A father and son and their neighbor have been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in February 2020 for the murder of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery while jogging through a neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia.
Judge Timothy Walmsley sentenced Travis McMichael, the man who shot Arbery, and his father Gregory McMichael, who saw the shooting from the back of a pickup truck, to life terms with no chance of parole.
Their neighbor, William Bryan, who videotaped Arbery’s last moments, was sentenced to life on parole for his role in the death. Bryan, 52, will not be eligible for parole under Georgian law until he has served 30 years in prison for having been convicted of serious violent crimes.
In addition to life sentences for murder, Walmsley imposed additional sentences for other felony charges.
The additional sentences are:
- For Travis McMichael, 35, Walmsley imposed additional prison terms of 20 years for McMichael’s conviction for aggravated assault and five years for his criminal attempt to commit a felony. The judge said the additional sentences would be served concurrently, but in addition to the life sentence, totaling a life sentence with no possibility of parole plus 20 additional years in prison.
- For Gregory McMichael, the judge imposed additional prison terms of 20 years for McMichael’s conviction for aggravated assault, 10 years for his false sentence and five years for his criminal attempt to commit a felony. The judge said the additional sentences would be served concurrently, but in addition to the life sentence, totaling a life sentence with no possibility of parole plus 20 additional years in prison.
- For William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., the judge imposed additional prison terms of 10 years for his false imprisonment and five years for his criminal attempt to commit a crime. The judge ruled that the additional sentence of 15 years in total will be suspended, resulting in a total prison term of life with the possibility of parole.
More context: A jury of nine white women, two white men and a black man found the men guilty in November of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony.
What happens now: The defense teams of all three men have said they plan to appeal the convictions of their clients.
The men will appear in court again in February, before the start of their federal trial, where they will face hate crimes for Arbery’s death.
