The trial took place in the Glynn County Superior Court in Brunswick. After every Brunswick Judicial Circuit judge recused themselves from the case, Chatham County Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley became the trial judge.
Pretrial rulings Judge Walmsley made the following pre-trial rulings in 2021: • He denied a prosecution motion to bar testimony that the neighborhood was "on edge" at the time of the murder. • He ruled that the defense could not introduce evidence of Arbery's prior "bad acts", noting that the McMichaels were unaware of Arbery's past at the time of the murder. He justified his ruling by stating that the "character of the victim is neither relevant nor admissible in a murder trial", and that such evidence might also mislead the jury into thinking that Arbery's murder was "somehow justified" on potential "future dangerousness". • He ruled that the defense could not introduce Arbery's mental health records as evidence, citing Arbery's medical privacy. Walmsley also stated that a nurse's 2018 diagnosis of Arbery having mental illness was "highly questionable" and may unfairly prejudice the jury. • He ruled that the prosecution could let the jury listen to recorded phone calls made by the jailed McMichaels, and issued a limited gag order on trial lawyers not to comment on inadmissible evidence, including evidence they "should reasonably know" would be ruled inadmissible at trial. • He excluded evidence of "minute" amounts of
THC detected in Arbery's body after his autopsy, excluded testimony of two
use of force experts which the defense wanted to use regarding Travis McMichael's Coast Guard training, and excluded the introduction of graphic footage of a dying Arbery. • He excluded evidence that Arbery was on probation when he was murdered, and allowed the introduction into evidence of photos and videos of a Confederate flag symbol on the truck that Travis McMichael used to pursue Arbery.
Jury selection The trial of the McMichaels and Bryan in the Superior Court before Judge Walmsley began October 18, 2021, with jury selection. The jury selection process was lengthy and proceeded slowly, with the 600 potential jurors (members of the
venire) questioned on what they had heard about the case and whether they had formed a belief about the guilt or innocence of the defendant, and many prospective jurors were dismissed. Judge Walmsley denied a defense motion to limit demonstrations near the courthouse, citing the demonstrators'
First Amendment rights; the judge, however, expressed concern about social media posts that were "identifying jurors" or attempting "to influence the public". On November 3, 2021, jury selection was completed. Twelve jurors and four alternates were selected. Of the 16 members, one was a black man, three were white men, and 12 were white women. The defense struck 11 of 12 prospective black jurors, the defense leaving the one black man from the qualified panel, while the prosecution used all 12 of its allotted strikes on white potential jurors. Judge Walmsley rejected a prosecution motion alleging that the defense had
used its strikes in a racially discriminatory way. Only one black person ended up serving on the jury, despite Glynn County's nearly 27% black population. Opening statements for William "Roddie" Bryan were delivered on November 18, 2021, after the prosecution rested its case. Prosecutor
Linda Dunikoski said the murder of Arbery arose from the defendants' "assumptions and driveway decisions ... Not on facts, not on evidence". She also highlighted that twelve days before the murder, Glynn County police officer Robert Rash had relayed to the McMichaels a statement from the under-construction house's owner that Arbery "has never stolen or taken anything from his property". Bob Rubin, the lawyer for Travis McMichael, stated that although there was "no crime committed" in the presence of the McMichaels, "there was probable cause to believe a felony had been committed" by Arbery and that he "was attempting to escape."
