MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) 鈥 Lawyers for three former Memphis officers rested their cases Monday without calling them to testify in their own defense against charges that they violated Tyre Nichols鈥 civil rights in a beating that proved fatal following a 2023 traffic stop.
Attorneys for Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith told a jury that they were not calling any more witnesses. Michael Stengel, Haley鈥檚 lawyer, John Keith Perry, Bean鈥檚 attorney, and Martin Zummach, who represents Smith, each called their own police use-of-force experts in previous days of testimony in an attempt to justify the officers鈥 actions during the traffic stop and beating. The trial is now in its fourth week.
Zummach had said in opening statements that Smith would testify in his own defense. Smith did not take the stand. On Monday, Zummach questioned Jared Zwickey, who spent 50 years law enforcement and was called as an expert witness.
Zwickey said he analyzed video and he showed the jury excerpts of Smith and Bean hitting Nichols when they caught him after he ran from the traffic stop. Zwickey testified that Smith鈥檚 actions were consistent with Memphis police and national policing standards and training.
The five officers charged in Nichols' death were part of the the Scorpion Unit, which looked for drugs, illegal guns and violent offenders. It was disbanded after Nichols鈥 death. Two of them 鈥 and 鈥 pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors.
Smith, characterized as Scorpion Unit One鈥檚 team leader, said, 鈥渉it him,鈥 during the beating. Prosecutors have called witnesses who said that statement went against department policy and training in the context of Nichols鈥 beating. Zummach asked Zwickey if that statement was appropriate in the Nichols situation.
鈥淚t鈥檇 be appropriate if the officer needed help,鈥 Zwickey said.
Another witness, former Memphis officer Mark Wojcicki, said he supervised Smith when Smith was on a criminal apprehension unit in 2020. Wojcicki, who is now a church pastor, called Smith a 鈥渉igh level, highly professional officer鈥 and a 鈥済ood, honest man.鈥
Under cross-examination by prosecutor Kathryn Gilbert, Wojcicki agreed that a good officer would not use excessive force.
The officers used pepper spray and a Taser on Nichols, who was Black, during a traffic stop, but the 29-year-old ran away, shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then punched, kicked and hit him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.
died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. An autopsy report shows Nichols 鈥 the father of a boy who is now 7 鈥 died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Prosecutors have maintained officers employed the 鈥 against Nichols because he ran from the traffic stop.
Haley, Bean and Justin Smith pleaded not guilty to federal charges of excessive force, failure to intervene, and obstructing justice through witness tampering.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas. A trial date in state court has not been set.
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Associated Press reporter Jonathan Mattise contributed from Nashville, Tennessee.
