BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) – Witness testimony concluded Friday in the hate crimes trial of three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery with final prosecution witnesses saying they heard two of the defendants make racist statements, including crude sexual remarks directed at a woman who had dated a Black man.
After federal prosecutors rested their case, defense attorneys followed suit after calling a single witness: a neighbor of the accused men whose testimony suggested that a man two of the defendants reported to police as suspicious in 2019 was likely white.
U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood excused the jury for the weekend and scheduled closing arguments for Monday, which will mark one week since the trial began.
Father and son Greg and Travis McMichael armed themselves and chased Arbery in a pickup truck two years ago after spotting the 25-year-old Black man running in their coastal Georgia subdivision. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael blasting Arbery with a shotgun.
All three men were convicted of murder last fall in a Georgia state court. They’re now standing trial in a separate case in federal court, charged with violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting him because he was Black. The McMichaels and Bryan have pleaded not guilty.