Closing arguments to begin in hate crimes trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers

One witness testified that Gregory McMichael, in talking about Black people in 2015, said “I wish they’d all die,” and “all these Blacks are nothing but trouble.”

The witness said this was followed by an “angry rant” against Black people lasting about two minutes, which she described as “really shocking.”

An FBI intelligence analyst testified texts and social media messages taken from the phones of Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan included racist insults about African Americans.

One witness was so upset recalling her interactions with the McMichaels, she left the stand in tears.

The McMichaels claimed during the previous trial they suspected Arbery was involved in a crime, they were attempting a citizen’s arrest, and shot Arbery in self-defense.

The defense has argued while the men may have used racist language, Arbery’s race was not a motivation in the fatal incident.

The defense’s only witness last week was a resident of the Satilla Shores neighborhood where Arbery was killed and where the defendants lived. The witness said she had lived in the neighborhood for 48 years but had never met the McMichaels or Bryan. Her testimony was connected to a nonemergency call Gregory McMichael made about a White man possibly living under a bridge near the neighborhood — a defense effort to show the elder McMichael was worried about anyone, regardless of race, who may have been a threat to his neighborhood.

The panel is made up of eight White jurors, three Black jurors and one Hispanic juror, according to details provided in court. Three White people and one Pacific Islander have also been selected as alternates.

Georgia Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley last month sentenced the McMichaels to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bryan was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.