Travis McMichael, the assassin who killed Ahmaud Arbery, was sentenced to life in jail for committing a hate crime.

Three White men are found guilty by a federal jury of murdering Ahmaud Arbery.

NEW Fox News articles can now be heard on audio! Just months after receiving life sentences for state murder charges, the first of three White men who hunted and killed Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood in 2020 was sentenced to life in prison on Monday for perpetrating a federal hate crime.

The first of the three defendants to get a sentence on Monday was Travis McMichael, who used a shotgun to kill Arbery following a street chase started by his father and joined by a neighbor. Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the U.S. District Court set up back-to-back hearings to punish each defendant separately. Hearings for William “Roddie” Bryan, Travis’ neighbor, and his father, Greg McMichael, followed.

Arbery’s killing on Feb. 23, 2020, joined a bigger national conversation about racial injustice and the murders of Black persons who were not carrying weapons, like George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. The Justice Department also filed federal charges in those two instances.

This combo of booking photos provided by the Glynn County, Ga., Detention Center, shows from left, Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and William "Roddie" Bryan Jr.

This combo of booking photos provided by the Glynn County, Ga., Detention Center, shows from left, Travis McMichael, his father Gregory McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. (Glynn County Detention Center via AP)

The McMichaels and Bryan faced possible life sentences after a jury convicted them in February of federal hate crimes, concluding that they violated Arbery’s civil rights and targeted him because of his race. All three men were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels face additional penalties for using firearms to Aa4

A state Superior Court judge imposed life sentences for all three men in January for Arbery’s murder, with both McMichaels denied any chance of parole. Federal life sentences “give you a backstop in the event that an appellate court decides there was some kind of error in the course of the state trial,” said Michael Moore, an Atlanta lawyer and former U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia.

All three defendants have remained jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of U.S. marshals, while awaiting sentencing after their federal convictions in January.

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Because they were first charged and convicted of murder in a state court, protocol would have them turned over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life terms in a state prison.

In court filings last week, both Travis and Greg McMichael asked the judge to instead divert them to a federal prison, saying they wont be safe in a Georgia prison system thats the subject of a U.S. Justice Department investigation focused on violence between inmates.

The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and jumped in a truck Aa6 after spotting him running past their home outside the port city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck, helping cut off Arbery’s escape.

Travis McMichael listens to one of his attorneys during a motion hearing in the Glynn County Courthouse, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, in Brunswick, Ga.

On Thursday, November 4, 2021 in Brunswick, Georgia, Travis McMichael pays attention to one of his attorneys during a motion hearing at the Glynn County Courthouse. Stephen B. Morton, Pool/AP Photo

Additionally, he saw on cellphone camera Travis McMichael shooting Arbery at close range when Arbery was grabbing the shotgun and throwing blows.

The McMichaels informed the police that they believed Arbery had been robbing a neighboring unfinished house. Authorities eventually determined, however, that he was unarmed and had not broken any laws. His family has long maintained that Arbery was simply out jogging.

Following the release of the disturbing shooting video online, the McMichaels and Bryan were detained, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the investigation from the local police.

Three men guilty of murdering Ahmaud Arbery Video In the February hate crimes trial , the prosecution strengthened its argument that Travis McMichael and Bryan’s use of racist slurs and derogatory remarks about Black people in text messages and social media posts was the cause of Arbery’s murder. Greg McMichael was heard by a witness saying, “All those Blacks are nothing but trouble,” in a rage in 2015.

The McMichaels and Bryan didn’t pursue Arbery because of his race, according to the defense attorneys for the three men, but rather because they had a sincere but incorrect assumption that Arbery had committed crimes in their community.

This report was made possible by the Associated Press.
Digital Reporter Stephanie Pagones works for Fox Business and Fox News. Stephanie.pagones@fox.com and @steph pagones on Twitter are the places to send her story suggestions.

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