BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Defense attorneys in a hate crime trial involving three white men convicted of the murder of Ahmad Arbery dropped their case Friday, calling just one witness.
None of the defendants – Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William Bryan – spoke in their defense.
Last year, these men were convicted in state court for stalking Mr. Arbery around their South Georgia neighborhood and killing him. All three were sentenced to life imprisonment. In federal court, they are accused of stalking and killing Mr. Arbery precisely because he was black.
On Friday, Gregory McMichael’s attorney alone presented evidence to the jury in an attempt to bolster the defense’s main argument that the men were harassing Mr Arbery because they suspected him of burglary in the area, not because of his race.
The only defense witness, a woman who lived in the area of Satilla Shores where the defendants lived and where Mr. Arbery died, testified that one day in 2019 she saw a suspicious white man under a bridge at the entrance to the area. A.J. Balbo, Mr. McMichael’s attorney, played a tape of Mr. McMichael’s call to authorities that summer after he too saw a white man under a bridge who he believed was suspicious and possibly responsible for the burglary. The defendants claimed in both trials that they were on alert because of a string of break-ins.
The lawyer for Mr. Arbery’s family was skeptical of this line of reasoning.
“The defense tried to use this witness to show that their clients were not racists, that they called the police on a white person and were concerned about crime, but just because you called the police on a white person doesn’t mean you are.” I am not a racist,” said Lynn Whitfield, a senior lawyer with the Coalition for Transformational Justice, who was present with Mr. Arbery’s family during the trial. “They didn’t chase the white man around the neighborhood with guns and kill him.”
The jury was tasked with determining whether Mr. Arbery’s men disqualified him from using the public street because he was black, not whether they committed the murder. The men are also charged with attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels are charged with one count of using a weapon during a violent crime. If found guilty, they face life imprisonment. The convictions would have practical implications if the men’s state convictions were overturned on appeal.
The defense witness on Friday came after prosecutors called 20 witnesses and presented dozens of evidence over the course of three and a half days, including text messages, WhatsApp and Facebook messages and racist comments the men posted and sent to others.
Among the witnesses for the prosecution was Christy Ronquill, who testified on Friday morning.
Ms. Ronquil said that in 2011, when she was serving with the Coast Guard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Travis McMichael, then her boss, spoke disparagingly of black people after learning that she had previously dated a black man. Crying on the stand, Ms. Ronquil said Mr. McMichael had called her “H-word lover” more than once since then.
Asked by Travis McMichael’s attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, why she didn’t report him, Ms. Ronquil replied that she was new to the Coast Guard.
“This is my boss – it’s like talking about your boss,” she said. Who are you denouncing your boss to?
On Friday, the prosecution also called Kim Ballesteros, a neighbor of the McMichaels, who said she remembers standing at the end of her driveway telling Gregory McMichael she has a new rental property. Mr. McMichael told her about his tenant, a black woman who had rented the house from him. He said that in the summer he turned off the woman’s air conditioner to force her to pay the rent.
Understand the murder of Ahmad Arbery
Card 1 of 6
Filming. February 23, 2020 Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, was shot to death after being chased by three white men while jogging near his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, Georgia. Mr. Arbery’s murder was captured on graphic video, which was widely viewed by the public.
Victim. Mr Arbery was former outstanding high school football player and avid runner. At the time of his death, he lived with his mother outside of a small coastal town in South Georgia.
Suspects. Three white men — Gregory McMichael, 67, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 — accused of murdering Mr Arbery. They told authorities that they suspected Mr. Arbery of committing a series of break-ins.
“You should have seen how quickly her big fat black ass arrived with the rent check,” Ms. Ballesteros recalled Mr. McMichael’s words. Ms Ballesteros said Mr McMichael called the woman a “walrus” because she was “big and black”.
“I was surprised,” Ms. Ballesteros said. “It was racist and inconvenient and I was frankly disappointed.”
Mr. Balbo, Gregory McMichael’s lawyer, noted that Ms. Ballesteros continued to speak with Mr. McMichael after the incident and that his client was renting out the apartment to African Americans.
Another witness, Carol Sears, said she remembered Gregory McMichael “ranting” about black people after learning that Julian Bond, the leader of the civil rights movement, had died. At the time, Mr. McMichael was an investigator with the local district attorney’s office, and she was in his car because of her involvement in a court case in Brunswick, Georgia. Mrs. Sears was upset by Mr. Bond’s death, while Mr. According to her, McMichael was pleased. “I wish this guy was in the ground years ago,” Ms. Sears recalls Mr. McMichael’s words. “All these blacks are some trouble, and I want them all died.”
Miss Sears said she didn’t speak for the rest of the trip because she was afraid.
In their opening statements this week, defense lawyers criticized the racist language used by their clients, but they also insisted that the use of such language was not proof that the men killed Mr Arbery because he was black.
Men harassed Mr. Arbery “not because he was black, but because he was a man,” Mr. Balbo said in his opening statements.
The jury will hear closing arguments from the government and the defendants on Monday.