Donald Ray Middlebrooks

On April 26, 1987, Kerrick Majors, a 14-year-old African-American boy, was tortured and murdered by three white drifters during a racially motivated hate crime in East Nashville, Tennessee.

Majors was attacked by the trio after he and his friends accidentally broke a $2 vase at a flea market.

Majors was kidnapped, tortured, beaten, and stabbed to death, while his attackers yelled racial slurs at him.

His body was found the following day.

Donald Ray Middlebrooks, Tammy Middlebrooks, and Robert Brewington, all white, were convicted of his murder.

Donald Middlebrooks, considered the ringleader, was sentenced to death, while Tammy Middlebrooks and Brewington received life sentences.

The police were criticized for their handling of the case and were accused of being racially biased.

Majors' family later sued the Metro government and said the police's slow response to Majors' disappearance led to his death.

The case was notable due to its brutal nature, alleged racial bias from the police, and because it marked a rare occasion in which a white person received a death sentence for murdering a black person.

Middlebrooks was scheduled to be executed in December 2022, but his execution was later suspended.

If executed, Middlebrooks will be the first white person in modern Tennessee history to be executed for killing a black person.

On the evening of Sunday, April 26, 1987, 14-year-old Kerrick Majors, accompanied by four of his friends, headed to Gallatin Road in East Nashville, Tennessee.

At around 7:00 p.m., the group came across a table covered in stuff that belonged to three white homeless people: 24-year-old Donald Ray Middlebrooks, his wife, 17-year-old Tammy Middlebrooks, and their companion, 16-year-old Robert Roger Brewington Jr., who was a runaway.

The trio had been setting up a flea market to sell various items.

As Majors and his friends approached the table, Tammy shouted at them to leave the stuff alone.

During the commotion, a vase, which was later estimated to be valued at $2, was broken.

Majors and his friends began running and were chased down by the trio.

The trio caught Majors, and Brewington grabbed him around his neck and head.

Majors resisted and told the group they knew who he was.

Brewington responded by shouting racial slurs at him.

Two of Majors' friends then saw Donald Middlebrooks and Brewington take Majors back to the table, where Middlebrooks struck him across the face, knocking him to the ground.

Later that night, Majors' friends told his mother, Deborah, what had happened.

She then called the police.

Majors was taken into a wooded area behind a drug store on Gallatin Road.

He was tied up, and Tammy stayed watching him while Donald and Brewington searched for Majors' friends.

After failing to find them, they returned.

The trio then made Majors strip off his clothes before beating and kicking him repeatedly.

Majors was then tortured for several hours.

He was slapped, beaten with brass knuckles, hit with a stick, and urinated on by either Donald or Brewington.

Donald later admitted to striking Majors and hitting him on the leg with a switch.

He also claimed Tammy burned Majors' nose with a cigarette lighter while Brewington urged them on.

Brewington also admitted to hitting Majors in the face with a wooden stick.

A letter "X" was also carved into his chest with a knife.

After being tortured, Majors was stabbed twice in the chest with an assault knife.

Middlebrooks later claimed that both he and Brewington stabbed Majors once each.

In a previous statement, however, he claimed to have inflicted both stab wounds.

Brewington claimed Middlebrooks inflicted both stab wounds.

Majors then succumbed to his injuries and died at the scene.

After learning of her son's disappearance, Deborah Majors called the police.

An officer was then dispatched to her house.