Judge advances trial in jogger’s death

A judge in Glynn County, Georgia, ruled yesterday that three white men accused of killing a black jogger in Georgia earlier this year will stand trial for murder, after a day-long hearing that included testimony that the shooter allegedly uttered the words ‘‘f---ing n-----’’ as the victim lay dying in the road. William ‘‘Roddie’’ Bryan, who captured Ahmaud Arbery’s death on cellphone video, told investigators that Travis McMichael, 34, used the slur before police arrived at the scene, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special-Agent-in-Charge Richard Dial. In his closing statement, special prosecutor Jesse Evans said the men – along with McMichael’s father, Gregory, 64 – forced Arbery into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse as they used their vehicles to corner him before they ‘‘gunned him down in broad daylight.’’ Bryan, 50, and the McMichaels were charged last month with felony murder in the February shooting death of Arbery, 25. Lengthy testimony by the lead investigator now in the case appeared to contradict an earlier assertion by authorities that the three men had acted in self-defence, as well as statements from the lawyer for Gregory McMichael that there was no racial animus in the crime and the death did not fit the pattern of extrajudicial killings of black people. Lawyers for the McMichaels continued to argue yesterday that their clients had acted in self-defence, while Bryan’s attorney said he was an innocent bystander who merely filmed the deadly encounter on his cellphone, which subsequently was leaked, went viral and caused national outrage. The McMichaels face an additional aggravated assault charge while Bryan faces a charge of attempting to illegally detain and confine.