BRUNSWICK, Ga. — As the trial continues for the former Georgia district attorney who is accused of slow-walking the case in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, jurors heard from a neighbor DA on Friday who took over the case.
Jackie Johnson is accused of hindering law enforcement in the Arbery death investigation. Johnson recused her office from the case because the father of the shooter was a former employee.
She reached out to neighboring District Attorney, George Barnhill, to advise police on the Arbery case.
Barhill met with Glynn County police the day after the shooting. A witness who took the stand on Thursday told the court that investigators presented evidence to Barnhill, and he later determined no crime was committed.
“When you say you’ve given an initial opinion, what initial opinion are you talking about?” attorneys asked Barnhill.
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“I agreed with .... it looked like self-defense,” Barnhill said. “After reviewing the evidence, we do not see grounds for an arrest of any of the three parties.”
Barnhill was the first of three outside prosecutors assigned to the Arbery’s death investigation.
Prosecutors also heard from Arbery’s mother this week.
Wanda Cooper-Jones cried on the witness stand Wednesday as she recalled being at her mother’s house, a three-hour drive from her home in Brunswick, when her cellphone rang. She said she knew it was bad news when the officer told her that he was standing outside her front door.
“The officer shared that Ahmaud was committing a burglary,” Cooper-Jones testified. “He was confronted by the homeowner, there was a struggle over the firearm and Ahmaud was shot and killed.”
The testimony suggests that Greg McMichael’s account that he and his son had seen security camera videos that made them suspect Arbery of stealing from a neighboring home under construction had a decisive influence on authorities. He also insisted that his son shot Arbery in self-defense.
After the shooting, police found that Arbery was unarmed and had no stolen property.
Cooper-Jones said police and prosecutors shared little information about her son’s killing until after Barnhill stepped aside from the case in April 2020.
Under questioning by one of Johnson’s lawyers, Cooper-Jones acknowledged that Johnson at one point met with her slain son’s father.
When Cooper-Jones said that she never got such a meeting, defense attorney Keith Adams asked if she had met Johnson outside the courthouse soon after the shooting video became public.
“You were driving by and you called to her, and she came over and gave you a hug,” Adams said.
Cooper-Jones replied: “I don’t think we hugged.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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