Jackie Johnson will go to trial three years after the hate-crime killing of 25-year-old Arbery, who was hunted down and killed by three armed white males in Brunswick.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The previous Georgia district lawyer charged with illegally interfering with police investigating the homicide of Ahmaud Arbery will go to trial subsequent week, with jury choice starting Tuesday. The trial comes three years after she was indicted by a grand jury.
Jackie Johnson was the highest prosecutor for the Brunswick Judicial Circuit for a decade. She is charged with violating her oath of workplace and hindering police of their investigation of Arbery’s dying, in the end dominated a federal hate crime.
The 25-year-old Black man was fatally shot on Feb. 23, 2020, as he ran from armed white males in a pickup truck who wrongly suspected Arbery was a thief. Greg McMichael, who initiated the lethal chase, was a retired investigator for Johnson’s workplace. His son, Travis McMichael, killed Arbery with a shotgun.
Prosecutors for state Lawyer Normal Chris Carr’s workplace say Johnson used her place to guard Greg McMichael and to induce police to not arrest Travis McMichael.
Johnson has denied wrongdoing and mentioned she instantly recused her workplace from dealing with the case. Regardless, she was voted out of workplace months later amid outrage over Arbery’s killing. In September 2021, a grand jury indicted her on a felony rely of violating her oath of workplace and a misdemeanor rely of hindering a police officer.
Throughout a pretrial listening to on Wednesday, lead protection lawyer Brian Metal mentioned he plans to current proof throughout Johnson’s trial subsequent month that she was targeted on searching for a high-profile indictment in opposition to a police chief when Arbery was killed.
“She did not know what was occurring with Ahmaud Arbery’s case,” Metal mentioned.
Prosecutors have mentioned in courtroom filings there have been 16 calls between telephone numbers for Johnson and Greg McMichael within the days and weeks after the capturing. Greg McMichael left Johnson a voice message the day Arbery was killed.
Senior Choose John R. Turner has scheduled jury choice for Johnson’s trial to start out Jan. 21. Attorneys on each side advised the choose Wednesday they anticipate the case to take about 2 1/2 weeks.
“I believe due to the sensitivity of the case and the notoriety of the case, it could take longer,” Turner mentioned.
Each McMichaels had been convicted of homicide and federal hate crimes in Arbery’s dying. So was William “Roddie” Bryan, a neighbor who joined the deadly chase and recorded graphic cellphone video of the capturing. All three had been charged after Bryan’s video leaked on-line and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from native police. Every is serving a life jail sentence.
Johnson’s case sat dormant whereas Metal spent almost two years in an Atlanta courtroom defending Grammy-winning rapper Younger Thug in a sprawling racketeering and gang case.
After Johnson was charged in 2021, she reported to jail for reserving and was launched with out having to put up bond. Her attorneys waived a proper studying of the fees in courtroom.
When Johnson entered the courtroom Wednesday, her former chief assistant prosecutor and a former courtroom clerk sat within the gallery together with her household.
Turner heard authorized motions from each side searching for to restrict what data a jury is allowed to listen to. Prosecutors need Johnson’s previous electoral successes and high-profile prosecutions declared off-limits. Johnson’s attorneys need different circumstances wherein she known as for an outdoor prosecutor stored out of her trial.
First, the choose must determine whether or not to let Carr’s workplace attempt the case. Metal has requested Turner to disqualify the Republican lawyer common from prosecuting Johnson. He says the indictment accuses Johnson of withholding data from Carr’s workplace in 2020 when she instructed it appoint George Barnhill, a neighboring jurisdiction’s prosecutor, to deal with Arbery’s killing.
Carr has mentioned he appointed Barnhill to take over the case with out figuring out that Johnson days earlier had already known as on him to advise police. Barnhill advised police he noticed no grounds for arrests, as he believed Arbery was shot in self-defense.
Metal mentioned the indictment’s wording makes Carr’s workplace a sufferer within the case, and its workers key witnesses.
“I do not consider it’s inside the legislation to permit a prosecutor, or any lawyer, to be a witness — a cloth witness — in a case” that they’re attempting, Metal mentioned.
There was no instant ruling from the choose.
Prosecutor John Fowler mentioned individuals within the lawyer common’s workplace who dealt instantly with Johnson in Arbery’s case not work there. Fowler accused Metal of attempting to steer Johnson’s case right into a “grey authorized limbo” the place nobody would prosecute her.
“They’re attempting to get this case into a spot the place it can’t transfer ahead,” Fowler mentioned.
