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[0] The jury in the Ahmaud Arbery trial reached a verdict Wednesday, finding all three defendants guilty of murder.
[1] First verdict form I have is the state of Georgia versus Travis McMichael.
[2] Mr. McMichael, please stand.
[3] The verdict is as follows.
[4] In the Superior Court of Glen County, State of Georgia, the state of Georgia versus Travis McMichael.
[5] Count one, malice murder.
[6] We, the jury, find the defendant, Travis McMichael, guilty.
[7] We'll provide the details of the verdict in the highly scrutinized case.
[8] I'm John Bickley, and this is a special edition of Morning Wire.
[9] In a verdict delivered Wednesday afternoon, a jury ruled that father and son Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William Roddy Bryan, were all guilty of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020.
[10] Daily Wire's Charlotte Pence -Bahn is here to walk us through the details.
[11] So, Charlotte, first, what were all the charges against the three defendants?
[12] Sure.
[13] So first, for context, we should note that all three defendants are white and Arbery was black.
[14] It's also worth noting that the jury was nearly all white with 11 jurors white and just one black.
[15] The defendants, Gregory McMichael, who's 65, Travis McMichael 35, and William Roddy Bryan 52, all faced charges of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit a felony.
[16] All three pleaded not guilty on all charges.
[17] Lawyers for the father and son argued during the trial, that they were all pursuing a man, they believed to be a burglary suspect, and were attempting to perform a citizen's arrest.
[18] They say Travis only shot Arbery when he believed he was going to take his gun from him.
[19] Brian, meanwhile, said he was only there to record the incident and had no weapon.
[20] So they all pleaded not guilty, but clearly the jury rejected this defense.
[21] Right.
[22] They found them all guilty on most of the charges.
[23] Travis McMichael, who shot Arbery, was found guilty of all the charges, including the top -line charge of malice murder.
[24] Gregory McMichael was found guilty of all charges except malice murder, while Brian was found guilty of three of the charges.
[25] Felony murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment.
[26] So the bottom line here is that all three were found guilty of felony murder, and Travis was found guilty of the most severe charge, malice murder, which involves intent to kill.
[27] Right.
[28] And now all faced life in prison.
[29] For those who haven't been following this case as closely, can you walk us through the events that led to the charges?
[30] Sure.
[31] So this took place near Brunswick, Georgia on February 23, 2020.
[32] But It didn't gain national attention until cell phone video of it filmed by Brian went viral a few months later.
[33] According to the initial police report, the defendants said there had been, quote, several break -ins in the neighborhood, and that the suspect was caught on surveillance video.
[34] They said that they saw Arbery running down the street and thought he just attempted to break -in.
[35] Gregory McMichael said he then got his 357 magnum, and Travis got his shotgun because they, quote, didn't know if the male was armed or not.
[36] They then pursued Arbery.
[37] video showed Arbery running down the street in the direction of a white pickup truck, where the McMichaels were waiting.
[38] Arbery went around to the passenger side, at which point a struggle broke out between him and Travis McMichael, and McMichael fired his gun.
[39] On the stand, Travis said he fired because Arbery, quote, had my gun.
[40] The prosecution argued that rather than being self -defense, it was deliberate murder.
[41] The nearly all -white jury ultimately agreed.
[42] You mentioned the race of those involved in the jury.
[43] in this case has obviously been highly racially charged with many saying the largely white jury wouldn't rule against the defendants but that didn't turn out to be the case.
[44] No, it didn't.
[45] In this case actually resulted in a change to Georgia law, right?
[46] Yeah, the state significantly rehauled its citizens' arrest law in May and it was because of this case.
[47] Well, this was another highly anticipated verdict in a case that sparked protests and gained national attention.
[48] Charlotte, thanks for the reporting.
[49] Sure thing.
[50] That was DailyWire's Charlotte Pence Bond, and that was our special episode on the Arbery Verdict.
[51] Thanks as always for tuning into Morning Wire.
[52] We'll be back Friday with the news you need to know.