Did the prosecutor help Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers? Law of lawyers in the court

By Russ Bynum, Associated Press

Brunswick, Georgia (AP) – lawyers faced each other before a jury of the trial on Tuesday about whether a former prosecutor abused his power to try to protect the men who persecuted and killed Ahmaud Arbetería In the streets of a quiet neighborhood of Georgia almost five years ago.

Jackie Johnson served as a district prosecutor for Glynn’s coastal county when white men persecuted arberry in trucks who saw him run in his neighborhood on February 23, 2020, and mistakenly assumed that the 25 -year -old black man was a thief . The persecution ended when one of the three men fatally fired to arguerías at a short distance with a shotgun.

More than two months passed without arrests in the death of arberry, until the video of the shooting was leaked online. The Georgia Investigation Office took over the case of the Local Police and the Perseguidados de Arbery were accused and then convicted of murder.

Johnson was also accused in 2021 of violating his oath of charge, a serious crime, as well as a minor crime of hindering police investigation of arberry death.

A jury was sitting to his trial on Tuesday and heard almost two hours of opening a prosecutor and Johnson’s main defense lawyer.

John Fowler, prosecutor of the Office of the Attorney General of Georgia, Chris Carr, told the jury that the police initially told arberry that his son was shot while committing a home invasion, which was false. Meanwhile, said Johnson focused on helping former employee Greg McMichael, who began the deadly search, and his son who triggered the fatal explosions of shotgun.

“She put the interest of her former chief researcher and her former friend before a victim,” Fowler said.

Johnson’s main lawyer Brian Steel insisted that he is innocent. Steel said that Johnson immediately said and delivered the case to an external prosecutor. He also blamed the Local Police for reaching the false conclusion that Arbery had been caught committing a crime and was shot in self -defense.

“Jackie has done nothing to put his finger on the scale of justice,” Steel said.

He told the jury that Johnson only knew what the police had told him, that arberry was a thief, and was surprised two months later to see the filtered video that told a very different story.

Senior Judge John R. Turner sat a jury of 12 plus three alternative jurors in the Glynn County Court a week later jury selection It began in the port city of Brunswick. A rare winter storm was delayed that left the coastal community covered with snow and ice.

The judge said that Johnson’s trial will last two weeks or more. It stops in the same court where arberry assailants were sentenced by murder In 2021.

Greg McMichael and his son Travis McMichael put together and persecuted arberry in a van after seeing him run beyond his house. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the search in his own truck and recorded a cell phone video.

Greg McMichael called Johnson about an hour after the murder.

“My son and I have been involved in a shooting, and I need some tips immediately,” he said in a voice mail that remains on Johnson’s cell phone and then included in the judicial records.

Prosecutors say that Johnson abused his power by making the attorney general appoint an external prosecutor that Johnson knew that he had already advised the police not to arrest. Fowler said that Johnson never revealed that George Barnhill, the first of the three external prosecutors assigned to the case, had concluded that Arbery’s murder was not a crime.

“She intentionally retained information so that no one knew that George Barnhill had already decided the case,” Fowler said.

Steel said that Johnson had enlisted Barnhill the day after the shooting to advise the police because his relationship with Greg McMichael raised a conflict of interest. But he denied that Johnson recommended Barnhill when he then asked the Attorney General to appoint an external prosecutor.

“Jackie doesn’t recommend anyone,” Steel told the jury. “You will see the letter.”

Johnson was also accused in an accusation of September 2021 of hindering the police by “directing them” not to arrest through Travis McMichael.

Fowler, in his opening statement, did not refer to Johnson telling the police not to arrest anyone. Steel said the jury will later listen to interviews recorded with police investigators saying that they did not receive such a directive from Johnson.

The three men were sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of murder in 2021. They were also convicted of federal hate crimes in a separate trial the following year.

Johnson was voted of the office in November 2020 after 10 years as a district prosecutor for the Judicial Circuit of the five Brunswick counties. She largely blamed her defeat to the controversy for the case, which exploded months before.

Originally published: January 28, 2025 at 9:01 am est