Opening statements in the murder trial of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, a black jogger who was killed last year, began Friday at a Brunswick court house, in Glynn County, Ga

Georgia, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski, said the defendants knew the victim was not a burglar months before they were caught on video shooting him dead as he was jogging in their neighborhood ,

Greg McMichael, 66, and his adult son Travis McMichael, 35, and neighbor, William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, 51, are facing of murder charges for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Feb 23, 2020

The McMichaels had armed themselves and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck as he ran through their neighborhood just outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick

Their neighbor, William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, joined the chase and recorded graphic video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun

Defense claim that father and son were ‘turned vigilante’ in the belief that Arbery was responsible for the string of robberies in their neighborhood

Dunikoski said the McMichaels were made aware that Arbery was not the serial robber in the neighborhood months before

Controversy was introduced a day earlier when judge Timothy Walmsley slammed the defense for ‘intentional discrimination’ after just one black juror was picked in the racially-charged case

The prosecution opened with stating that the three white men on trial for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery knew that he was not a burglar despite their claims that they confronted the black jogger because they suspected him of robbery. Gregory McMichael, 66, his son Travis McMichael, 35, and their neighbor William Bryan, 51, are on trial at Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga., for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020
Georgia Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski leading for the state in the racially-charged case, during opening arguments Friday presented a bodycam video of Greg McMichael and his adult son, Travis McMichael, speaking with a police officer months before the fatal shooting, with the officer telling them that Arbery, 25, is only a suspected trespasser and loiterer in the area, not a burglar.
‘Mr. Arbery has never taken anything from this property. At this point, the McMichaels knew this,’ Dunikoski told the nearly all white jury in Brunswick. 

The McMichaels had armed themselves and pursued Arbery in a pickup truck as he ran through their neighborhood just outside the Georgia port city of Brunswick on February 23, 2020.
A neighbor, William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, joined the chase and recorded graphic video of Travis shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun. 
She presented a photograph of the incident, which shows Travis running towards Arbery in an effort to intercept him before discharging his shotgun. 
The prosecutor was also allowed to show the jury, which has just one black juror on the  12-person panel, a picture of Travis’s license plate that features an old Georgia flag with the Confederate battle emblem, after the judge overruled objections by defense lawyers. 

Prosecutor shows footage during trial, of Ahmaud Arbery running.

Georgia’s response to the killing has become part of a broader effort to address racial injustice in the criminal legal system after a string of fatal encounters between police and black people such as George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.
All three defendants are standing trial together, charged with murder and other felony counts.  
Dunikoski said the tragedy befell Arbery for a series of assumptions, ‘driveway decisions’ and malice about his race and suspicion regarding thefts in the area.
Larry English had long been complaining about thefts on his property when his home surveillance caught video of Arbery on the property in late 2019. 

 ‘We are here because of assumptions’ Dunikoski told the court in her opening statement

Dunikoski said English and police suspected Arbery of the burglaries for only a brief moment before designating him as a ‘strange’ trespasser and loiterer who only seemed to walk by the area. Videos of Arbery were shared around the neighborhood in an attempt to identify him.
Despite being told this by police, according to the bodycam video, both McMichaels said they believed Arbery was the serial robber plaguing their neighborhood when they chased after him.
Dunikoski said the men had time to think about what they were doing when they decided to chase the black men with their pick-up truck and guns, but carried on anyway. The McMichaels also called police to say they were chasing Arbery and had him ‘trapped like a rat.’
‘The state will show this was an attack on Ahmaud Arbery for five minutes, and all Mr. Arbery did was run away.’ 

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, was also seen crying and covering her ears as Dunikoski presented the video of the fatal encounter.
The prosecutor was also allowed to show the jury, which has just one black juror on the 12-person panel, a picture of Travis’s license plate that features an old Georgia flag with the Confederate battle emblem, after the judge overruled objections by defense lawyers.

Court filings allege that Travis McMichael was the shooter. On Friday his attorney, Robert Rubin, claimed in his opening statement that his client was only trying to defend his neighborhood amid a series of robberies in the area.
Rubin claims that the character of the defendant’s neighborhood in Brunswick had changed in the months leading up to the shooting due to the string of robberies in 2019.
‘Satilla Shores was a neighborhood on edge,’ Rubin said, alluding that neighbors were putting up cameras, posting worries on Facebook and children were no longer allowed to play outside. Court filings allege that Travis McMichael was the shooter.
Rubin, claimed that the former US Coast Guard service member felt he had a duty and responsibility to help catch not just the suspected thieves, but also the trespasser, Arbery.