Evidence presentation by the state The prosecution presented evidence from November 5 to November 16, 2021. Ricky Minshew, who was a Glynn County police officer at the time of the murder, testified he was seconds away from the scene at the time of the shots, having responded to a non-emergency report about a "suspicious black male" leaving a home under construction. Minshew said he arrived at the scene seeing Arbery in a pool of blood and heard a "death rattle" from Arbery, but did not render medical attention as he did not have "adequate medical training" to handle such a serious injury, and also because there were no "police units to watch my back" when he arrived. Minshew testified that he questioned William "Roddie" Bryan at the scene, where Bryan said the following: (1) that he was not familiar with Arbery or the McMichaels when Bryan joined the chase; (2) that he was not sure if Arbery did anything wrong; (3) that he did not know if he should have chased Arbery at all; (4) that he tried to "corner" Arbery with his vehicle five times; (5) that Arbery "had to stop and catch his breath", and seemed "tired of running"; (6) that he heard one of the McMichaels shouting at Arbery: "What'd you steal? What'd you do?" during the chase. William Duggan, a Glynn County police officer, testified that he came to the scene after hearing a "shots fired" report on his radio. The jury was shown Duggan's body camera and dashboard camera footage, which included graphic video of Arbery's body. Duggan said he attended to Arbery, intending to stop the bleeding from a large chest wound, but then realized that Arbery was already dead. Duggan said he saw Travis McMichael covered in blood and asked if Travis was OK, to which Travis replied: "No I'm not OK ... I just effing killed somebody." Duggan described Travis as very upset and cooperative. Jeff Brandeberry, a Glynn County police officer, testified that he interviewed Gregory McMichael at the scene, who was "pretty amped up" and seemed "a little upset". Brandeberry recounted Gregory saying the following: (1) that he had seen Arbery "hauling ass down the street" past his house in a "dead run"; (2) that Arbery had been "breaking in all these houses out here ... he makes frequent trips to the neighborhood and gets caught on video cameras every third or fourth night breaking into places and no one's been able to catch him"; (3) that "a driving force in my mind is my son had a missing pistol and this guy I don't know for a fact this guy has been going over doing this crap over and over ... I saw him if I could've gotten a shot, I would have shot him myself"; (4) that the blood on Gregory's hand came from checking if Arbery had a gun; and (6) that the chase resulted in Arbery being "cornered ... like a rat". Stephan Lowrey, formerly a Glynn County police investigator who worked on the case, had interviewed Bryan at the police station later in the day of the murder. Lowrey testified that Bryan told him: (1) that he had seen Arbery "running down the road" with a truck "following", so Bryan entered his own vehicle to "assist"; (2) that he had not seen Arbery before and did not know if Arbery was involved with "any past instances", (3) that during the chase, he tried to cut off Arbery multiple times, "angled" Arbery "off the side of the road", but "didn't hit him"; and (4) that Arbery was trying to open Bryan's truck door during the chase. Lowrey further testified that Arbery's fingerprints were found on Bryan's truck door, next to a dent in the truck's body. Regarding the status of the Glynn County investigation before the Georgia Bureau of Investigation takeover, Lowrey said that it could be described as "inactive". Jason Seacrist, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, who interviewed Bryan in May 2020, testified that (1) Bryan said he "didn't know for sure" if Arbery did something wrong, but "instinct" indicated Arbery did, and Bryan ultimately "figured he stole something"; (2) compared to his earlier interviews, Bryan played down his involvement in the chase in the later interview, stating that he wanted to slow Arbery down and take a picture of Arbery to identify him to the police. Richard Dial, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent, led the organization's investigation into Arbery's murder. Dial testified that (1) Bryan's behavior was not that of a "witness", as he was "pursuing" Arbery and "trying to box him in between two different vehicles"; (2) during the chase, Bryan had to reverse his vehicle to continue his pursuit of Arbery after Arbery turned into another street and Bryan overshot the turn. Maps compiled by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation showed that the McMichaels' vehicle looped around to the other end of the street Arbery was on, such that Arbery was between Bryan and the McMichaels, with no way to leave the street without meeting one of their vehicles. Other Georgia Bureau of Investigation members who testified were (1) Lawrence Kelly, who analyzed phone records and concluded that Bryan did not communicate with the McMichaels on the day of the shooting or before; (2) Jesse Worley, who said that Arbery's fingerprints were found on Bryan's truck; (3) Anne Kisler-Rao, who said that fibers from the side of Bryan's truck were consistent with those of Arbery's shirt, (4) Brian Leppard, who said that Travis' shotgun was fired very close to Arbery's armpit, close enough to touch Arbery's shirt and close enough for Arbery to possibly grab.
Other During testimony by Cara Richardson, director of the Glynn-Brunswick 911 call center, several calls were played for the jury to hear. In July 2019, Gregory McMichael reported "a lot of break-ins in this area, automobile break-ins. And my son and I just discovered" a male suspect, "he may be living under Bluff Creek bridge ... We just made contact with him".
