ATLANTA — The father and son convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery have reached a plea agreement with prosecutors that could allow them to avoid a trial in their federal hate crimes case.
Travis McMichael and his father, Greg, were convicted of murder in November in a state trial in Brunswick and sentenced earlier this month to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed the cellphone video of Arbery collapsing in the street from two shotgun blasts, was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole.
All three men face separate hate crimes charges accusing them of violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting the 25-year-old because he was Black.
On Sunday, however, federal prosecutors filed motions notifying the court they had reached plea agreements with the McMichaels less than a week before their trial was set to begin.
Details of the plea agreements weren’t immediately clear, but the defendants had a pretrial hearing Monday morning in Brunswick. The motions filed Sunday evening say copies of the plea agreements have been submitted to the court and ask the judge to accept the McMichaels’ deals.
A plea hearing for Travis McMichael is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday, and a plea hearing for Greg is set for 2:45 p.m.
Attorney Lee Merritt, who represents Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said the deal would allow the McMichaels to spend the first 30 years of their sentences in “a preferred federal prison” instead of state prison. He said both of Arbery’s parents oppose the deal and have made that clear to the Department of Justice.
Jason Sheffield, who represented Travis McMichael during the state trial, said the 36-year-old has been working closely with his federal attorney on the plea deal and is “absolutely convinced that this is the right thing for him to do.”
In exchange for pleading guilty to the first count in the federal indictment — interfering with Arbery’s rights — the father and son would be sentenced to 30 years in federal custody, Sheffield said.
“We’re hoping the time he serves will be at a federal prison based on the programming and availability of resources,” Sheffield said. He noted the federal deal, if accepted by the judge, would still allow Travis McMichael to appeal his conviction in the state case.
“Most people, rightly so, prefer to be in federal custody than in state custody,” said Atlanta criminal defense attorney Jack Martin, who has followed the case. “That’s especially true for police officers or former police officers who could be more vulnerable to being attacked in state custody. Federal custody can give them a little more protection. I assume that’s what they’re thinking.”
Martin also said he expects Judge Lisa Godbey Wood to accept the plea regardless of whether the family opposes it. “Absent extremely extenuating circumstances, if it’s a plea both the prosecution and defense agree to, the judge will take the plea.”
Sheffield pushed back on the assertion that serving time in a federal prison would be “cushier” for the McMichaels than spending the rest of their lives in a state facility.
“Anybody who tries to convince the public that one is better than the other or one is cushier than the other has no idea what it’s like to serve time in prison,” he said.
The McMichaels contended they grabbed their guns and chased the fleeing Arbery because they suspected him of burglarizing a vacant home in their Satilla Shores neighborhood just outside Brunswick. Arbery was seen walking around the home on at least five occasions in the months leading up to his shooting, but there is no evidence he ever stole anything.
His killing led to two major changes in state law. The General Assembly largely repealed Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law and passed a hate crimes statute enhancing sentences for those accused of targeting someone because of their race, gender or sexual orientation.
Federal prosecutors had planned to introduce as evidence text messages and previous comments made by the defendants pointing toward racial animus. But Travis McMichael testified last year that he never intended to kill anyone that day.
“There does exist the possibility, and in Travis’ case I think the probability, that his actions on Feb. 23 were not about the things that he may have said in the past,” Sheffield said. “We believe he acted out of a sense of duty and responsibility to his neighborhood.”
A similar deal previously offered to the McMichaels was rejected by Arbery’s parents earlier this month, they said.
“Wanda Cooper-Jones will appear in court (Monday), along with me, to object and say this deal was done behind the parents’ back and without their consent,” Merritt told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution late Sunday.
The latest court filings don’t mention a plea agreement for Bryan.
“The DOJ has gone behind my back to offer the men who murdered my son a deal to make their time in prison easier for them to serve,” Cooper-Jones said in a statement. “I have made it clear at every possible moment that I do not agree to offer these men a plea deal of any kind.”
Arbery was shot to death by Travis McMichael in February 2020 after being chased through a Glynn County neighborhood by the three white men in pickup trucks for about five minutes. The killing, captured on Bryan’s cellphone, led to widespread demonstrations when the footage became public two months later. Glynn County police never made an arrest in the case, and the McMichaels were arrested by the GBI 74 days after the deadly shooting.
Federal prosecutors said they planned to introduce “racial-animus evidence” against the three defendants at their upcoming trial. Such evidence likely would have included text messages, social media posts and Bryan’s statement to the GBI that Travis McMichael used a racist slur while standing over the dying Arbery in the street.
At a June 2020 pretrial hearing in the state’s murder case, GBI agent Richard Dial testified that Bryan said he heard Travis McMichael say “(expletive) N-word” after shooting Arbery.
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(Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writer Bill Rankin contributed to this report.)
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