After Calling One Witness, Defense Rests in Arbery Hate Crimes Trial

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Protection attorneys within the hate crimes trial of the three white males convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery rested their case on Friday after calling only a single witness.

Not one of the defendants — Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan — took the stand in their very own protection.

The lads had been convicted in state court docket final yr of chasing Mr. Arbery by their South Georgia neighborhood and murdering him. All three had been sentenced to life in jail. Within the federal trial, they stand accused of pursuing and killing Mr. Arbery particularly as a result of he was Black.

On Friday, solely the lawyer for Gregory McMichael introduced proof to the jury, in an try and buttress the protection’s central argument that the lads chased Mr. Arbery as a result of they suspected him of committing burglaries within the space, not due to his race.

The only protection witness, a lady who lived within the Satilla Shores neighborhood the place the defendants lived and the place Mr. Arbery died, testified that on one event in 2019 she noticed a white man who appeared suspicious below a bridge close to the doorway to the neighborhood. A.J. Balbo, Mr. McMichael’s lawyer, performed a recording of a name Mr. McMichael made to authorities that summer time after he, too, noticed a white man below the bridge whom he thought was suspicious and maybe chargeable for burglaries. The defendants have argued in each trials that they had been on alert due to a rash of break-ins.

An advocate for Mr. Arbery’s household expressed skepticism about that line of argument.

“The protection tried to make use of this witness to indicate that their purchasers aren’t racist, that they referred to as the police on a white man and had been involved about crime, however simply since you referred to as the police on a white particular person doesn’t imply you’re not racist,” stated Lynn Whitfield, a senior legal professional with the Transformative Justice Coalition who has been sitting with Mr. Arbery’s household in the course of the court docket proceedings. “They didn’t chase the white man by the neighborhood with weapons and kill him.”

The jury is tasked with figuring out whether or not the lads disadvantaged Mr. Arbery of his proper to make use of a public road as a result of he was Black, not whether or not they dedicated homicide. The lads are additionally charged with tried kidnapping, and the McMichaels are charged with one depend every of utilizing a weapon throughout a violent crime. If convicted, they resist life in jail. Responsible verdicts would have sensible ramifications if the lads’s state convictions had been overturned on enchantment.

The protection witness on Friday got here after prosecutors referred to as 20 witnesses and launched dozens of items of proof over three and a half days, together with textual content, WhatsApp and Fb messages and feedback containing racist language that the lads posted and despatched to others.

Among the many prosecution’s witnesses was Kristie Ronquille, who testified on Friday morning.

Ms. Ronquille stated that in 2011, when she was within the Coast Guard in Pascagoula, Miss., Travis McMichael, then her supervisor, made disparaging feedback about Black individuals after studying that she had beforehand dated a Black man. Crying on the stand, Ms. Ronquille stated Mr. McMichael referred to as her an “N-word lover” on a couple of event after that.

Requested by Travis McMichael’s lawyer, Amy Lee Copeland, why she had not reported him, Ms. Ronquille stated that she was new to the Coast Guard.

“That is my supervisor — it’d be like telling in your boss,” she stated. “Who do you inform in your boss to?”

On Friday, the prosecution additionally referred to as Kim Ballesteros, a neighbor of the McMichaels, who stated she remembered standing on the finish of a driveway, telling Gregory McMichael that she had a brand new rental property. Mr. McMichael instructed her about his personal tenant, a Black girl who had rented a house from him. He stated he had minimize off the lady’s air-conditioning in the summertime to goad her into paying her hire.

“You must have seen how briskly her huge fats Black ass got here with the hire test,” Ms. Ballesteros recalled Mr. McMichael saying. Ms. Ballesteros stated Mr. McMichael referred to as the lady a “walrus” as a result of she was “huge and Black.”

“I used to be shocked,” Ms. Ballesteros stated. “It was racist and uncomfortable, and I used to be frankly dissatisfied.”

Mr. Balbo, Gregory McMichael’s lawyer, famous that Ms. Ballesteros continued to talk with Mr. McMichael after the incident and that his shopper rented to African Individuals.

One other witness, Carole Sears, stated she recalled listening to Gregory McMichael “rant” about Black individuals after discovering out that Julian Bond, the civil rights chief, had died. On the time, Mr. McMichael was an investigator for the native district legal professional’s workplace and she or he was driving in his automobile due to her involvement in a authorized matter in Brunswick, Ga. Ms. Sears was upset about Mr. Bond’s demise, whereas Mr. McMichael was happy, she stated. “I want that man had been within the floor years in the past,” Ms. Sears recalled Mr. McMichael saying. “All these Blacks are nothing however bother and I want they’d all die.”

Ms. Sears stated she didn’t communicate for the rest of the experience as a result of she was afraid.

Of their opening statements this week, protection attorneys criticized the racist language their purchasers used, however additionally they insisted that use of such language will not be proof that the lads killed Mr. Arbery as a result of he was Black.

The lads chased Mr. Arbery “not as a result of he was a Black man, however as a result of he was the man,” Mr. Balbo stated in his opening statements.

The jury will hear closing arguments from the federal government and the defendants on Monday.