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BRANDON, Miss. — Six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who abused two Black men for hours were sentenced in state court Wednesday to 15 to 45 years in prison.
Their sentences will run concurrently with their federal sentences handed down last month, which range from 10 to 40 years in prison.
The ex-officers had pleaded guilty after the torture of Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker at a home in January 2023.
Five former Rankin County Sheriff's deputies — Hunter Elward, Brett McAlpin, Christian Dedmon, Daniel Opdyke and Jeffrey Middleton — along with former Richland Police Department officer Joshua Hartfield were sentenced in a Rankin County circuit court Wednesday.
The group of white officers raided the home in Braxton without a warrant, subjected the two Black men to racist vitriol, used Tasers on them after they had already been handcuffed, beat them with various objects and one of them shot Jenkins in the mouth, prosecutors said.
Shortly before Wednesday's sentencing, Jenkins described the horror he endured in a statement read by his attorney Malik Shabazz.
"Me and Eddie in this event were called racist names. We were called (a racial slur), we were called monkey, we were called boy, and we were accused of dating white women," the statement said.
"After Hunter Elward shot me, they left me to die bleeding on the floor. And they tried to set me up to be in prison," Jenkins' statement said. "Your honor, they killed me. I just didn't die."
What will happen to the officers
Each of the ex-officers faced state charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
Dedmon was also charged with home invasion, and Elward was also charged with home invasion and aggravated assault.
McAlpin, Middleton, Opdyke and Hartfield all faced an additional charge of first-degree obstruction of justice.
While all of the state sentences will run concurrently with the federal sentences, some of the ex-officers will now spend more time behind bars because of the state charges:
- Elward was sentenced in state court to 45 years in prison, to run concurrently with his federal sentence of 20 years;
- Middleton was sentenced in state court to 20 years in prison, which will run concurrently with his federal sentence of 17.5 years;
- Opdyke was sentenced in state court to 20 years in prison, to run concurrently with his federal sentence of 17.5 years;
- Hartfield was sentenced in state court to 15 years in prison, to run concurrently with his federal sentence of 10 years;
- Dedmon was sentenced in state court to 25 years in prison, to run concurrently with his federal sentence of 40 years;
- McAlpin was sentenced in state court to 20 years in prison, to run concurrently with his federal sentence of just over 27 years;
Wednesday morning's hearing took place in a circuit court that sits in the heart of the Rankin County seat of Brandon — across the street from a Confederate monument — and around 20 miles from the home where the racially charged torture of Parker and Jenkins took place.
The NAACP started a national petition to remove the 1907 monument, topped by a statue of a Confederate soldier, which they say symbolizes decades of racist culture in the county.
How the abuse unfolded
The torture happened on Jan. 24, 2023, in Braxton, just southeast of Jackson. It came to light after the two victims filed a $400 million federal lawsuit, which is still pending. Many of the claims in the lawsuit were reflected in the federal charging document.
The two men said the six law enforcement officers illegally entered the home of a woman Parker was helping to care for and where he was also living. They kicked, waterboarded and used Tasers on Jenkins and Parker and attempted to sexually assault them for nearly two hours before Elward put a gun in Jenkins' mouth and shot him.
The officers went to the home after a white neighbor reported that several Black men were staying at a white woman's home and reported seeing suspicious behavior —but in the end, the officers found no crime, prosecutors said.
At least three of them — Elward, Middleton and Opdyke — were part of a group of deputies that called themselves "The Goon Squad" because of their willingness to use excessive force and not report it, federal prosecutors said in court documents.
"This brutal attack caused more than physical harm to these two individual victims; it severed that vital trust with the people," Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said in August when announcing the state charges. "This abuse of power will not be tolerated."
The former officers pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice, according to court records. Elward faced the most serious of the federal charges stemming from the torture — discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence.
Justice Department attorneys described in court how Middleton boasted about the group with Rankin County Sheriff's Department emblems branded with the words "Goon Squad," picturing a Confederate flag and a noose.
