Travis McMichael on Friday withdrew his guilty plea to federal hate crimes charges in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, opting to stand trial with his father after a deal with prosecutors fell apart.
The two White men have already been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the killing of Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man. They will now face a jury along with their neighbor, 52-year-old William “Roddie” Bryan, on the federal charges despite having previously agreed to admit that racism played a role in the February 2020 killing.
In court Monday, Travis McMichael, 36, pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal with prosecutors who said he “harbored resentment toward African American people,” and his father, , 66, was expected to do the same. The deal would have allowed the men to serve the first 30 years of their sentences in federal rather than state custody. But Arbery’s family denounced the arrangement as a “backroom” deal that would have allowed the McMichaels serve their sentences in better prison conditions.
Judge Lisa Godbey Wood rejected the plea deal and told the defendants they could reconsider their positions ahead of the federal trial set to begin next week.
Lawyers for the defendants argued during their state murder trial in November that the three men pursued Arbery in the belief that he was behind neighborhood break-ins, not because of his race. But prosecutors have pointed to texts and social media posts as evidence of racism. Bryan, who recorded the fatal confrontation on his phone, told investigators that Travis McMichael used the n-word after shooting Arbery, a claim the younger McMichael’s attorneys denied.
McMichaels and Bryan were charged with federal hate crime offenses on top of murder charges, accused of using “force and threats of force to intimidate and interfere with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race.” All three men pleaded not guilty last spring.
They were convicted of murder, and a judge in January sentenced them to life in prison — Georgia law prescribed no less — with no possibility of parole for the McMichaels.
As the federal trial neared, prosecutors reached a deal with the McMichaels: The pair would plead guilty and serve a 30-year sentence in federal prison before returning to state custody. But days after the plea deal was signed, Arbery’s family announced they were vehemently opposed. Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said she did not need the McMichaels to validate what she and activists have been saying for nearly two years — that racism fueled her son’s murder.
“All they would have to do is stand up and say that they were motivated by hate, and then this court will concede to their preferred conditions of confinement,” Cooper-Jones said in court Monday. “I do not need to hear them say they were motivated by hate. That does me no good. It does my family no good.”
Seeking to save the deal, prosecutor Tara Lyons told the court Monday that the McMichaels’ agreement was significant. They were “admitting publicly in front of the nation that this offense was racially motivated,” she said.
She said prosecutors had turned down another deal early in January after meeting with the family and considering their wishes.
“I personally understand every expression of anger and distrust that the Arbery family feels with law enforcement and the justice system,” Lyons said. “I have no doubt if my son were chased down and shot like an animal, because of the color of his skin, I would feel the same.”
Wood, the judge, said she could not guarantee the sentencing terms that prosecutors had outlined. She told the McMichaels that because she had rejected the deal, they could reconsider their pleas.
