An hour after his son Travis shot and killed Ahmaud Arbery at close range, Greg McMichael called his former boss, Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson, seeking help.
One hour after that, a Glynn County police investigator told Travis McMichael, “You’re going home today.”
State prosecutors used the timeline of events on Feb. 23, 2020, to open their case against Johnson, charged with violating her oath of office, a felony, and a misdemeanor count of hindering police as they investigated Arbery’s killing.
“She put the interest of her former chief investigator and her longtime friend ahead of a victim,” said John Fowler, a prosecutor for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office, which is trying the case.
The McMichaels were convicted, along with neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed the father and son chasing Arbery down in their pickup truck, in 2021 of murdering the 25-year-old jogger. The McMichaels said they believed Arbery was responsible for a series of neighborhood thefts, though no stolen items were found in his possession. Arbery, unarmed and cornered, was shot by Travis McMichael after a brief scuffle.
Johnson denies she meddled in the investigation, saying she immediately recognized the conflict of interest and recused herself. Prosecutors said there were several calls between Johnson and Barnhill.
“Jackie did not stop the arrest of anyone,” said defense attorney Brian Steel, adding that Johnson was horrified by what she saw in the video. “Jackie has done nothing to put her finger on the scales of justice.”
But Steel acknowledged his client, on the day after the shooting, had enlisted the help of an outside prosecutor, Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill, to advise police, citing her relationship with Greg McMichael.
Barnhill and an assistant traveled to Glynn County the next day. After interviewing the investigators and reviewing Bryan’s cellphone video which, when released to the public two months later, led the GBI to take over the case and promptly arrest the McMichaels and Bryan, Barnhill concluded no crime had been committed.
Fowler said Johnson failed to disclose that when she recommended the state attorney general appoint Barnhill to take over the case. He eventually recused himself after the victim’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, discovered on Facebook that his son worked for Johnson and had assisted Greg McMichael on an unrelated investigation of Arbery.
“She intentionally withheld information so that nobody would know that George Barnhill had already decided the case,” Fowler said.
Johnson denies ever recommending Barnhill.
Wednesday’s testimony showed that, in the initial stages of the investigation, the McMichaels’ narrative guided the cops.
The McMichaels said Arbery had committed a series of thefts and claimed Travis McMichael shot him in self-defense.
Roderic Nohilly, the investigator who told Travis McMichael he was going home, testified Wednesday that the McMichaels didn’t appear concerned about possible arrest in the hours following the shooting.
“I’ve talked to the other investigators,” Nohilly tells Travis McMichael in their recorded interview. “It is what it is, all right? You’re not being charged with anything.”
Nohilly said at that point that he hadn’t spoken with Johnson about the shooting. He insisted investigators hadn’t reached a final decision on whether Travis McMichael and the others would be charged.
“I was trying to maintain rapport with him, because the investigation was still right at the beginning,” Nohilly said. “All I had at that point was his statement. I didn’t have the facts.”
After Travis McMichael was released, police called Cooper-Jones.
“The officer shared that Ahmaud was committing a burglary,” a teary Cooper-Jones testified. “He was confronted by the homeowner, there was a struggle over the firearm and Ahmaud was shot and killed.”
Cooper-Jones said, until Barnhill’s recusal, she received little information about the investigation. She did acknowledge, under questioning by one of Johnson’s lawyers, that Johnson met with Ahmaud’s father to provide an update.
Johnson served 10 controversial years as Brunswick’s district attorney. She lost her re-election bid in 2020, blaming her loss on the Arbery case.