning court appearance.

That date was not set Friday, but a timeline for the case's duration and possible trial is expected to be laid out in a scheduling order when attorneys, the former officers and prosecutors next come to court.

Friday's court appearance gave Paul Hagerman, the newly appointed deputy district attorney for the Shelby County District Attorney's Office, the opportunity to update Jones, and those who came to observe the proceeding, on multiple aspects of the case.

Each of the five officers — Emmitt Martin, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith and Desmond Mills — are charged with one count of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, official oppression, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and two counts of official misconduct.

Some defendants want a separate trial

As of Friday morning's court appearance, three of the five former officers are requesting a separate trial. Attorneys for Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith had both filed motions to sever from the case in late June, and Desmond Mills Jr. joined them Friday.

"There's a danger, potentially, of a jury being confused, or a jury feeling that one or more of the defendants is guilty. Mr. Mills is not guilty, but grouping them together, prejudicially, mistakenly, risks him not getting a fair trial," said Blake Ballin, the attorney representing Mills. "If it's not granted, we'll deal with it. We will focus on pointing out that Mr. Mills' actions were different from his codefendants."

Hagerman, though not providing many details, told reporters after the hearing that his team planned to argue against severance, and said that through a "law of criminal responsibility," the defendants came together to commit the crime they have been charged with.

More: Shelby County DA drops '30 to 40' cases worked by officers charged in Tyre Nichols beating

"We do want to try the defendants together," Hagerman said. "We're not going to litigate the motion to sever here in the public, but we're going to file our response to their motions. We're going to make it clear that, as a matter of law, we believe that they should be tried together."

The response from the district attorney's office is due within the next ten days, and the motions are set to be argued on Sept. 15.

Trial date looms

The same day motions to sever are argued in court, Jones said he plans to establish a scheduling order with a trial date. According to Hagerman, the case has moved into "step two," which precedes the trial date.

"Things are progressing, probably not fast enough for Tyre's family, probably not fast enough for you all, probably not fast enough for everybody, but it's progressing," Hagerman said. "We are heading for a resolution of justice."

Hagerman laid out the steps from indictment to trial, the first of which was discovery, which he said has been completed. The second step will be pretrial motions that will be heard on Sept. 15. The third step will be trial, he said.

William Massey, the attorney representing Emmitt Martin III, said he is anticipating a federal criminal case in the future and that he would like the criminal trial at the state level to be set quickly. Massey has not filed to sever Martin's case from the rest.

"I think in the state system, we need to get this matter to trial," Massey said. "If others are with us when we go, that's fine. If they want to wait and try their cases at a different time, that's up to them. But I think we will be looking for a trial date on the next setting."

Massey also said he expects the case, at least against Martin, to go to trial.

The U.S. Attorney General for the Western District of Tennessee is conducting a criminal investigation into Nichols' death separately from the U.S. Department of Justice's pattern or practice investigation.

Ruling on additional records expected

Also before Jones is a motion by the Media Coalition to release a trove of additional records that the DA's office was given by the City of Memphis following its internal investigation.

The records were initially slated to be released by the City of Memphis in March, but that release was put on hold after a motion was filed by defense attorneys representing the former officers.

The contents of the records are unclear, but then-City of Memphis Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink previously said there are more than 20 hours of audio and video footage contained in the records. In a mid-May court hearing, Hagerman said there are also personnel files and Garrity statements — which are statements made during internal investigations — among "2,000 or 3,000 pages of documents."

It is not likely those Garrity statements will be released, but other documents might be included with some redactions.

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: Tyre Nichols criminal case: what to know as a trial looms