A federal judge Monday rejected a plea deal prosecutors reached in a hate crime case with two of the three men convicted in state court on charges of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.
In a late-night court filing Sunday, prosecutors informed the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia of a plea deal with Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael. The details of the agreement were not made publicly available, but it drew criticism from the parents of Arbery.
“It is my decision to reject the plea agreement,” said U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Wood, NBC News reported. “In this case, it is appropriate to hear at sentencing from all concerned including the victim’s family.”
Wood said she did not want to be locked into specific terms and wanted to be able to consider the family’s wishes in the sentencing, according to the report. The judge also said she was unsure if the 30-year federal prison sentence in the plea agreement was appropriate and wanted to evaluate it herself. Jury selection in the case is set to begin Feb. 7, according to Politico.
The parents of Arbery expressed opposition to the plea deal and asked the judge to reject the agreement. A statement released Monday morning by attorneys Ben Crump and Lee Merritt on behalf of Wanda Cooper-Jones Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, the mother and father of Ahmaud Arbery, said the two are “devastated” and “vehemently” opposed to the agreement. It said Cooper-Jones would testify during a court hearing Monday against the agreement.
“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,” said Cooper-Jones 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. I have been completely betrayed by DOJ lawyers.”
The statement also revealed some details of the agreement not previously disclosed in the public court documents. It said the McMichaels can serve their 30-year sentencing in a “preferred federal prison,” with the parents arguing this was a “huge accommodation” for the men convicted of killing their son.
The court filing Sunday for the failed plea deal did not mention William “Roddie” Bryan, the third man convicted in the killing. Bryan was in another vehicle recording the incident while the McMichaels were in a pickup truck armed with a gun aimed at Ahmaud Arbery.
All three men were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with hate crime and attempted kidnapping last April. Byran is set to face trial in the case in February, Reuters reported.
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Travis McMichael ultimately shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery on Feb. 23, 2020. His lawyers claimed he did so in self-defense after Ahmaud Arbery attempted to grab the gun pointed at him. The McMichaels claimed in a state court they attempted to perform a citizen’s arrest of Ahmaud Arbery and accused him of committing crimes in the area prior to the fatal encounter.
The three men were found guilty on most of the charges against them for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in a state court last November. The McMichaels were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Bryan was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
