MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Three former Memphis police officers charged with murder in the beating of Tyre Nichols will go on trial in April, a judge decided Friday.
Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith have pleaded not guilty to state charges of second-degree murder in the death of Nichols, who was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton after he fled a traffic stop in January 2023.
During a hearing Friday, Shelby County Judge James Jones Jr. scheduled their trial in state court for April 28.
The three were found guilty Oct. 3 of federal witness tampering charges in the death of Nichols, 29, whose beating was caught on police video that has been released to the public. Haley was also convicted on two federal civil rights violations and a charge of conspiracy to witness tamper. They are scheduled for sentencing on the federal convictions in January.
The three, along with Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr., were part of a crime suppression team called the Scorpion Unit that was disbanded after Nichols' beating.
Mills and Martin pleaded guilty ahead of the federal trial, and they testified for prosecutors. Their sentences are pending. Mills and Martin also are expected to change their pleas in state court, which allows them to avoid a murder trial.
Nichols, who was Black, had run from a traffic stop despite being hit with pepper spray and a Taser. He died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. The five officers, who also are Black, were fired and then indicted in the death, which sparked national protests and calls for broad changes in policing.
After officers caught up to Nichols, police body cameras and a security camera captured officers pummeling Nichols in a struggle just steps from his home as he cried out for his mother.
The video shows the officers milling about, talking and laughing as Nichols struggles with his injuries. An autopsy report shows he died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, along with cuts and bruises on his head and other areas.
Attorneys for Bean and Smith have filed motions asking U.S. District Judge Mark S. Norris to throw out their federal convictions. Norris has not ruled on the motions.
FILE - This combo of images provided by the Memphis, Tenn., Police Department shows, top row from left, officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, and bottom row from left, Desmond Mills Jr. and Justin Smith. (Memphis Police Department via AP, File)
FILE - Attorney Ben Crump, left, RowVaughn Wells, right, leave the federal courthouse after three former Memphis police officers were convicted of witness tampering charges in the 2023 fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, Oct. 3, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
LONDON (AP) — Musicians, collectors and fans have a chance to own a guitar god’s tools of the trade — instruments owned by the late Jeff Beck are going up for auction.
Christie’s announced Friday it will sell more than 130 items, including 90 guitars, from the collection of the Yardbirds and Jeff Beck Group guitarist, who died in January 2023 at age 78.
Valued at more than 1 million pounds ($1.3 million), the collection includes an oxblood 1954 Gibson Les Paul that Beck bought in Memphis in 1972 and played for the rest of the decade. The guitar, which is featured on the cover of Beck’s Grammy-winning 1975 jazz-fusion album “Blow by Blow,” is expected to sell for between 350,000 pounds and 500,000 pounds ($450,000 and $640,000).
Amelia Walker, head of Private and Iconic Collections at Christie's, called it “a really beautiful instrument, covered in grime and dust and signs of use.”
“I think it’s part of the appeal,” she said. “These are things that he used. They’ve got the indents of his fingernails on the fret boards. Some of them, the strings haven’t been changed for years. He played them hard. He didn’t see them as precious works of art — they were his tools to ply his trade with.”
Beck came to prominence in the 1960s with hard-rock progenitors the Yardbirds and went on to a solo career that incorporated rock, jazz, blues and even opera. Twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — with the Yardbirds and as a solo artist — he played with everyone from Rod Stewart to Davie Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Tina Turner, and was known for his improvisational skill and the unique sound he got from the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.
“He had an unparalleled ability to bend entire tones” on the Strat, Walker said. The sale includes Beck’s 1954 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster, valued at between 50,000 pounds and 80,000 pounds ($65,000 and $100,000), and a white Strat that was his staple instrument for 16 years, played everywhere from Ronnie Scott’s jazz club to the Obama White House. It has an estimated value between 20,000 pounds and 30,000 pounds ($26,000 and $39,000).
One of a group of 1960s guitar heroes that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix, Beck was revered by many peers as “the ultimate maestro,” Walker said.
As well as Beck’s beloved Strats, the sale features other models including a Telecaster-Gibson hybrid “Tele-Gib” valued at between 100,000 pounds and 150,000 pounds ($130,000 and $190,000).
“It didn’t really matter what he was playing, he’d always sound like Jeff Beck,” Walker said. “It didn’t matter what the amp was turned to or which guitar, he could still pick it up and make it sound incredible. It’s all in the fingers, and in his brain.”
The sale follows Christie's auction of some of Dire Straits’ guitarist Mark Knopfler’s collection, which raised more than 8.8 million pounds ($11.2 million) earlier this year, and memorabilia from model, artist and 1960s musicians’ muse Pattie Boyd, which sold for 2.8 million pounds ($3.6 million) in March.
Beck’s widow, Sandra Beck, said it was a “massive wrench” to part with the collection, but that “I know Jeff wanted for me to share this love.”
“After some hard thinking I decided they need to be shared, played and loved again,” she said.
A selection of the guitars will go on display at Christie's Los Angeles showroom Dec. 4-6, and the whole collection will be at Christie’s in London from Jan. 15 until the sale on Jan. 22.
Rocker Jeff Beck performs at the Louisiana Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Friday, April 29, 2011. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
