The racist police officer who shot a black man in the mouth during a torture session with his ‘Goon Squad’ colleagues received more than double his prison sentence as all six were sentenced today on state charges.
The rogue collective subjected Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker to nearly two hours of beatings, waterboarding, sexual assault and electrocution after breaking into a Mississippi home in January 2023.
The group had already been sentenced to between 10 and 40 years on federal charges and four of them had their prison terms increased today, including Deputy Hunter Elward, who will now serve 45 years instead of 20.
Jenkins, who was shot in the mouth by Elward, 31, said the officers had “tried to take my manhood.”
“They did unimaginable things to me and the effects will last in my life forever,” he added.
Former Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputy Hunter Elward received a 45-year sentence to run concurrently with his 20-year federal sentence after shooting Michael Jenkins in the mouth during a botched mock execution.
Michael Corey Jenkins, left, and Eddie Terrell Parker, foreground, appeared in court Wednesday.
Former Rankin County Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Opdyke looked out for his family after his prison sentence increased from 17.5 to 20 years.
The deputies, five of whom worked for the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office, burst into a home in Braxton without a warrant after a neighbor complained that two black men were staying there with a white woman and acting ” suspiciously.”
At least three of them were members of a self-styled ‘Goon Squad’, committed to using excessive force against members of the public.
An earlier hearing was said to have marked the emblems of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department with the words “Goon Squad,” a Confederate flag and a noose.
Elward, who had previously been accused of beating a mentally ill Black man to death in 2021, shot Jenkins in a ‘mock execution’ after putting a gun in his mouth.
With their victim bleeding on the ground, the officers devised a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun.
The Rankin County Sheriff’s Department later supported the deputies’ false charges, which were filed against Jenkins and Parker for months.
‘Eddie and I received racist nicknames at this event. They called us a black, they called us a monkey, they called us a boy and they accused us of dating white women,” Jenkins said before the sentencing in a statement read by his attorney.
‘After Hunter Elward shot me, they left me to die bleeding on the ground. And they tried to set me up so that I would be in prison.
‘Your Honor, they killed me. I just didn’t die.
The officers charged in connection with the assault of Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker were (above left to right) Brett McAlpin, Jeffrey Middleton and Christian Dedmon. (Bottom left) Hunter Elward, Daniel Opdyke, Joshua Hartfield
Members of the ‘Goon Squad’ of Rankin County law enforcement officers carried a coin to show they were part of the sick group. In the photo: Lieutenant Middleton’s coin.
Michael Corey Jenkins in hospital after being shot in the mouth during assault
Each of the former officers, who were shackled and dressed in prison uniforms, took their turn before Circuit Court Judge Steve Ratcliff on Wednesday at a courthouse in Brandon, in front of a Confederate monument.
Each of the men admitted charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice.
Christian Dedmon, 29, was also charged with home invasion, and Elward was also charged with home invasion and aggravated assault.
Brett McAlpin, 53, Middleton, 46, Daniel Opdyke, 28, and Joshua Hartfield, 32, faced an additional charge of first-degree obstruction of justice.
His two victims have filed a $400 million federal lawsuit, and the Rankin County NAACP said the officers’ behavior called into question other convictions.
“This chapter of the book is already written, but the book is not finished,” President Angela English said Wednesday.
‘We have spoken with the Department of Justice. We have reiterated that we want a clean sweep.
‘We want you to visit the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department and clean house.
“We want them to go to the prisons and reopen all these cases that these illegal agents have created.”
Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said the case had jeopardized community relations and trust in law enforcement.
“The actions of these six men caused serious harm to these two victims, Michael Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and violated the trust of all the citizens they swore to protect,” he said after the sentencing.
“These former officers also violated the trust of other men and women who honorably wear the uniform, each of whom will feel the repercussions of the distrust they sowed between law enforcement and the people.
‘These criminal acts make a difficult job even more difficult and much more dangerous. And it is up to all of us to commit to repairing that damage.”