GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. — Testimony in the trial of the death of Ahmaud Arbery will enter on Tuesday into its eighth day of testimony into the Feb. 23, 2020 killing in southeast Georgia that helped galvanize justice protests last year.
The trial is expected to reach a number of milestones this week. Tuesday the state rested its case. The state called its first witness of the day, Dr. Edmond R. Donoghue, medical examiner, to the stand. Donoghue performed Arbery's autopsy. Donoghue walked the court through extremely graphic pictures of Arbery as he arrived at the ME office. They also spoke with three different GBI agents.
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On Monday, dramatic courtroom maneuvering over the presence of Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ahmaud Arbery's mother weeping in the gallery at one point -- which led to a motion for mistrial -- highlighted the proceedings in the trial of Arbery's killing Monday morning. The attorney for William "Roddie" Bryan, Kevin Gough, received several rebukes from Judge Timothy Walmsley, first, over bringing up the presence of Jackson.
On Friday testimony was heard first in the morning from a Glynn County officer who was frequently called to an unfinished home under construction in the Satilla Shores neighborhood which is at the center of much of the case.
It was not uncommon for people to enter the property, but after a theft, the owner, Larry English, installed cameras and began calling the police when those cameras would alert his phone about activity on site.
A man believed to be Arbery was seen several times in videos wandering around the property. There is no evidence he ever took anything or did any damage on site.
On Friday, the officer English would contact - Robert Rash - primarily reviewed body camera footage from a response to the home on Feb. 11, about two weeks before Arbery was killed.
Travis McMichael, who shot Arbery in a struggle on Feb. 23, called police after believing he'd seen him outside the home.
Defense attorneys have focused on Arbery allegedly being seen on English's surveillance videos in the months leading up to his death and becoming in the minds of some neighbors - including the men accused of murder in the trial - a "suspect" in break-ins and thefts around the neighborhood.
They've argued the neighborhood was "on edge" at the time Arbery was chased down and ultimately killed.
Bodycam video from Rash showed by the time of Feb. 11 there was a known suspect - who clearly was not Arbery - in at least one neighborhood break-in.
While investigating Travis' call of supposedly seeing Arbery on Feb. 11, Officer Rash told the McMichaels: "Now we did have - I took a report down the road here, the house at the corner, the guy with the Jeep and all - he had some stuff stolen, some guns stolen, but we got on video the car that people come in and stole them, they were from another neighborhood."
Regarding Arbery, he told the McMichaels English "hasn't seen him actually take anything" any of the few times he was recorded wandering around on the property.
They discussed "trespassing" and "loitering or prowling" as what he could possibly be suspected of.
Later on Friday, a Georgie Bureau of Investigation agent reviewed his interviews and interactions with William "Roddie" Bryan, the third man charged with murder.
Bryan's attorneys have argued he was a witness to the killing and should not be charged as a party to it. They have largely focused on law enforcement's initial relaxed treatment of Bryan to make their case.