JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Two former Mississippi sheriff’s deputies have been convicted of participating in the torture of two black men after a neighbor complained that the men were in the home with a white woman.

Hunter Elward and Jeffrey Middleton were sentenced Tuesday by a federal judge in Jackson.

Elward received roughly 20 years in prison and Middleton received greater than 17 years behind bars. Four other former law enforcement officers are scheduled to begin sentencing later this week in the case.

In August, all six former officers pleaded guilty to several federal charges. They pleaded guilty to torturing Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in January 2023.

Hunter Elward, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee to 241 months in prison. The judge can be expected to sentence 4 other former officers who confessed to torture Jenkins and Parker after a neighbor complained that the men were in the home with a white woman.

Before handing down the sentence, Lee called Elward’s crimes “egregious and despicable” and said that “a sentence at the high end of the guideline range is justified – it is more than justified.” He continued: “The defendant deserves it. This is what the community and the defendant’s victims deserve.”

In January 2023, a six-person group entered a Rankin County home with no warrant and attacked Jenkins and Parker with stun guns, a sex toy and other items. Elward admitted to putting a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and firing a shot as part of a “mock execution” that went improper.

The terror began on January 24, 2023, with a racist incitement to extrajudicial violence, when a white person called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin and complained that two black men were with a white woman in a house in Braxton. McAlpin told Deputy Christian Dedmon texted a bunch of white deputies who were so willing to use excessive force that they called themselves “The Goon Squad.”

Once inside, they handcuffed Jenkins and his friend Parker and poured milk, alcohol and chocolate syrup in their faces. They forced them to strip naked and take a shower together to hide the mess. They taunted the victims with racist insults and shocked them with stun guns.

After Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth, they hatched a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun. For months, false allegations were made against Jenkins and Parker. Jenkins suffered a lacerated tongue and a broken jaw.

Last March, months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August, an Associated Press investigation linked some deputies to a minimum of 4 violent encounters with Black men since 2019 that left two people dead and one with everlasting injuries. damage.

Jenkins is a musician and injuries have prevented him from singing like he used to. He also said he had trouble speaking and eating. Parker said he relives the episode in his nightmares.

The two men who sat in the front row called for “the harshest of sentences”. Their lawyer, Malik Shabazz, said they were too traumatized to speak in court and skim statements on their behalf.

“I am hurt. I am devastated,” Jenkins wrote in his statement. “They tried to take away my manhood. They did unspeakable things to me and the results will last the remainder of my life.

Elward, who was wearing a dark blue jumpsuit with tape covering the name of the power where he’s staying, said before the sentencing that he wouldn’t plead guilty. He turned to address Jenkins and Parker and checked out them directly.

“I don’t desire to get too personal. I see you each night and I can not return and do what’s right,” Elward said. “I’m very sorry for what I did.”

Parker then stood up and said, “I forgive you.”

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Elward’s attorney, Joe Hollomon, said his client first witnessed Rankin County deputies turning a blind eye to misconduct in 2017.

“It has become the new norm, it has become institutional,” Hollomon said. “Hunter was privy to a culture of corruption within the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office.”

During a Tuesday speech on the University of Georgia, FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke concerning the federal investigation into “unspeakable crimes” committed by six former law enforcement officers in Mississippi.

“It is difficult to imagine a more heinous set of civil rights violations than those committed by these guys,” Wray said, according to prepared remarks. “But on the other hand, it’s hard to imagine a more important job than investigating these crimes and seeking justice for the victims.”

Elward was also convicted of participating in an assault on one other person who occurred weeks before the torture of Jenkins and Parker. On Tuesday, prosecutors identified the victim for the primary time as Alan Schmidt and reviewed his statement, which detailed what happened to him on December 4, 2022.

Schmidt said that in a traffic stop that night, Rankin County deputies charged him with possession of stolen property. They dragged him out of the automotive and beat him. Dedmon then forced him to his knees and tried to put his genitals into Schmidt’s mouth while Elward watched.

“I pray every day that I can one day forgive them and hopefully forget the humiliation and evil physical and sexual assault that I experienced,” Schmidt wrote. “I know I’m not their only victim and I pray for every victim that has happened to the members of the Thug Squad.”

The officers accused of torturing Parker and Jenkins are Elward, McAlpin, Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, and Joshua Hartfield, a Richland police officer. They pleaded guilty to quite a few federal and state charges.

According to the federal charges, all former officers face a long time in prison. They also agreed to state court sentences really helpful by the prosecutor, starting from five to 30 years. The time served on separate state-level convictions will run concurrently with potentially longer federal sentences.

Majority-white Rankin County lies east of the state capital, Jackson, and is home to one of the very best percentages of black residents of any major U.S. city.

Officers warned Jenkins and Parker to (*37*) court documents say, referring to an area with the next concentration of black residents.

For months, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, whose deputies committed the crimes, said little concerning the incident. After the officers he pleaded guilty in August, Bailey said officers had gone rogue and promised to change the department. Jenkins and Parker called for his resignation and contributed $400 million civil lawsuit against the college.