Amy Vaughan, FBI intelligence analyst, led the jury through the dozens of conversations Travis McMichael, William “Roddie”, Bryan allegedly had in the months and years prior to the killing of the Black man, 25. Vaughan stated that the FBI was unable to gain access to Greg McMichael’s phone because it was encrypted.
Vaughan stated that Travis McMichael used the N-word frequently to describe Black people in text and on Facebook. He also shared a video of a young Black boy performing on a television show that featured a racist song with the N-word over it, according to a Facebook conversation. He also claimed that Black people “ruin all things” and repeated his belief that he was happy he wasn’t a Black person using a racial insult.
Vaughan stated that Travis McMichael had made other social media posts advocating violence against Black people. He allegedly commented on a December 2018 Facebook video in which a Black man played a prank against a White person, saying: “I’d murder that f —-ing r.”
In June 2017, he shared a TV news report about a violent confrontation between two White women with two Black customers over cold food at a Georgia Georgia restaurant. He used a racial term to comment that he would beat the Blacks “to death” if they did that (name redacted from the FBI). According to him, he would not feel any remorse for killing a rabid dog.
Vaughan stated that Bryan used the N-word as well, but that his preferred slur was one which refers to a derogatory description of a Black person’s lips. Bryan is alleged to have exchanged racist messages over the years on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Vaughan stated that Bryan was clearly upset by his daughter’s relationship with a Black man in messages sent during the days following Arbery’s death.
Greg McMichael posted a meme on Facebook in 2016 claiming that White Irish slaves were treated worse in America than any other race, but that the Irish don’t need handouts.
Marcus Arbery, Arbery’s father, said to reporters outside the courthouse, “I ain’t really shocked.” He said that he didn’t know how much hate there was in the three men.
The FBI analysis was not questioned by defense attorneys, and they didn’t dispute the posts. In their opening statements Monday to the jury, they stated that while racist comments made by their clients were offensively and indefensible, but didn’t prove that they had committed hate crimes.
Amy Lee Copeland (the attorney for Travis McMichael) stated that some of his posts and texts were lacking context and that “you can’t listen to that inflection of the voice and see what is going on.”
Arbery ran through their coastal Georgia neighborhood, February 23, 2020, as the McMichaels prepared themselves with a pickup truck and chased him. Bryan, a neighbor, joined the chase in his truck and captured cellphone video of Travis McMichael firing a shotgun at Arbery.
Until the video was posted online two months later, no arrests were made.
Defense lawyers claim that Arbery’s death was motivated by a genuine suspicion of Arbery having committed crimes.
McMichaels, Bryan were both convicted last fall of murder in a Georgia state court . They were sentenced life imprisonment. The murder trial was dominated by prosecutors who focused on the fact that the three men had no reason to pursue and kill Arbery and not on any racist comments.
They pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes charges, which they were accused of violating Arbery’s civil rights and targeting him for being Black. Monday saw the swearing in of eight White, three Black and one Hispanic members to a jury.
