Jury begins deliberations in Ahmaud Arbery murder trial after prosecutor delivers final rebuttal
23 Nov 2021
CNN
The prosecutor in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial sought Tuesday to simplify the events that led to Arbery's death, taking the podium the day after defense teams spent much of their closing arguments trying to criminalize Arbery, alleging he brought his de
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski delivered her rebuttal early Tuesday. She had almost two hours remaining after delivering the first part of her closing arguments ahead of the defense teams.
Live updates: Follow the trial
Lawyers for the three White men charged with murder in Arbery's killing used their final statements to the jury Monday to say Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan Jr. had every reason to believe Arbery was up to no good because he'd entered an under-construction home and he ran when confronted by the McMichaels.
Laura Hogue, one of Gregory McMichael's attorneys, referred to Arbery as a "recurring nighttime intruder" and implied he had nefarious intent when he arrived "in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails."
Dunikoski seized on the defense notion that the McMichaels were scared -- and that their Glynn County, Georgia' s Satilla Shores neighborhood had been living in fear because of crime in the area. She flatly said the armed men's decision to chase Arbery for five minutes in their trucks is evidence alone they weren't frightened.
They had alternatives -- including never chasing Arbery or calling police to deal with Arbery -- but instead they chose to keep chasing him even after Arbery repeatedly tried to elude them on foot, said Dunikoski. They committed aggravated assault with their trucks -- and the McMichaels, with their guns -- while trying to falsely imprison Arbery, she said. During the course of these felonies, Dunikoski said, they killed Arbery.
"If you take that out would he be alive?" she asked the jury. "It's real simple. The answer is you can't take out any of these crimes. If you take out any one of these crimes that they committed and he's still alive. All of the underlying felonies played a substantial and necessary part in causing the death of Ahmaud Arbery."
Claims that they were protecting themselves and their neighborhood appear spurious when you consider that the property owner never accused Arbery of any crimes -- aside from entering the property without incident -- and nothing had been stolen in the 14 months prior to Arbery's fatal shooting, she said.Dunikoski has previously cast doubt on the idea that Travis McMichael acted in self-defense when Arbery, unarmed and on foot, tried for five minutes to elude three men, two of them armed, chasing him in a pair of pickup trucks.
She asked the jury: Why, if this was about stopping crime, did the McMichaels never mention a specific crime or citizen's arrest to the police when they arrived at the shooting scene?
Dunikoski finished her rebuttal just after 10:30 a.m. ET. Following a recess, Judge Timothy Walmsley gave jurors their instructions. He explained the law and charges, and said he would permit the jury to consider the charges of simple assault, reckless conduct or reckless driving in lieu of aggravated assault with a truck.
He then said they could begin deliberations once they receive the indictment and evidence from the case, and released them to the jury room.
Judge denies motion for mistrial
Defense lawyers made remarks Monday that some legal experts felt were racially insensitive, and Dunikoski has been insistent that the defendants targeted Arbery "because he was a Black man running down the street."
The men acted on gossip and rumor, on "assumptions and driveway decisions," she has said, and they had no immediate knowledge Arbery had committed a crime, a key factor to claiming citizen's arrest as the McMichaels are doing.
The defense moved for a mistrial based on what they said was Dunkioski's misstatement of the state's now-defunct citizen's arrest law, but Walmsley denied the motion.
Travis McMichael also acknowledged several times that he never saw Arbery armed, never heard Arbery threaten him and that Arbery showed no interest in conversing with McMichael.
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Along with his father, Gregory McMichael, and Bryan, his neighbor, Travis McMichael faces charges of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony in the February 23, 2020, killing. The trio pursued Arbery -- whom they said they suspected of burglary -- in their vehicles, which led to Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery.
The three men have pleaded not guilty.
Travis McMichael testified he shot Arbery in self-defense after Arbery grabbed his gun and told Dunikoski he was "scattered" and traumatized when he initially told police he did not know if Arbery grabbed the shotgun.
If convicted, the men face sentences of up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Family objects to comments from defense attorney
On Monday, Hogue claimed in court that Arbery repeatedly trespassed -- and perhaps more -- when entering an open construction site in the neighborhood outside Brunswick.
"Turning Ahmaud Arbery into a victim after the choices that he made does not reflect the reality of what brought Ahmaud Arbery to Satilla Shores in his khaki shorts with no socks to cover his long, dirty toenails," Hogue said.
Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, almost tripped leaving the courtroom after Hogue's remark, saying "I gotta get out of here."
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Arbery was never charged with any crimes in the neighborhood, and the owner of the construction site has never said he committed a crime, just that Arbery was caught on camera at the property.
Race has been a key focus during the trial, with Arbery being Black and the three defendants as well as 11 of the 12 jurors being White. Ben Crump, an attorney for Arbery's father, suggested race played a role in Arbery's death.
"They had dozens of other people who visited the home. Nobody chased them. Nobody said that they burglarized the home. Why is that?" Crump asked Monday.
It was a point important to Dunikoski's Tuesday rebuttal, as she acknowledged Arbery had been to the under-construction property multiple times. But he never stole anything, she said.
Responding to defense implications that Arbery could've been responsible for items stolen from a boat in 2019, Dunikoski pointed out that property owner Larry English told police he had no idea who stole the items, the items may have been stolen at another location when he moved his boat,and that he suspected subcontractors working on the property might be responsible. In fact, English testified in a deposition, he wasn't sure anyone stole anything -- not the lumber, not an expensive saw -- from the property in all of 2019 or in the first two months of 2020 before Arbery was killed, she said.
