BRUNSWICK, Ga. – New court documents reveal federal prosecutors have reached plea agreements with the father and son convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery.
Gregory and Travis McMichael are already serving life sentences for Arbery’s murder. The plea deals are for their upcoming federal hate crimes trial.
So far, there hasn’t been any mention of a plea agreement for William “Roddie” Bryan, who is also facing a life sentence. Court filings from last week denied a motion sent by Bryan asking to exclude certain evidence.
Monday is the final pre-trial conference for the federal trial, and jury selection is slated to start a week from today.
The lawyer representing the Arbery family says the family did not agree to the plea agreement and will take up the matter at a hearing this morning. An attorney for Arbery’s mother said the deals would allow the men to transfer to “Preferred” Federal Custody.
Lee Merritt, attorney for Ahmaud Arbery’s family, said they are vehemently opposed to this and even went so far as to call it a backroom deal.
In the last four hours -- Merritt shared a post on Instagram which included a statement from Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, which said in part:
Merrittwent on to say the matter will be brought up at today’s already scheduled hearing in federal court in Brunswick. Monday’s hearing was supposed to be the final pretrial conference before jury selection was slated to begin exactly one week from today.
The hearing is planned for 10 a.m. This is an ongoing story, and new developments will be provided.
