A judge sentenced Hunter Elward, a former sheriff’s deputy of Rankin County, Mississippi, to 241 months or about 20 years in prison Tuesday over torturing three men, according to multiple reports.
Elward had plead guilty to 12 felony counts, with 11 of them having to do with the torture of two men in Jan. 2023 and another individual in Dec. 2022, according to WLBT. The judge also ordered Elward to pay $79,500 in restitution to victims Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins. Elward must undergo three years of supervised probation after his release, the outlet reported. (RELATED: ‘Shut Your B*tch A*s Up’: Video Shows Female Cop Tasing Handcuffed Black Suspect)
Authorities charged five other law enforcement officers with torturing Parker and Jenkins back in Jan. 2023, ABC reported.
A neighbor called police and complained of “suspicious activity” by two men, who ended up being Parker and Jenkins, according to ABC. A shift of officers who called themselves “The Goon Squad” were then dispatched to the scene. “The Goon Squad” began to beat up, sexually assault and tase Parker and Jenkins while the two were handcuffed for about 90 minutes, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Elward shot Jenkins in the mouth during the torture session, and the officers began to “plant” and “tamper with evidence” to “cover up their misconduct,” the DOJ said, ABC reported.
JUST IN: Former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy Hunter Elward was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to roughly 20 years after pleading guilty to the January 2023 torture of two Black men. https://t.co/RKXeTTbyVi
— ABC News (@ABC) March 19, 2024
U.S. District Judge Tom Lee’s sentence was the maximum permitted under federal law, WLBT reported.
“I don’t think any commentary is necessary because it’s so apparent the egregious and despicable nature of the crimes … and the [impact] the conduct has had on the victims, that a sentence at the top of the guidelines is more than justified, is what the defendant deserves, what the victim deserves and the community deserves,” the judge said.
“Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker continue to suffer emotionally and physically since this horrific and bloody attack by Rankin County deputies,” attorney Malik Shabazz said, the outlet reported.
Shabazz added that the six white deputies had racist motives for subjecting his black clients to torture and called for the maximum sentences to be ordered against the assailants. “The six white deputies broke into a private home, accused two young Black men of ‘dating white women’ then proceeded to beat, taser, attack, and assault the two young victims.”