He said Travis felt he had a duty and responsibility to help catch not just the suspected thieves, but also the trespasser, Arbery.
Rubin adds that Travis had come across a trespasser at English’s home on the night of February 11, presumably Arbery, who Travis claimed may have been armed in a 9-11 call that night.
He also claimed Arbery was a in fact a burglar, because he was trespassing on the property even if he did not steal anything from English, so Travis had probable cause to chase Arbery.
Rubin said Travis ultimately shot Arbery in self-defense when Arbery ran at him and allegedly tried to grab the shotgun away from him

Franklin Hogue, Greg McMichael’s attorney, said his defense also believed Arbery was the man who had been burglarizing English’s property.
Hogue said Greg, a former officer, used his training to recognize Arbery as the man from the video tapes and notified his son as the two decided to go after him.
Greg was the one speaking with police at the time Travis confronted Arbery. Hogue said Greg believed Arbery was trying to grab Travis’s gun.
‘He was in abject fear that he was about to see his only son get shot before his very eyes,’ Hogue said.
He added that Greg only wanted to arrest Arbery in order to get answers as to why he continued to break into English’s property.
Defense Attorney Kevin Gough, representing William ‘Roddie’ Bryan, said he wanted to forego his opening statement until the state presents its case in chief.
One witnesses called on opening day is William Duggan, a Glynn County police officer, who recounted what he saw on arrival at the scene of Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting.

Officer Duggan questions Travis McMichael on arrival at the scene of Arbery shooting

Officer Duggan said that he saw Arbery lying on the ground with people milling about. Seated on the ground nearby was Travis McMichael, the reported shooter.
“I could see he was covered in blood,” Duggan said. “There was blood all over, and I remember at some point asking if he was OK.”
McMichael replied, “No I’m not OK,” Duggan testified.
“I just effing killed somebody.’”
Officer Duggan was the first witness called by the prosecution on Friday, the opening day of the trial.
The prosecution then played a video of Officer Duggan’s body camera footage from the moment he arrived on the scene of the shooting.
The defense had tried to keep the video out of the trial, but Judge Timothy R. Walmsley ruled that it was admissible. Before the video was played in court, Judge Walmsley warned that the images could provoke reaction, and some of Mr. Arbery’s relatives stepped out of the courtroom.
The video showed Mr. Arbery bleeding out on the street, his white T-shirt drenched in his own blood.
When other officers arrive at the scene, Officer Duggan told them that he turned Mr. Arbery’s body over

Arbery had been dead for more than two months before the McMichaels and Bryan were charged and jailed last year. Greg McMichael, a retired investigator for the local district attorney, told police the men were trying to stop Arbery because they suspected he was a burglar. Security cameras had recorded him entering a nearby house under construction.
Greg McMichael said his son killed Arbery in self-defense after Arbery attacked with his fists and tried to take Travis McMichael’s gun.
Prosecutors say Arbery was merely out jogging, was unarmed and had committed no crimes in the neighborhood. When Bryan’s video of the killing leaked online in May 2020, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. GBI agents arrested the McMichaels the next day, and charged Bryan two weeks later.
The killing of Arbery has dominated news stories and social media feeds in Brunswick and surrounding Glynn County, a coastal community of about 85,000 people.

On Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, a Georgia judge ruled that Ahmaud Arbery’s mental health records can’t be used as trial evidence by the men who chased and killed him.
It took the judge and attorneys 2 1/2 weeks to select a jury. Nearly 200 people summoned to jury duty were questioned extensively about what they knew about the case, how many times they had seen the video and if they had any personal connection to Arbery or the defendants.
Controversy erupted on Wednesday, the final day of jury selection, when prosecutors objected to a final jury consisting of 11 whites and one black juror. They argued that defense attorneys had cut eight potential jurors from the final panel because they are Black, which the U.S. Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.
The judge agreed there appeared to be ‘intentional discrimination,’ but said Georgia law limited his authority to intervene because defense attorneys stated non-racial reasons for excluding Black panelists from the jury.
One juror, a white woman, was dismissed Thursday for medical reasons. Fifteen total panelists will hear the trial – 12 jurors plus three alternates. The judge has not given the races of the alternate jurors, and they were not asked to state their race in open court.
Court officials have said the trial could last two weeks or more.
If the defendants are acquitted, their legal troubles won’t be over. They have also been indicted on federal hate crime charges.
A U.S. District Court judge has scheduled that trial to begin February 7.