BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) – The white father and son who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood received a second life sentence Monday for federal hate crimes, months after receiving the first for murder, in a hearing that closed more than two years of criminal proceedings.
U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood handed down the sentences against Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Greg McMichael, 66, reiterating the seriousness of the February 2020 killing that tear apart their Brunswick community. William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, who recorded a cellphone video of the killing, was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
“A young man is dead. Ahmaud Arbery will forever be 25 years old. And what happened, a jury found, happened because he’s black,” Wood said.
The McMichaels were previously sentenced to life in prison without parole in state court for Arbery’s murder and had asked the judge to divert them to a federal prison to serve their sentences, saying they were concerned about their safety in the state penitentiary system. Bryan had tried to serve out his federal sentence first. Wood refused all three requests.
The sentences imposed Monday ended the second trial of the men responsible for Arbery’s murder, which along with the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in Kentucky fueled a wave of protests across the country against the killings of unarmed people. Black people.
In February, a federal jury convicted the McMichaels and Bryan of violating Arbery’s civil rights, concluding that they had targeted him because of his race. All three were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels were convicted of using weapons in the commission of a violent crime.
The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after he drove past their home on February 23, 2020. Bryan, a neighbor, joined the chase in his own truck and recorded cell phone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery with a shotgun. The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery of being a burglar, but investigators determined he was unarmed and had committed no crime.
“I’m very grateful,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told reporters outside court after the three sentences were handed down. “It has been a long struggle. I am very grateful that God has given us the strength to keep fighting.”
The hearings marked the first time the men involved in the deadly chase have expressed any remorse to Arbery’s family. Only Travis McMichael, who fired the fatal shots, chose to remain silent when given the opportunity to speak in court.
Greg McMichael told Arbery’s family their loss was “beyond description”.
“I’m sure my words mean very little to you, but I want to assure you that I never meant for any of this to happen,” he said. “There was no malice in my heart or my son’s heart that day.”
Bryan said he was sorry.
“I never intended to do him any harm, and I never would have played any part in what happened if I knew then what I know now,” Bryan said.
In giving Bryan a lower sentence, Wood noted that he had not brought a weapon to chase Arbery and kept his cell phone video, which was crucial to the prosecution.
Travis McMichael’s attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, said a lighter sentence would be more consistent with what defendants on similar charges have received in other cases, noting that the officer who killed Floyd in Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin , received 21 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights. , although he was not accused of targeting Floyd because of his race.
Greg McMichael’s attorney, AJ Balbo, also cited Chauvin’s sentence, as well as his client’s age and health issues, which he said include a stroke and depression.
During the February hate crime trial, prosecutors bolstered their case that Arbery’s killing was racially motivated by showing the jury roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made disparaging comments about black people.
Prosecutor Christopher Perras said the evidence at the trial proved “what so many people felt in their hearts when they saw the video of Ahmaud’s tragic and unnecessary death: this would never have happened if he had been white.”
A state Superior Court judge sentenced the McMichaels and Bryan to life in prison in January for Arbery’s murder, and both McMichaels were denied the possibility of parole. All three defendants remain jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of U.S. Marshals, while awaiting sentencing on their federal convictions.
Because they were charged and convicted of murder for the first time in state court, they will be turned over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life sentences in a state prison.
Copeland argued unsuccessfully for Travis McMichael to remain in federal custody, saying he has received hundreds of death threats shortly after arriving at the state prison and that his photo has been circulated there on illegal phones.
“I am concerned, your honor, that my client is effectively facing a death sentence at the back door,” he said, adding that “retribution and revenge” were not sentencing factors, even for to a defendant who is “publicly reviled.”
Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., said Travis McMichael had shown his son no mercy and deserved to “rot” in state prison.
“You killed him because he was a black man and you hate black people,” he said. “You deserve no mercy.”
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Associated Press writer Sudhin Thanawala contributed to this story from Atlanta.