Other calls made by Travis McMichael in January 2020 and mid-February 2020 were also played, as well as
a call by Gregory McMichael at the time of the incident. Security camera videos showed the jury that Arbery had visited Larry English's under-construction house five times between October 2019 to February 2020. The videos showed that Arbery had no bag, and he did not touch or take any items from the house. The jury also saw more security camera footage from the house, displaying other incidents of two white boys taking plywood from the property's garage, and separately, a white man and woman entering the house at night with a small bag. English testified in his deposition that (1) people frequently explored his under-construction house; (2) he called 911 on Arbery in 2019 wanting police to tell Arbery "not to be there anymore"; Matthew Albenze, a Satilla Shores resident, testified that (1) he saw Arbery "just looking around" inside the under-construction house on the day of the murder; (2) in reaction to that, he put a handgun in his pocket, and called the police non-emergency number from across the street; (3) he chose not to call 911 because he "did not see an emergency"; (4) that Arbery ran off during Albenze's call, to which Albenze said: "I don't know why he took off running. I don't know if he saw me or not". Travis McMichael was the only defendant to testify; Gregory McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan did not testify. (2) he was aware that items were stolen from the boat at his neighbor's under-construction property, and that he knew that "several people" had entered the property, any of whom could have stolen the items; (5) he suspected that Arbery had been caught "breaking in" or been involved in an "altercation". (8) he chased Arbery to ask questions, with Travis asking: "Hey, what are you doing? What's going on?---" and Arbery did not reply; (9) he continued chasing and attempted to "de-escalate" by asking Arbery to "stop", but Arbery looked "very angry", turned around, and ran in the opposite direction; (22) until the time he aimed his shotgun at Arbery, Arbery had not verbally threatened him or displayed any weapon, but he thought Arbery "could be a threat" because of his running at him; (23) he told police that day that he "cannot remember" if Arbery had grabbed the gun when he shot him, but the account was inaccurate due to his suffering the "most traumatic event;" that regarding Facebook posts he made before the shooting, (24) in January 2019 he agreed with a neighbor who wrote that thieves should be made an example of: "That's right – hope y'all catch the vermin---" then when that neighbor indicated concern over how her father may interact with thieves because he did not care about being jailed, he responded: "That's what this world needs more of ... My old man is the same way ... Hell, I'm getting that way;" and that (25) in July 2019 he wrote "Arm up" in response to a post on local crime. Six residents of Satilla Shores testified on behalf of the defense, relaying their perception of crime in Satilla Shores, as well as a Facebook page on Satilla Shores in which crime was discussed. Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski argued that the defendants could not legally make a citizen's arrest of Arbery because they assumed he had committed a crime that day, whereas a citizen's arrest required "immediate knowledge" of a crime. In contrast, she said Arbery had: "No weapon. No threats. No way to call for help. Didn't even have a cell phone on him. Ran away from them for five minutes." Jason Sheffield, the lawyer for Travis McMichael, argued that under Georgia law, the felony of burglary included entering "with the intent to steal something;" thus when Travis saw Arbery at the under-construction house twelve days before the shooting, he had probable cause to believe Arbery committed burglary and could justifiably arrest him. She said Arbery was "acting erratically when approached and making terrible, unexpected, illogical choices," failed to "stop" or "wait, to tell the police what he was doing," and ultimately died because he "chose to fight", "without any sense of reason to run at a man wielding a shotgun." She concluded that all three men were responsible because they all committed felonies leading up to the murder. • Travis McMichael was found guilty of
malice murder, four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault (with a firearm and with a pickup truck), false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony (false imprisonment). • Gregory McMichael was found guilty of four counts of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault (with a firearm and with a pickup truck), false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony (false imprisonment). He was found not guilty of malice murder. The prosecution did not seek the
death penalty in this case. In sentencing the defendants, Judge Walmsley said "remorse is something that's felt and demonstrated", noting that "after Ahmaud Arbery fell, the McMichaels turned their backs" and "walked away". Walmsley further said that Gregory McMichael "very early on in this tried to establish a narrative", when (1) at the crime scene Gregory told Travis that he had "no choice" but to shoot, and (2) at the crime scene Gregory described Arbery as "an asshole". Walmsley indicated that Travis appeared to be more concerned about his own well-being while Arbery lay dead at the crime scene, with Travis stating: "This is the worst day of my life." In contrast, immediately after the shooting, Bryan "demonstrated that he had grave concerns that what had occurred should not have occurred", and also "did cooperate with law enforcement", said Walmsley. ==Federal trial==