Former Memphis police officer charged in fatal beating of Nichols Tire sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of the seriously injured man the night he was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton following a traffic stop, according to testimony at trial Wednesday.
Brittany Leake, a Memphis police officer and former girlfriend of Demetrius Haley, testified at the criminal trial that she was on the phone with Haley when officers pulled Nichols over for a traffic stop. She said she heard a “commotion,” including verbal commands for someone to reach out to officers.
The call ended, but Haley later texted the photo to a group chat that included Haley, Leake and her goddaughter, she testified. Prosecutors showed the photo to the jury. It shows Nichols with his eyes closed, lying on the ground with what appeared to be blood near his mouth and his hands behind his back.
Leake said that when she saw the photo, her reaction was: “Oh my God, he has to go to the Mediterranean.”
Med is short for Memphis Trauma Hospital.
The fatal beating, filmed by police body cameras and surveillance cameras on the street, sparked protests and calls for police reform. Officers said they stopped Nichols for reckless driving, but Memphis Police Chief Says There was no evidence to support this claim.
Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith are on triall after pleading not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his civil rights by excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice by tampering with witnesses. The trial began on September 9 and should last three to four weeks.
George Walker IV / AP
The Memphis Police Department fired the three men, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., after Nichols’ death. The beating was caught on video by police, which was released to the public. The officers were later indicted on federal charges. Martin and Mills agreed to a plea deal.
In her testimony Wednesday, Leake said she deleted the photo after seeing it and that sending such a photo was against police policy.
“I wasn’t offended, but it was hard to watch,” she said.
Leake said Haley had previously sent him photos of drugs and a person injured in a car accident.
Earlier Wednesday, Martin was on the witness stand for a third day. Defense attorneys tried to point out inconsistencies between Martin’s statements to investigators and his testimony in court. Martin acknowledged lying about what happened to Memphis Police Department internal investigators in an attempt to cover up and “justify what I did.”
But Martin said he told FBI investigators the truth after pleading guilty in August, including saying he felt pressure on his duty belt where his gun was located during the traffic stop but could not see whether Nichols was trying to get his weapon back. Martin testified that he said “drop my gun” during the traffic stop.
Martin Zummach, Smith’s attorney, asked Martin if he knew of any reason why Nichols didn’t just say, “I give up.”
“He’s beside himself,” Martin said. “Disoriented.”
Martin testified that the situation quickly escalated when Haley pulled out his gun and violently pulled Nichols from his car, using profanity and failing to tell Nichols why he had been arrested and removed from the vehicle.
“He never had a chance to comply,” Martin said.
Nichols, who was black, was pepper-sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop but fled, police video shows. The five officers, who are also black, then beat him about a block from his home as he called for his mother.
The video shows officers moving around and talking as Nichols struggles with his injuries. Nichols died on January 10, 2023, three days after the beating.
An autopsy report shows that Nichols – the father of a boy The child, now 7, died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, cuts and bruises on the head and other parts of the body.
Jesse Guy testified that he was working as a paramedic for the Memphis Fire Department the night of the beating. He arrived on the scene after two emergency medical technicians, Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge.
Guy said he was not informed of the medical issues Nichols had before he arrived, and that Nichols was injured, sitting on the floor and unresponsive.
Nichols had no pulse and was not breathing, and “he felt like he was lifeless,” Guy said.
In the ambulance, Guy performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and provided mechanical ventilation, and Nichols had a pulse by the time he arrived at the hospital, the paramedic said.
Guy said Long and Sandridge did not say whether they checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not indicate whether they administered oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s attorneys whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said it would have.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department rules after Nichols’ death. They have not been criminally charged.
The five officers were also charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas.
Federal prosecutors have already recommended 40-year sentence for MartinThe date has not yet been set by the state court.
Nichols worked for FedEx and enjoyed skateboarding and photography. The city of Sacramento, where Nichols grew up, named a skatepark in his honor. “Tyre fell in love with skateboarding at a young age and it didn’t take long before it became part of his lifestyle,” the resolution approved by the city council states. He had a mother’s name tattoo.
“The family of Tyre Nichols has prayed for justice and accountability since the very beginning of this tragedy,” Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the civil rights attorneys representing Nichols’ family, said in a statement at the start of the trial.
