
(UnitedReader.com) – On February 23, 2020, three men chased down and killed 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. Two of the men were father and son, Greg and Travis McMichael, and the third man was their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who followed the McMichael pickup truck with his own and recorded the entire incident on his phone. The son, Travis, who’s responsible for shooting Arbery with a shotgun, recently withdrew his guilty plea.
Only days after a US District Court judge denied a deal between the defense and prosecutors, the younger McMichael responded to Judge Lisa Godbey Wood’s decision by withdrawing his plea.
NEW: Travis McMichael, convicted of murder for shooting Ahmaud Arbery, withdrew his guilty plea on a federal hate crime charge, electing to stand trial for a second time.
His father, Greg McMichael, also backed down from a plan to plead guilty. https://t.co/yQI2dSqnsu
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) February 4, 2022
The revelation comes as both plea deals for the father and son fell apart. The elder McMichael also withdrew his guilty plea, meaning all three men will be back in court on February 7 for their trial hearings, as Judge Wood requested. The younger McMichael’s hearing was so quick the victim’s father, Marcus Arbery Sr., missed it.
The father-son duo planned to plead guilty to federal hate crime charges after their defense attorneys reached an agreement with prosecutors. The defense hoped to transfer the McMichaels from Georgia state custody into a federal prison, where the two would serve 30 years.
Judge Wood rejected the idea, explaining it would lock her into a specific sentence. Arbery’s family also argued that conditions wouldn’t be as harsh in a federal penitentiary versus if they stayed in state custody.
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