Mississippi ex-deputy gets 20-year sentence for torture of 2 Black men
Newsy
Five other former law enforcement officers are set for sentencing this week. All six of the former officers pleaded guilty to several federal charges.
A former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Tuesday to about 20 years in prison for his part in torturing two Black men in a racist assault, and for his role in a separate episode in which a White man was sexually assaulted.
Hunter Elward, 31, was given a 241-month sentence by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee. The judge is also due to sentence five other ex-officers who admitted to torturing Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker after a neighbor complained that the men were staying in a home with a White woman. Before sentencing, Lee called Elward's crimes “egregious and despicable,” and said a “sentence at the top of the guidelines range is justified — is more than justified.” He continued: “It’s what the defendant deserves. It’s what the community and the defendant’s victims deserve.”
In January 2023, the group of six burst into a Rankin County home without a warrant and assaulted Jenkins and Parker with stun guns, a sex toy and other objects. Elward admitted to shoving a gun into Jenkins’ mouth and firing in a “mock execution” that went awry.
The terror began on Jan. 24, 2023, with a racist call for extrajudicial violence when a White person phoned Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two Black men were staying with a White woman at a house in Braxton. McAlpin told Deputy Christian Dedmon, who texted a group of White deputies so willing to use excessive force they called themselves “The Goon Squad.”
Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup over their faces. They forced them to strip naked and shower together to conceal the mess. They mocked the victims with racial slurs and shocked them with stun guns.
