Judge sentences the 3 men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery

this is an abc news special report now reporting david muir good afternoon and we're coming on the air at this hour for the sentencing of the three men convicted for the murder of a mod arbory in georgia of course it's a case that made national headlines among arbory and unarmed black men just 25 chased down shot and killed while jogging all three men face a minimum sentence of life in prison travis mcmichael his father gregory mcmichael and their neighbor william roddy bryan today what the judges deciding here is whether any of them should ever be eligible for parole that would still mean 30 years before the chance at parole the case is not over even after today that three men still face federal charges on civil rights violations that case begins next month but first let's listen right now to judge timothy walshly [Applause] all right the way the court's going to address this i'm going to make a few remarks then address each one of the defendants with regard to sentencing and the remarks are intended to be general but also taken into consideration in the individual sentencing portion of the court's statement so that's how we intend to proceed so the court has heard the evidence in the case has accepted the jury's verdict listened to the presentations here today in aggravation and mitigation and candidly have spent a lot of time thinking about this this is a case that has taken a lot of time and energy on a lot of people's parts and has been a case of note not just in this community but really in a lot of communities what we're here today to determine is what an appropriate sentence is quite separate from the notoriety of the case and any other outside influence that may exist and so the court is going to be very careful in explaining that the court has considered just the evidence and what is appropriate under the circumstances of this case to consider in the superior court so that all being said let me start with this statement as we all now know based upon the verdict that was rendered in this court in november ahmad aubrey was murdered it's a tragedy it's tragedy on many many levels almost 20 i'm sorry on february 23rd of 2020 almost two years ago a resident of glen county a graduate of brunswick high a son a brother a young man with dreams was gunned down in this community as we understand it he left us home apparently to go for a run and he ended up running for his life he entered the english home at approximately 104 pm and left that home at about 108 on that day at 1 14 greg mcmichael calls 9-1-1 to let them know that there's a black male running down the street and within moments ahmad aubry is shot and killed the three men that are now before this court chased him in a residential neighborhood for at least five minutes in pickup trucks armed with a shotgun and a 357 revolver the state mentioned this today about the time period but i do want to put that time period in context and the only way i could think to do so may be a little theatrical but i think it's appropriate i want to get a concept of time so what i'm going to do is i'm going to sit silently for one minute and that one minute represents a fraction of the time that a mod arbory was running in statilla shores including but not limited to all aspects of the crimes charged the past criminal record or lack thereof of the defendants i've also considered any lawful evidence which tends to show the motive of the defendants their lack of remorse their general moral character and any predisposition to commit other crimes now i think in this case the record speaks for itself and the defendant's own words i think guide this court with regard to sentencing i went back through the my notes and other resources to pull some of the quotes that we have in this case i'll start with greg mcmichael in my opinion greg mcmichael very early on in this tried to establish a narrative he made comments like ahmad arbor is trapped like a rat stop or i'll blow your and i won't repeat it again head off he effectively admitted that he wasn't sure what a mod arbory had done wrong quote i don't think the guy has actually stolen anything out there or if he did it was early in the process but he keeps going back over and over again into this damn house again back to the narrative told travis you have no choice told another individual the sign or the scene this guy ain't no shuffler this guy's an he commented that he wanted him a mod arbory to know that we weren't playing if i could have gotten a shot at the guy i would have shot him travis mcmichael claims he was in shock but it's interesting because he talks about his concern for his child and his own well-being part of this was while the victim was actually laying there in the street commented this is the worst day of my life well i think it's been touched on here today there were other individuals that were impacted i look at the video of this incident when i say the video i think everybody knows we're talking about but there was one part of it that struck me as absolutely chilling and that is i believe it's in the enhanced video provided by the gbi there's a frame where i believe a mod arbory it looks to be if he's 20 yards out that may be close 30 yards out it's the frame of travis mcmichael lifting the shotgun to fire in a mod arbory and you watch that with context i want to say context after hearing the evidence in this case again thinking about a young man that had been running at that point for almost five minutes and it is it is a chilling truly disturbing scene and we got there because travis mcmichael's father saw a mod arbory hauling down the street and calls out let's go at that point travis mcmichael despite whatever may have been going on in his life at that time regard to family or otherwise just goes grabs a shotgun and goes because he assumes that it is the right thing to do aubry was then hunted down and shot and he was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands mr brian he joined in after calling out to the mcmichaels you all got him claimed he didn't know what was going on but obviously wanted to know if this individual who was running through the neighborhood who he didn't know had been caught in some way said quote i figured he'd done something wrong but i didn't know for sure all right that wasn't