Chatham County Superior Court judge Timothy Walmsley has denied a motion for mistrial by the defense lawyer of the men who allegedly shot Ahmaud Arbery.
Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan are accused of the murder of Arbery, who is black.
The trio said they were attempting to make a citizen’s arrest because they feared he was stealing things in their neighborhood.
Because of Arbery’s race and the long delay before the men who shot him were arrested, the case gathered national attention.
The moment of Arbery’s shooting was caught on video.
Travis McMichael fired a shotgun as Arbery ran toward him out of view behind a car. The pair struggled until Travis McMichael was able to hit Arbery with two more shotgun blasts.
Bloodied, Arbery ran a few steps and fell. He died soon after.
The three men who participated in the shooting are on trial together.
Kevin Gough, the lawyer for Bryan, asked the judge for a mistrial based on the Bruton rule.
The rule states that it violates someone’s right to confront their accuser when a non-testifying person accused alongside them names them as a participant in a crime during a joint trial.
Gough said this issue was important because prosecutors were trying to suggest the defendants planned to shoot Arbery, or planned to lie about their actions afterward.
“The state has these before-the-fact, after-the-fact conspiracy theories to get around the fact that there were no communications between Ronnie Bryan and Greg McMichael prior to the shooting in this case about this matter,” Gough said.
Gough noted that he had specifically objected to McMichael’s testimony about knowing Bryan entering evidence because he couldn’t cross-examine McMichael.
“They’re putting me in a box where Ronnie Bryan can’t get a fair trial without being made to cross examine Gregory McMichael in this case,” Gough said.
To fix the issue, Gough suggested giving Bryan a separate trial from the other defendants.
The prosecutor, Linda Dunikoski, disagreed.
“This is not an inculpatory statement in any way. People having known each other in this context is absolutely not inculpatory,” she said.
Dunikoski also said the state would not attempt to suggest that the men who shot Arbery had conspired together to do so.
“All of the paper tigers that Mr. Gough is talking about, the state doesn’t intend to put those in,” she said.
“That is denied,” Judge Walmsley replied.
“All of this is preparing the grounds for at this point I am not aware the issue currently before the court. It sure sounds like everybody’s got a heads-up on where this thing could go.”
