Arbery murder case in hands of jury in Ga.
Prosecutor’s rebuttal ends trial against 3 men
BRUNSWICK, Ga. – The case of three white men charged with murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery went to a jury Tuesday after a 13-day trial in which prosecutors argued the defendants provoked a confrontation with the 25-yearold Black man and defense attorneys said their clients acted in self-defense.
“You can’t claim self-defense if you are the unjustified aggressor,” Linda Dunikoski told jurors in her final closing arguments. “Who started this? It wasn’t Ahmaud Arbery.”
The prosecution gets the final word because it carries the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors and defense attorneys spent hours on Monday delivering closing arguments that spilled into a second day.
Dunikoski spent two hours Tuesday morning hammering at defense attorneys’ attempts to blame Arbery for his own death. The defense attorneys said Arbery lashed out violently with his fists to resist a lawful citizen’s arrest by the defendants.
Dunikoski said Arbery’s pursuers had “no badge, no uniform, no authority” and were “just some strange guys in a white pickup truck.” She cited their own words to police immediately after the shooting: that they saw Arbery running but were unsure if he had committed a crime.
“You can’t make a citizen’s arrest because someone’s running down the street and you have no idea what they did wrong,” Dunikoski said.
After the prosecution wrapped up, Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley began giving instructions to the disproportionately white jury on how to apply the law before it can start deliberations at the Glynn County courthouse in the port city of Brunswick.
Arbery’s killing became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice after a graphic video of his death leaked online two months later.
Father and son Greg and Travis Mcmichael grabbed guns and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after spotting him running through their subdivision on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the chase and recorded the video of Travis Mcmichael opening fire as Arbery threw punches and grabbed for Mcmichael’s shotgun.
No one was charged in the killing until Bryan’s video leaked and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. All three men are charged with murder and other offenses.
Dunikoski said Tuesday that the Mcmichaels and Bryan threatened Arbery both with their pickup trucks and by pointing a shotgun at him before the final confrontation in which Arbery threw punches and grabbed for the gun.
She noted that Bryan told police he used his truck to run Arbery into a ditch and cut off his route, while Greg Mcmichael told officers they had him “trapped like a rat.” The actions of both men, she said, directly contributed to Arbery’s death.
“It doesn’t matter who actually pulled the trigger,” Dunikoski said. “Under the law, they’re all guilty.”
She also said there was no evidence Arbery had committed crimes in the defendants’ neighborhood. She said he was never seen stealing anything the five times he was recorded by security cameras in an unfinished home under construction from which he was seen running.
“You’ve got lumber, you’ve got all this stuff,” Dunikoski said. “Mr. Arbery never shows up with a bag. He doesn’t pull up with a U-haul. … All he does is wander around for a few minutes and then leave.”
The prosecutor told jurors someone can only make a citizen’s arrest in “emergency situations” where a crime is happening “right then and there.”
Defense attorneys objected to Dunikoski’s explanation of citizen’s arrest because they contend the Mcmichaels had reason to suspect Arbery had stolen items from the home. They said the owner discovered the items missing before he installed security cameras.