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In hearings starting on Tuesday in a U.S. District Court in
Mississippi, the six white men could each face at least two
decades in federal prison and hefty fines over several counts
including deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice.
Five of the men were Rankin County sheriff's deputies and one
was a police officer in Richland, Mississippi.
According to federal prosecutors, the defendants - Brett McAlpin,
Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Joshua Hartfield, Jeffrey
Middleton and Daniel Opdyke - entered a home on Jan. 24, 2023,
in Braxton, Mississippi, near Jackson, without a search warrant.
For nearly two hours, the officers physically and sexually
assaulted Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker while
screaming racial slurs at the handcuffed men, according to court
documents.
Dedmon then stuck a pistol in Jenkins' mouth in a "mock
execution" that went wrong when he pulled the trigger, court
records showed. Jenkins' jaw was shattered and his tongue
lacerated.
"Daniel has accepted responsibility for his actions and failures
to act," Opdyke's attorneys said in a statement. He "has
admitted he was wrong, and feels deep remorse for the pain he
caused the victims."
Attorneys for the other men were not immediately available for
comment.
Each will have a separate sentencing hearing, starting with
Elward and Middleton on Tuesday. Opdyke and Dedmon are scheduled
to be sentenced on Wednesday, and Hartfield and McAlpin on
Thursday.
The guilty pleas in federal court in August were entered as part
of a larger agreement that included guilty pleas to state
charges. A date has not yet been set for the sentencing in the
state case.
The men will serve their sentences in the two cases
concurrently.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Editing by Donna
Bryson and Bill Berkrot)
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