J. Pete Theodokion, Mr. Brian’s attorney, said his client would help stalk any person who was stalked down his street, regardless of race. “His instincts told him that people aren’t chased like that, people aren’t chased like that, unless they did something wrong,” he said.
AJ Balbo, Greg McMichael’s attorney, noted that police had previously shown Mr. McMichael security footage of Mr. Arbery inside a house under construction next to the McMichael home. This meant that Mr. McMichael recognized Mr. Arbery on the afternoon of February 23, 2020, when Mr. Arbery ran past him.
“When he stands in the driveway and looks up, he may not know Mr. Arbery’s name, but he knows who he is,” Mr. Balbo said of Mr. McMichael.
Mr. Balbo offered jurors a hypothetical: what if a black man who didn’t look like Mr. Arbery, say, a 350-pound man with a tall Mohawk, had run down the street that day? Mr. Balbo argued that Mr. McMichael would not go after such a person.
Mr. Balbo also noted that no evidence was presented in court that his client used racist slurs, although he did make racist provocative statements. At trial, investigators noted that they were unable to fully search Mr. McMichael’s encrypted mobile phone for digital evidence of past behavior.
Notably, the jury in the case was not informed that Mr Bryan had told investigators that Travis McMichael used racist slurs in the moment after he shot Mr Arbery. This important detail, denied by Mr. McMichael’s lawyers, was probably not presented because Mr. Bryan exercised his Fifth Amendment right not to testify.
This, in turn, would deprive Mr. McMichael of his Sixth Amendment right to confront his accuser.