Two Arbery Killers Reach Plea Deals Before Hate Crime Trial

(Bloomberg) -- Two of the three White men convicted of murder in the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was running through their Georgia neighborhood almost two years ago, have reached plea agreements in the federal hate-crimes case against them.

The U.S. Justice Department on Sunday filed notices of the deals with Travis McMichael and his father Greg McMichael in federal court in Brunswick, Georgia. Details of the agreements weren't disclosed. No plea deal notice was filed for the third man convicted in Arbery's killing, William “Roddie” Bryan.

U.S. District Judge Lisa G. Wood scheduled a change-of-plea hearing for the McMichaels for Monday afternoon. Lawyers for the men declined to comment on the case because it's still pending. Jury selection in the case is scheduled for Feb. 7. 

All three men were sentenced on Jan. 7 to life in prison following a two-week jury trial in state court in Georgia. Bryan, who filmed the encounter with Arbery and didn't use a firearm in the attack, will be able to seek parole after 30 years.

The McMichaels and Bryan were charged in April with hate crimes and the attempted kidnapping of Arbery, adding a federal case to the earlier proceeding in state court. The indictment also charged the McMichaels with separate counts of using firearms during a crime of violence.

The men “used force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery's right to use a public street because of his race,” the Justice Department said in announcing the charges.

Georgia Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley, who oversaw the earlier trial in state court, was required by state law to sentence the men to life behind bars after a jury found them guilty of murder. When he handed down the sentence, Walmsley said Arbery was “hunted down and shot” in a “chilling, truly disturbing scene.”

“He was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands,” the judge said.

The case is U.S.A. v. McMichael, 2:21-cr-00022, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia (Brunswick).

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