Defense Rests, Pastors Rally, Outside Trial In Shooting Death Of Ahmaud Arbery

BRUNSWICK, GA — The defense attorneys for the men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery all rested their cases Thursday afternoon, and the judge dismissed the jury until Monday.

Outside, hundreds of ministers rallied and prayed outside the Glynn County Courthouse during the lunch break of the trial.

“Could you please say his name?” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones said following prayer at the rally. “Ahmaud Arbery!” the crowd shouted.

The call and response repeated twice more at the rally before the group of ministers, activists and supporters stepped away from the courthouse to march through downtown Brunswick, some marchers chanting “No justice, no peace.”

Many carried signs reading, “Black pastors matter,” and some wore buttons with Arbery’s picture and the hashtag they were using for the case, “#JusticeForAhmaud.” A vendor sold T-shirts under one tent while a woman under another offered water and snacks, asking people to put donations in a pickle jar.

When civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton accompanied Cooper-Jones and Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., last week — followed days later by the Rev. Jesse Jackson — defense attorneys balked and demand a mistrial. Kevin Gough, the attorney for William "Roddie" Bryan Jr., told the court he didn’t “want any more Black pastors” in the courtroom, accusing the two ministers of being there to intimidate and influence the jury.

“What he said is not good for anybody,” Sharpton said of Gough.

Criticizing the failed attempt to keep black pastors out of court, Sharpton told the rally that no one had questioned who is sitting with the defendants’ families.

“No lawyer can knock us out. Because no matter where you are, God is there," he said. “We are going to keep coming until we get justice.”

Martin Luther King III, son of slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., addressed the throng, saying, “It only takes a few good women and men to bring change.”

Day 10 Testimony About Shooting

Bryan, Gregory McMichael and and Travis McMichael face murder charges in connection with Arbery's death in February 2020.

Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, described him as angry and said the unarmed jogger tried to get into one of the pickup trucks following him before the shooting.

"Hey, can you please stop for a second," Travis McMichael said he told a running Arbery as he drove alongside him minutes before the shooting. "He didn't say anything."

As Arbery ran away and Bryan circled to seemingly cut him off, McMichael said he saw Arbery try to enter Bryan's black pickup from both sides. On Wednesday, McMichael testified that Arbery tried to open the door to his truck as it drove along beside the running Black man.

(Watch the livestream of the trial at the bottom of the story.)

McMichael acknowledged Arbery didn't seem to pose a threat to him.

Under cross-examination by the prosecution on his second day of testimony, Travis McMichael said he was “under the impression” Arbery could be a threat because he was running straight at him and he had seen the 25-year-old Black man trying to get into the truck of a neighbor who had joined in a pursuit of Arbery.

“All he’s done is run away from you,” prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said. “And you pulled out a shotgun and pointed it at him.”

A cell phone video taken the day of the shooting, Feb. 23, 2020, replayed in court on Thursday, shows Arbery running around the back of McMichael’s pickup truck to the passenger side as McMichael, wielding a shotgun, moves to the front and the two come face to face. McMichael said Arbery then attacked him and tried to grab his weapon, and he shot him.

“He was on me,” McMichael said.

Just before lunch, the team of defense attorneys entered a motion for a mistrial when one of the prosecutors — while cross-examining a witness who lived in the Satilla Shores neighborhood and monitored a neighborhood watch Facebook page — asked if she believed someone caught stealing “is deserving of the death penalty.”

Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, after the lunch break, denied the motion for a mistrial and admonished the prosecution team, telling the jury to disregard the comment.

“The court does find that the question that was presented was inflammatory and irrelevant, and completely unnecessary, particularly given the witness on the stand,” Walmsley said. “Prosecution should have either known or should have known that this was a question that should not have been asked. And therefore counsel is admonished by the court, as instructed not to repeat such action subject to the contempt powers of the court.”

Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the Arbery family, predicted the defense would ask the judge for a mistrial because of the demonstration outside the courthouse.

“We need preachers to come pray for them in this insane situation, this inhumane situation,” he said. Earlier, people in the crowd chanted the names of Black people who have been killed in high-profile cases in which racism or police brutality were alleged.

See Also: Arbery Shooter Travis McMichael Calls Fight For Gun Life Or Death

The Community First Planning Commission, which organized Thursday’s rally, took umbrage at Gough’s words about Black pastors and acknowledged that his sentiment helped spur Thursday’s event.

Thursday morning, Gough pointed out that he saw someone wearing a sweatshirt outside the courtroom that said, "I support Black pastors."

"Given that the Black pastors support the conviction of our client, we would object to those kinds of slogans being outside in the foyer where witnesses are sitting," he said. "Now we have witnesses being exposed to all this and again, you know, it raises questions."

— The Associated Press contributed to this report.