A former Mississippi deputy was sentenced Tuesday to about 20 years in prison for torturing two black men in a racist attack and for his role in another sexual assault of a white man.

Hunter Elward, 31, was sentenced to 241 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee. Lee will also sentence five other former law enforcement officers who admitted to assaulting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker after neighbors complained they were living in a house with a white woman. torture.

Before handing down the sentence, Lee called Aylward’s crimes “shocking and despicable” and said “the maximum sentence within the guidelines is reasonable – more than just reasonable.” He continued: “This is what the defendant They deserve it. This is what the community and the defendant’s victims deserve.”

In January 2023, the six men broke into a Rankin County home without a search warrant and attacked Jenkins and Parker with stun guns, sex toys and other items. Aylward admitted to putting a gun in Jenkins’ mouth and conducting a “mock execution” that went wrong.

The horror began on January 24, 2023, when a white man called Rankin County Deputy Brett McAlpin to complain about two black men living with a white woman in the Brax In a house in Tonton, racists called for extrajudicial violence. McAlpine told Sheriff Christian Dedmon that he texted a group of white officers who were so willing to use excessive force that they called themselves the “Thug 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 bathe together to hide the mess. They taunted the victims with racial slurs and shocked them with stun guns.

After Aylward shot Jenkins in the mouth, they devised a cover-up that included planting drugs and a gun. Jenkins and Parker have been subject to false accusations for months. Jenkins’ tongue was torn out and his jaw was broken.

Last March, months before federal prosecutors announced charges in August, an Associated Press investigation revealed that some officers had been involved in at least four violent encounters with black people since 2019, resulting in two One person died and one person suffered lasting injuries.

Jenkins is a musician whose injury prevents him from singing like he used to. He also said he had difficulty speaking and eating. Parker said he relives the scene in nightmares.

Both men, sitting in the front row, called for “the harshest possible sentence”. They were too traumatized to speak in court, said their lawyer Malik Shabazz, who read statements on their behalf.

“I’m hurt. I’m heartbroken,” Jenkins wrote in the statement. “They tried to take away my manhood. They did some unimaginable things to me and the effects will be felt for the rest of my life.”

Aylward, wearing a dark blue jumpsuit with tape covering the name of his facility, said before he was sentenced that he would not make excuses. He turned to Jenkins and Parker, looking directly at them.

“I don’t want to get too personal. I see you every night, but I can’t go back and do the right thing,” Aylward said. “I’m very sorry for what I did.”

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

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

“It became the new norm, it became the institution,” Holomon said. “Hunter began to fall into a culture of corruption within the Rankin County Sheriff’s Office.”

Aylward was also sentenced Tuesday for assaulting another man weeks before Jenkins and Parker were tortured. On Tuesday, prosecutors identified the victim for the first time as Alan Schmidt and read a statement from him detailing what happened to him on Dec. 4, 2022.

Schmidt said that during a traffic stop that night, Rankin County deputies charged him with possession of stolen property. They pulled him from the car and beat him. Dedmon then forced him to his knees and attempted to insert his genitals into Schmidt’s mouth as Aylward watched.

“I pray every day that I will be able to forgive them and hopefully forget the humiliation and evil physical and sexual assault I suffered,” Schmidt wrote. “I know I am not their only victim and my heart goes out to each and every one of them. Prayers for victims who have had contact with Goon Squad members.”

The officers accused of torturing Parker and Jenkins include Ellward, McAlpine, Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdike of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, as well as Richland Police Officer Joshua Ha Turfield. They have pleaded guilty to multiple federal and state charges.

All former officers could face up to decades in prison on federal charges. They also agreed to a prison sentence of five to 30 years recommended by state court prosecutors. Time served on a separate state-level conviction will run concurrently with a potentially longer federal sentence.

Predominately white Rankin County, located east of the state capital of Jackson, has one of the highest proportions of black residents among major U.S. cities.

Court documents say police warned Jenkins and Parker to “stay away from Rankin County and return to ‘their side’ of Jackson or Pearl River,” referring to areas with higher concentrations of black residents.

Federal prosecutors see echoes of Mississippi’s dark history in horrific crimes committed by those charged with law enforcement, including the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers after a deputy turned them over to the Ku Klux Klan.

For months, Rankin County Sheriff Brian Bailey, whose deputies committed the crimes, had little to say about the incident. After the officers pleaded guilty in August, Bailey said the officers had gone rogue and promised to change departments. Jenkins and Parker called for his resignation and filed a $400 million civil lawsuit against the department.