actually this quote those quotes are two separate quotes didn't know for sure i thought he would get away and this is the part that is disturbing to me with roddy bryant if the guy would have stopped this would have never happened all of these quotes give context i think to the video that we saw during the case and miss wanda cooper jones this morning made a statement that i think when you look at these statements and you see the videos is very true and that is she said when they could not scare or intimidate him they killed him there's been discussion about remorse and i agree with council that it is it is dangerous for defendants uh who have multiple prosecutions against them to make statements of remorse but remorse isn't something that is simply a statement of regret remorse i think can be determined by looking at somebody's reaction to difficult circumstances than the reality of the situation that they're in again it doesn't require an apology and quite honestly sometimes apologies are made simply to get past uh problems remorse is something that's felt and demonstrated in this case getting back to the video again after a marta arbory fell the mcmichaels turned their backs it's again a disturbing image and they walked away this was a killing it was callous and it occurred as far as the court is concerned based upon the evidence because confrontation was being sought i think the statement was made during closing arguments it's interesting to note that the most violent crime in satilla shores was the murder of a mod arbory so sentencing does not generally provide closure i think miss wanda cooper jones also talked about closure but i don't i don't find that it really does i think that's an unfortunate thing because in this case i think many people are seeking closure the mother the father the community and maybe even parts of the nation the closure is hard to define and is a granular concept it's seen differently by all depending on their perspective and the prism of your lives instead of closure maybe we best see today's proceeding as an exercise in accountability we are all accountable for our own actions sometimes in today's day and age that statement is lost upon many and today the defendants are being held accountable for their actions here in superior court today demonstrates that everybody is accountable to the rule of law taking the law into your own hands is a dangerous endeavor i'm not sure how this comes across i'll say it anyway i think ultimately with regard to the murder of mod aubry it all it holds us all accountable i've read somewhere and i don't remember where it was that at a minimum the mod aubry's death should force his death should force us to consider expanding our definition of what a neighbor may be and how we treat them i argue that maybe a neighbor is more than the people who just own property around your house i believe that is also believe that in assuming the worst in others we show our worst character assuming the best in others is always the best course of action and maybe those are the grand lessons from this case i will let others spend as much time as they want writing about it and talking about it but those my general thoughts with regards to this case and sentencing [Applause] that said with regard to the sentence in this case as to travis mcmichael mr mcmichael the court sentences you as follows count one malice murder life without the possibility of parole count two felony murder is vacated by operation of law count three felony murder vacated by operation of law count four felony murder vacated by operation of law count five felony murder vacated by operation of law count six aggravated assault merges into count one count seven aggravated assault the court sentences the defendant to twenty years consecutive two count one count eight false imprisonment merges into count one count nine attempted false imprisonment five years concurrent to count seven that is life plus twenty greg mcmichael the court sentences you as follows count one malice murder defendant was found not guilty count two felony murder life without the possibility of parole count three felony murder vacated i want to say vacated it's vacated by operation of law in all cases i'm just not going to repeat it count four vacated count five vacated count six merges into count two count seven aggravated assault twenty years consecutive to count two count eight ten years concurrent to count seven count nine five years concurrent to count seven that is life plus 20 years roddy brian i do want to separate a little bit because the state is making a different recommendation and despite the back and forth that mr goff and i had during this case i do want to point out a couple things that he raised that i think are appropriate to raise with regard to the sentence as far as the remorse i think roddy bryan stands in very different shoes um it is obvious from the beginning uh that he questioned the tragedy that had occurred at the scene and was on uh i believe i can't remember whose body cam but the body cam in fact questioning whether or not what had occurred had occurred and then took steps early on in this process i think that demonstrated that he had grave concerns that what had occurred should not have occurred and i think that does make mr brian's situation a little bit different however mr brian has been convicted of felony murder and i do not believe it can be disputed based on the facts of this case that the verdict was an appropriate verdict based upon the evidence presented at least i want to say appropriate what i mean is legal because i believe there's been some discussion about some differences between mr brian and and the mcmichaels um there may be some differences but it does not change the fact that was it not for the fact that mr brian used his vehicle in a way to impede mr aubry's course of travel this may not have ever occurred and that is sufficient for felony murder he did cooperate with law enforcement i will point out mr goff 1710 1b there's actually a case out of chatham county that says it would not apply under the circumstances of this case so the court recognizing that mr bryan's position is different again mr bryan was found not guilty on count one and count two court sentences mr bryan to life with the possibility of parole on count three count four is vacated count five is vacated