Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Testimony has ended in the federal hate crimes trial of three white men who chased down and killed Ahmaud Arbery after the prosecution called 20 witnesses and the defense one.
Prosecutors began their argument Monday that Travis McMichael, 36, his father, Greg McMichael, 66, and their neighbor William Bryan, 52, who chased and killed Arbery, 25, in Georgia, in February 2020, used racist language and targeted him because he was Black.
Over the next four days, prosecutors called 20 witnesses to establish a racist pattern, then rested their case.
Among the 20 witnesses, the prosecution called a white woman, Kristie Ronquille, whom Travis McMichael supervised during his time in the U.S. Coast Guard.
Ronquille, who still serves in the Coast Guard, broke down in tears on the witness stand Friday as she told jurors about how the younger McMichael began calling her a slur after she told him she once dated a Black NBA player.
"It took me back and I felt disrespected," Ronquille said, adding that she never heard that slur directed at her before and didn't report the remarks because she was still in basic training and she was worried about ramification of reporting her supervisor.
Prosecutor's final witness, Carole Sears, said Greg McMichael, who was an investigator at the local district attorney's office at the time, showed insensitivity to Black life after she expressed her sadness over the death of Atlanta civil rights leader Julian Bond.
"I wish that guy had been in the ground years ago," Sears testified the older McMichael said. "All these Blacks are nothing but trouble. I wish they'd all die."
She added that Greg McMichael's comments showed an "ugliness" and a "meanness" she had never seen before directed toward any group of people.
Defense lawyers said their clients suspected Arbery of break-ins and trespassing and sought to question him. They called one witness, Evelyn "Lindy" Cofer, a Satilla Shores resident, who testified she had seen a white man who appeared to be living under a bridge near the neighborhood while on her boat in 2019, and she had reported him.
The defense also played an audio recording of Greg McMichael reporting the same man to the Glynn County police department, arguing that this showed he was vigilant in reporting suspicious activity before also resting its case.
Arbery was jogging on a public street when the McMichaels and Bryan cut him off in a pair of pickup trucks before Travis McMichael fatally shot him.
The defendants are charged in the federal case with interfering with Arbery's use of a public street because he was Black, attempted kidnapping, and brandishing a firearm.
Last month, a federal judge rejected plea deals between prosecutors and the McMichaels.
Arbery's family had objected to the plea deals, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WXIA-TV reported, and Greg McMichael later withdrew his intention to plead guilty.
The three men were found guilty in November of murder for killing Arbery in the state trial and were sentenced to life in prison in January.