Video from December 2020, showing Arbery inside the home looking around and nothing more, also appeared to provide a counterpoint to the defense argument that Arbery was never known to jog in Satilla Shores. In the video, which Dunikoski played for jurors in closing, Arbery exits the home empty handed, walks toward the street and breaks into a jog, disappearing from the camera view as he runs down Satilla Drive.
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playerInstance,containerClassId = '#' + containerId;CNN.VideoPlayer.handleInitialExpandableVideoState(containerId);CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, CNN.pageVis.isDocumentVisible());if (CNN.Features.enableMobileWebFloatingPlayer &&Modernizr &&(Modernizr.phone || Modernizr.mobile || Modernizr.tablet) &&CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibraryName(containerId) === 'fave' &&jQuery(containerClassId).parents('.js-pg-rail-tall__head').length > 0 &&CNN.contentModel.pageType === 'article') {playerInstance = FAVE.player.getInstance(containerId);mobilePinnedView = new CNN.MobilePinnedView({element: jQuery(containerClassId),enabled: false,transition: CNN.MobileWebFloatingPlayer.transition,onPin: function () {playerInstance.hideUI();},onUnpin: function () {playerInstance.showUI();},onPlayerClick: function () {if (mobilePinnedView) {playerInstance.enterFullscreen();playerInstance.showUI();}},onDismiss: function() {CNN.Videx.mobile.pinnedPlayer.disable();playerInstance.pause();}});/* Storing pinned view on CNN.Videx.mobile.pinnedPlayer So that all players can see the single pinned player */CNN.Videx = CNN.Videx || {};CNN.Videx.mobile = CNN.Videx.mobile || {};CNN.Videx.mobile.pinnedPlayer = mobilePinnedView;}if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (jQuery(containerClassId).parents('.js-pg-rail-tall__head').length) {videoPinner = new CNN.VideoPinner(containerClassId);videoPinner.init();} else {CNN.VideoPlayer.hideThumbnail(containerId);}}},onContentEntryLoad: function(containerId, playerId, contentid, isQueue) {CNN.VideoPlayer.showSpinner(containerId);},onContentPause: function (containerId, playerId, videoId, paused) {if (mobilePinnedView) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleMobilePinnedPlayerStates(containerId, paused);}},onContentMetadata: function (containerId, playerId, metadata, contentId, duration, width, height) {var endSlateLen = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find('.js-video__end-slate').eq(0).length;CNN.VideoSourceUtils.updateSource(containerId, metadata);if (endSlateLen > 0) {videoEndSlateImpl.fetchAndShowRecommendedVideos(metadata);}},onAdPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, token, mode, id, duration, blockId, adType) {/* Dismissing the pinnedPlayer if another video players plays an Ad */CNN.VideoPlayer.dismissMobilePinnedPlayer(containerId);clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== 'undefined' && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onAdPause: function (containerId, playerId, token, mode, id, duration, blockId, adType, instance, isAdPause) {if (mobilePinnedView) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleMobilePinnedPlayerStates(containerId, isAdPause);}},onTrackingFullscreen: function (containerId, PlayerId, dataObj) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleFullscreenChange(containerId, dataObj);if (mobilePinnedView &&typeof dataObj === 'object' &&FAVE.Utils.os === 'iOS' && !dataObj.fullscreen) {jQuery(document).scrollTop(mobilePinnedView.getScrollPosition());playerInstance.hideUI();}},onContentPlay: function (containerId, cvpId, event) {var playerInstance,prevVideoId;if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === 'function') {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout('restoreEpicAds');}clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== 'undefined' && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);videoPinner.animateDown();}}},onContentReplayRequest: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== 'undefined' && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(true);var $endSlate = jQuery(document.getElementById(containerId)).parent().find('.js-video__end-slate').eq(0);if ($endSlate.length > 0) {$endSlate.removeClass('video__end-slate--active').addClass('video__end-slate--inactive');}}}},onContentBegin: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (mobilePinnedView) {mobilePinnedView.enable();}/* Dismissing the pinnedPlayer if another video players plays a video. */CNN.VideoPlayer.dismissMobilePinnedPlayer(containerId);CNN.VideoPlayer.mutePlayer(containerId);if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === 'function') {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout('removeEpicAds');}CNN.VideoPlayer.hideSpinner(containerId);clearTimeout(moveToNextTimeout);CNN.VideoSourceUtils.clearSource(containerId);jQuery(document).triggerVideoContentStarted();},onContentComplete: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (CNN.companion && typeof CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout === 'function') {CNN.companion.updateCompanionLayout('restoreFreewheel');}navigateToNextVideo(contentId, containerId);},onContentEnd: function (containerId, cvpId, contentId) {if (Modernizr && !Modernizr.phone && !Modernizr.mobile && !Modernizr.tablet) {if (typeof videoPinner !== 'undefined' && videoPinner !== null) {videoPinner.setIsPlaying(false);}}},onCVPVisibilityChange: function (containerId, cvpId, visible) {CNN.VideoPlayer.handleAdOnCVPVisibilityChange(containerId, visible);}};if (typeof configObj.context !== 'string' || configObj.context.length 0) {configObj.adsection = window.ssid;}CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;CNN.VideoPlayer.getLibrary(configObj, callbackObj, isLivePlayer);});CNN.INJECTOR.scriptComplete('videodemanddust');