Federal prosecutors have reached plea agreements with Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, on hate crime charges they faced in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, court documents show.
Details of the agreement were not specified in the filing, but an attorney for Arbery’s mother said the family “is devastated” by the deal and vows to oppose it.
The McMichaels were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole in a Glynn County, Georgia, court in early January for murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black jogger.
The men were also indicted on federal hate crimes charges. That trial was scheduled to begin on February 7, according to court documents. An attorney for Gregory McMichael declined to comment on the agreement Monday.
“A copy of the plea agreement has been provided to the Court for its consideration,” said the notices of plea agreements filed Sunday in US District Court, Southern District of Georgia.
A third man convicted of killing Arbery and also charged in the federal hate crimes case, William “Roddie” Bryan, was not mentioned in Sunday’s court filings. Bryan, who shot video of Arbery’s killing, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Federal prosecutors asked Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, earlier this month if she would consider a plea deal for her son’s killers before the men were sentenced in Georgia, and she declined, CNN has reported.
In an Instagram post, Cooper-Jones’s attorney, S. Lee Merritt said he “will oppose this deal before the Court” Monday. He added, “This back room deal represents a betrayal to the Arbery family who is devastated.”
