MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A former Memphis police officer testified under a plea deal Wednesday that he helped cover up the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols because he wanted to protect his job, and was hoping Nichols would survive and the scrutiny of the officers would simply “blow over.” Desmond Mills returned to the stand for a second day in the trial of three former colleagues, Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith, who are charged in the fatal beating.
Mills and another former officer, Emmitt Martin , have testified for prosecutors after pleading guilty. In his testimony Wednesday, Mills said he was “going along with the cover-up ..
. hoping for the best” and hoping that Nichols would survive and “this whole thing would blow over.” Mills said he told his supervisor on the night of the beating that the Nichols arrest was handled “by the book.
” Nichols died in the hospital on Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating. “I had a lot at stake.
I needed this job for my family,” Mills said. Mills noted during his November guilty plea hearing that he has three young children. On Wednesday, he said he was thinking about his wife and kids in the aftermath of the beating.
His testimony came a day after he said through tears that he was sorry about the beating of Nichols, saying, "I made his child fatherless.” Nichols' son is now 7 years old. The officers used pepper spray and a Taser on Nichols, who was Black, during a traffic stop, but the 29-year-old .