count six the defendant was found not guilty count seven merges into count three the defendant is sentenced to ten years consecutive to count three on count eight and five years concurrent with count eight both of those counts though will be suspended sentences which gives mr bryan a life with the possibility of parole sentence those are the sentences the court having pronounced sentence first with regard to travis mcmichael mr mcmichael you are hereby notified that under the law of georgia you are entitled to appeal the guilty verdict of the jury and if you decide to do so you must file your appeal within 30 days of this date you are also informed that you have the right to retain a lawyer of your own choice to represent you on your post-trial motions and appeals to the appropriate appellate court of georgia if you cannot afford a lawyer the court will appoint one for you you are entitled to and will be given a transcript of all pre-trial trial and post-trial matters without cost to you if you cannot afford a transcript you may file a motion for a new trial or you may appeal your case directly to the appropriate appellate court of georgia for review you are also advised that the statute of limitations for habeas corpus in this state is four years in the case of felonies and one year in the case of misdemeanors the statute begins to run from the date the conviction becomes final and just to be clear on the record i'm going to go through the statement with regard to each defendant so as to gregory mcmichael you are hereby notified that under the law of georgia you are entitled to appeal the guilty verdict of the jury and if you decide to do so you must file your appeal within 30 days of this date you are also informed that you have the right to retain a lawyer of your own choice to represent you on your post-trial motions and appeals to the appropriate pill as we continue to listen in here to judge timothy wallinsley in that georgia courtroom we have learned this afternoon of the sentences of the three men in ahmad arbury's death travis mcmichael who shot arbory life without the possibility of parole life in prison for the crime his father gregory mcmichael given the same sentence life without parole their neighbor roddy bryan who used his vehicle the truck uh was given life with the possibility of parole the judge making it clear he believes that's because he is the only one in the evidence in this trial who showed uh any kind of concern afterward for the crime the judge in speaking before that courtroom acknowledged that he was likely speaking not only to that community but to communities across this country with great interest in this case he talked about ahmad arbury the young man who went for a run and ultimately ended up running for his life abc's steve osunsami has been covering this case from the start he joins us live from georgia and steve this judge was extremely careful to explain his rationale before handing down these sentences he was it was a very powerful statement that he read from the bench talking about the actions of the three men but some a couple things stuck out to me one of the things that he pointed out is that travis mcmichael and greg mcmichael travis michael who murdered ahmad arboree shot him his father who was also in the truck he says that there was a frame in the in in the video that really stuck out to him and that was is that after the killing they turned their backs on the young man as he was dying in the street they were not at his side trying to help him there are a lot of people who are looking at this case here in this state who to this day still believe that these three men did nothing wrong the prosecutor in her statement said that she felt that the defendants probably felt that way today and proof of which is that the video that sort of exposed all of this was released by one of the defendants who at the time thought that it was going to exonerate him these sentences today help disprove that notion they are strong sentences life in prison without parole for two of the other two defendants life with parole for the third and even in his case he's 50 some years old right now he will be 80 years old before he is even eligible for parole so this is essentially life in prison for him as well it is a powerful verdict it was a powerful statement none of this of course will bring back this young black man who was killed but as you heard the judge today say there is a need to change the perspective of what is right in the streets as it relates to a young black man who did nothing wrong and was jogging through a neighborhood david steve the judge also told americans who are watching that perhaps of our neighbors we should assume the best in them not the worst that that perhaps is one of the greater lessons of this case steve pointed out that he talked about that piece of evidence with the mcmichaels turning away from the crime after it was committed he also talked about the five minutes that it was estimated that ahmad arbory was running running away from that pickup truck and in a fairly dramatic fashion uh showed the court what just one minute feels like the judge silent for one minute saying that represents just a fraction of the time that ahmad arbory was running from that vehicle again moments ago travis mcmichael who shot a mod arbory and killed him sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole his father given the same sentence life without parole the third man william roddy bryan the neighbor life in prison with the possibility of parole as steve ostensami points out moments ago he's already in his 50s that means he would be well into his 80s before any chance of getting out of prison our coverage will continue on abc news live abc news dot com and of course i'll be back with the entire team a short time from now a little later today for world news tonight i'm david muir in new york good day this has been a special report from abc news hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event 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Channel: ABC News

Views: 977,064

Keywords: Ahmaud, Arbery, Bryan, Gregory, McMichael, Travis, Willie, jr., judge, life, murder, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-82140924, parole, sentenced

Id: XiJZm0nmJRg

Length: 24min 11sec (1451 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 07 2022