MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Emmitt Martin III continued his testimony on what happened to Tyre Nichols in day seven of the federal trial of three former Memphis Police Department officers.
Martin had been indicted along with Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills and Justin Smith for their role in the Jan. 7, 2023 stop of Nichols.
Nichols died three days later, succumbing to injuries sustained from the officers.
Martin and Mills both accepted plea deals before the case went to trial.
During day six of the trial, Martin gave initial testimony about the SCORPION unit, saying members would frequently exaggerate what suspects did to justify the officers actions, including the night of Nichols stop.
Martin continued his testimony Tuesday by watching the videos from the night of the Nichols stop.
Before the start of the videos, Martin admitted that he did not have a radar and could not tell how fast he was going.
Prosecutors had Martin dissect the videos from body worn cameras with Martin saying they were just trying to get him into custody and didn’t factor in anything he was saying.
Martin said he wasn’t violently resisting and was passive.
When he came upon the second scene, Martin said that he thought that they were trying to get him into custody but that wasn’t the case.
“They were assaulting him,” Martin said. “I was already angry that he ran. I kicked him.
“He was helpless and he wasn’t a threat. I needed an arrest.”
Martin said it was his first week back from injury, saying he was on edge and angry and needed an arrest to show he could still do the job.
The unit had received a tip and it didn’t produce an arrest which added to his anger.
Body worn camera footage shows that Martin had tossed his camera, because he didn’t want to show what they were doing.
Martin was unaware of the Skycop above until he saw it on the news.
He admitted to kicking Nichols four times and punching him five times.
“He wasn’t a threat,” Martin said. “They were holding him up. He was helpless.”
“As you can see, he was helpless.”
Martin said Nichols seemed out of it and disoriented after and that there was no evidence Nichols was high as they had told supervisor, Lt. Dewayne Smith. Martin also admitted that he never saw Nichols drive into oncoming traffic.
“I exaggerated his actions to justify mine,” Martin said. “If I couldn’t justify, I would have to cover it up. I’m not going to tell on them and they’re not going to tell on me. It was understood.”
“I lied.”
In the reports filed that night, narratives read that Nichols had swung at officers and tried to get a hold of Martin’s gun. Martin said he never saw that occur.
Defense starts cross-examination, says Martin changed his story for the plea deal
After lunch, prosecutors asked Martin about a prior arrest he made with Haley and another SCORPION officer, Jesse Acosta, of a Jesus Valles.
Martin said that they received a call that someone had pointed a gun at an officer, photographed it and posted it on social media.
When they went to the area, they entered the apartment, Martin said he and Haley slammed Valles to the ground and punched him in the face and body.
He was shown his body worn camera from the arrest which shows Haley punching Valles while in handcuffs before Martin covers the body camera with his hand.
Prosecutors asked why Haley changed his story, to which he responded he “had to tell the truth.”
“I’m only here to accept my wrongdoing,” Martin said. “There comes a time where I can’t sit here and live with a lie. It was eating me up inside. I’m ready to get this off of me.”
Cross examination began and John Keith Perry, Bean’s attorney, questioned Martin and asked if he had ever told Bean that he had “homicidal thoughts.”
Martin said he never told that to Bean and had told that to Justin Smith before coming back to work in January 2023.
Perry brought up that Martin had only changed his story after accepting a plea deal and he had met with prosecutors four times about testifying.
If his testimony leads to conviction of even one defendant, Perry said, prosecutors could recommend Judge Norris give Martin a lesser sentence.
Martin said they could do that if they decided to but Norris would still have to rule on his sentence.
Perry questioned why his story had changed from meeting with ISB to now and Martin admitted to lying again.
But Martin did admit that Nichols was angry at the stop and said, “why the police f-ing with me?” But that was before the start of Preston Hemphill’s body worn camera being turned on.
Perry also had Martin agree that all stops could be high risk.
The defense hinged on whether or not Martin was lying to MPD’s internal affairs unit or on the stand now that he has accepted a plea deal.
Martin continued to point out that he had lied about what happened to justify what they had done.
Perry showed training video of Martin at the academy, being pepper sprayed and then fighting a dummy.
Perry then ended his cross examination by showing video of the arrest to Martin and asking him questions on what he saw.
Stephen Leffler then cross examined Martin in defense of Haley.
Leffler asked Martin about his past, particularly his experience playing football and the fact that he had lost consciousness multiple times, not just while playing but also in a car wreck.
Martin also agreed that he had suffered head injuries and experienced loss of family.
Leffler asked Martin if he had seen a psychologist and been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, to which he agreed.
Martin said that he had also experienced four life threatening injuries in one night when he was hit by a car.
From his PTSD, Martin said he had suffered from loss of sleep, paranoia, irritability and chronic headaches.
Martin said he wanted to get back out in the field though because he wanted his stats up.
“I just wanted to get stats,” Martin said. “If I didn’t, I would get replaced.”
Leffler showed Martin his own body worn camera putting out a call for the Nichols stop.
Martin admitted that he exaggerated the call to escalate the situation.
Cross examination of Martin will continue Wednesday.