- A judge sentenced the three men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia courtroom on Friday.
- A jury previously found Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William Bryan guilty of murder.
- The three men said they were trying to put Arbery under citizen's arrest when they shot him in February 2020.
A judge on Friday sentenced Ahmaud Arbery's three killers to life in prison, two of them without the possibility of parole.
Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan, who are all white, were each found guilty of murder in November for the shooting death of Arbery, a Black man.
Judge Timothy Walmsley sentenced the McMichaels to life in prison without parole, while he sentenced Bryan to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Father and son Gregory McMichael and Travis McMichael had trailed Arbery in a pickup truck as he jogged through their neighborhood on February 23, 2020, saying they believed he was responsible for a recent surge in burglaries in the area. Travis McMichael eventually confronted Arbery in the street and shot him at point-blank range with a shotgun.
Bryan followed behind the McMichaels' in a different vehicle, and filmed the chase and the shooting with his cellphone.
The three men faced nine individual charges for the killing, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment. A jury found Travis McMichael guilty on all counts, while his father was convicted on all counts except malice murder. Bryan was acquitted of one count of malice murder, one count of felony murder, and one count of aggravated assault.
Judge Walmsley called Arbery's murder "a tragedy on many many levels" in the sentencing hearing on Friday.
Walmsley said that Arbery left his home in February 2020 "apparently to go for a run and he ended up running for his life."
According to Walmsley, the defendants' "own words" guided his sentencing. Walmsley said that he thought Greg McMichael tried to "establish a narrative early on" by making comments about Arbery going into a house in the neighborhood several times.
Walmsley said that Greg McMichael "effectively admitted" that he didn't know if Ahmaud Arbery had done anything wrong when McMichael told police that he didn't think Arbery had stolen anything but "he keeps going back over and over again into this damn house."
"It's interesting because he talks about his concern for his child and his own well-being and part of this was while the victim was actually laying there in the street," Walmsley said.
Walmsley said that Travis McMichael grabbed his shotgun because "he assumes it's the right thing to do" after Greg McMichael told him that he "had no choice."
Remorse, Walmsley said, is not a simple statement of regret, but "something that's felt and demonstrated in this case." Walmsley noted that video of the shooting shows the McMichaels turned their backs after Ahmaud Arbery falls to the ground.
"It's a disturbing image and they walked away," Walmsley said. "This was a killing. It was callous."
Walmsley said he thought Bryan "stands in very different shoes" as far as showing remorse for the crime. According to Walmsley, police body camera footage from after the shooting showed what he thought was Bryan showing "concerns that what occurred shouldn't have occurred."
Travis and Gregory McMichael claimed that they were trying to place Arbery under citizen's arrest when they confronted him. They said they acted in self-defense during the shooting.
Arbery's father, Marcus Arbery, was the first member of his family to give a victim impact statement to the court. Arbery said he sees his son's "execution" in his mind over and over when he closes his eyes.
"Not only did they lynch my son, they killed him while he was doing what he loved the most, running," Arbery said in court.
Arbery's mother, Wanda-Cooper Jones, started her impact statement by speaking "directly" to her son. She told the court that she "promised" Ahmaud that "some day some how I would get you justice" the day she laid him to rest.
The three men's attorneys have said they plan to appeal their convictions. All three men also still face a federal hate crimes trial.
The original prosecutor of the case, former Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson, still faces a trial for violation of oath and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors allege that Johnson used her position to delay arrests of Bryan and the McMichaels.
Cooper-Jones told "CBS Mornings" on Friday that she rejected a plea deal for the McMichaels and Bryan on their federal hate crimes charges.