The three white Georgia men who chased and gunned down Ahmaud Arbery were each given life sentences Friday for what the dead jogger’s dad called a modern-day lynching “in broad daylight.”
Shooter Travis McMichael, 35, and his 66-year-old dad, ex-cop Gregory McMichael, were both told they would spend the rest of their lives behind bars without the possibility of parole. Even though they can never be released, both were also given an extra 20 years to run consecutively on a lesser aggravated assault charge.
Their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, also got a life sentence, but with the possibility of parole — which he can only apply for after serving 30 years, when he will be 82.
“Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down and shot,” Judge Timothy Walmsley told the three murderers, who showed no emotions at the sentences.
“He was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands,” the judge said.
The judge dramatically enforced a minute’s silence to reflect “a fraction” of the five minutes of “terror” that Arbery must have felt as he tried to flee the men chasing him in pickups.
“A young man with dreams was gunned down in this community,” with a routine 2020 jog ending with him “running for his life,” the judge said.
The judge noted how the “chilling, truly disturbing” video of the deadly chase showed the McMichaels turning their backs on Arbery after being gunned down.
He also noted their callous statements after killing the unarmed jogger, including how ex-cop Greg wished he’d been the shooter and his son moaned about “his own well-being” while “the victim was laying there on the street.”
He said that Bryan — who filmed the horrific 2020 chase and murder — stood in “very different shoes” as the only one to show remorse. Still, Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, had earlier said that also spend the rest of his life behind bars given that he will be in his 80s before he can apply for parole.
The trio, wearing suits and face masks in court, had potentially faced the death penalty, but that option was not sought by prosecutors.
Arbery’s mother, father and sister had tearfully pleaded with the judge to enforce the maximum terms.
“Not only did they lynch my son in broad daylight, but they killed him while he was doing what he loved more than anything, running,” the 25-year-old victim’s dad, Marcus, told the court.
“When I close my eyes I see his execution in my mind, over and over. I’ll see that for the rest of my life” he said.
He also spoke of the pain of looking at “the man who killed my son” sitting in the court “next to his father.”
“I never get that chance to sit next to my son ever again,” he said.
“I pray that no one in this courtroom ever has to do what we did — bury their child. There’s no words for that. No words know that much pain,” he said.
“My heart is broken, and always will be broken” because of “evil and hate,” he said, saying he was there to “fight” for justice for his son.
Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said that the killers had shown “no remorse and do not deserve any leniency.”
“They were fully committed to their crimes. Let them be fully committed for the consequences,” she said.
“They chose to target my son because they didn’t want him in their community,” she told the court. “And when they couldn’t sufficiently scare him or intimidate him, they killed him.”
Wiping away tears, she spoke to her son who had “a smile so bright it lit up a room,” telling him that “raising you was the honor of my life.”
“I made a promise to you the day I laid you to rest. I told you I loved you, and someday, somehow, I would get you justice,” she said.
Arbery’s sister, Jasmine, also broke down as she told the court how her brother “looked like me and the people I love” — qualities that “made these men assume that Ahmaud was a dangerous criminal” that they felt justified them chasing him “with guns drawn.”
“Ahmaud had a future that was taken from him,” she said, fighting back tears as she described the loss “that has devastated me and my family.”
The McMichaels and Bryan have said they plan to appeal the convictions. They have 30 days after sentencing to file them.
They also face another trial next month on federal hate crime charges, accused in an indictment of violating Arbery’s civil rights by attacking him because of his “race and color.”
Before Friday’s sentencing, the trio offered to plead guilty to the federal hate crimes in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in hopes of having their federal sentence take the place of their state life sentence, according to CBS 46.
However, Arbery’s mother asked prosecutors not to accept it, because she wants both sentences to run together, the station’s Hayley Mason said in a tweet.
With Post wires
