Jonathan Allen

BRUNSWICK GA (Reuters) – Ahmaud Arbery was one of the white defendants in the case. He told a detective, “He wasn’t going away as they chased him around the southern Georgia neighborhood,” a jury heard Wednesday.

Gregory McMichael (65), his son Travis McMichael (35) and William “Roddie Bryan (52) have pleaded guilty to false imprisonment, murder and aggravated assault charges. If convicted of the most severe charge, the majority-white jury will sentence them to life imprisonment.

According to the men, they believed Arbery was fleeing from an alleged crime as he fled through Satilla Shores in February 2020. He was followed by the men in pickup trucks. The younger McMichael then pointed a shotgun towards Arbery. Arbery ran at the gun and reached for it.

These are the most important moments of testimony at Glynn County Superior Court’s fourth day.

RODERIC NOHILLY, DETECTIVE – GLYNN COUNTY PIOLICE DEPARTMENT

According to transcripts, Gregory McMichael stated that he had never seen Arbery in an interview with police headquarters shortly after the shooting.

Nohilly stated to the jury that he knew McMichael over many years. The defendant used to work at the local prosecutor’s office and sometimes would drop paperwork off at the station.

McMichael asked the detective to explain why he was after McMichael. He still hadn’t been identified.

According to the transcript, McMichael said, “Well, that’s all it,” McMichael responded. Nohilly aloud excerpts of the transcript to court as a response to Linda Dunikoski’s questions.

Cobb County District Attorney’s Office is trying to discredit the defense argument that three men tried to arrest a citizen under an old state law.

McMichael said that McMichael was “trapped like a rats” to the detective. He wanted to escape, and then he realized that it was impossible for him to escape.

Prosecutors were struck by the sympathetic response McMichael received and that of the others from officers and detectives who arrived on the scene. Most are white.

McMichael was told by Nohilly that Arbery could have “run around your son.”

Nohilly stated in an interview that “the whole road is there” from what he could tell.

McMichael, as per the transcript, agreed.

The detective was told by Travis that Travis ran faster than he could. He had the opportunity to run further. We had chased him about the neighbourhood a little but he was not winded. This guy was in great shape.