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BRUNSWICK — A Trial Officials sentenced Travis McMichael to life imprisonment on Monday and committed a federal hate crime for killing Ahmaud Arbery in 2020.
Judge Lisa God Baywood of the US District Court ruled in the coastal city of Brunswick against McMichael, a 36-year-old white former US Coast Guard mechanic. McMichael was convicted of murder in a previous trial.
McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, 66, and his neighbor William "Rodi" Brian, 52, said in February Race and attempted kidnapping. Gregory McMichael and Brian will be sentenced later in the day.
At the first hearing, Marcus Arbury, the father of the murdered man, judges a judge to sentence young McMichael to the highest sentence in a state prison for federal crime. I asked for it.
"These three demons shattered my heart into pieces that I couldn't find or repair," Marcus Arbury told the court. "You hate blacks."
Travis McMichael declined the opportunity to testify on Monday, but his lawyer said a Georgia prison was too dangerous for him to be threatened with murder. Stated.
In February, three men were convicted of hate crimes for violating Arbury's civil rights because of Arbury's race and attempted kidnapping.
They were previously convicted by the State Murder Court last November, exacerbated assault, imprisonment, a jury trial ran near Satilla Shores near Brunswick, and the jury defended themselves. I refuse the claim.
They have appealed the state's conviction.
The Arbury case is one of a series of black killings in recent years that has focused on the issue of racism in the US criminal justice system and law enforcement agencies. It also highlighted the broader problem of US gun violence.
In the hate crime trial, McMichael was also convicted of federal firearms. The felony of hate crimes, the most serious allegation faced by the defendant, resulted in the greatest punishment for life imprisonment. In the
hate crime case, McMichael agreed to plead guilty and admitted that his son had elected Arberry for his "race and color" in court. The judge refused her judicial transaction because the man would be detained in a federal prison for 30 years before being returned to the Georgia prison system. After that, her judicial transaction was withdrawn.
In a court document, Gregory McMichael demanded 20 years in prison.
Gregory McMichael was a former Glynn County police officer who later worked for the local public prosecutor's office. Lodi Brian worked as a mechanic.
On the afternoon of February 2020, Arbury was jogging in the lush Satilla Shores area when McMichael picked up his gun and decided to jump on a pickup truck to chase after him. Their neighbor Brian joined the chase on his own pickup truck, pulled out his cell phone, and recorded Travis McMichael firing a shotgun at Arbury at close range. Arbury had nothing but his running wear and sneakers.
A video of the incident appeared a few months later.
McMichael said he believed Arbury seemed suspicious of a series of neighborhood invasions. Brian's lawyer said his client had joined the chase, assuming that the man McMichael was chasing "did something wrong." There has been no evidence linking the theft of Arberry and Satilla Shore.
(Report by Rich McKay in Brunswick, Georgia, additional report by Jonathan Allen, New York, edited by Donna Bryson and Howard Goller)