48 Hours - Justice for Ahmaud

Episode Date: October 11, 2020

A mother fights for the truth behind her son’s killing – captured on video. Ahmaud Arbery was jogging when he was chased and shot. CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca I think about it a lot when I go out and run. It's a very strong connection when I run now to Ahmaud Arbery. Ahmaud and I were best friends. The way Ahmaud died, it just, it hurts my soul. He was jogging through a neighborhood, minding his own business. Three white men decided to get in their trucks and pursue Ahmaud. They became judge, jury, and executioner. He didn't deserve anything that came to him on February 23, 2020.

that came to him on February 23, 2020. It's very painful. Ahmad was my baby, and Ahmad's gone. He was hunted down like an animal. He was killed because of hate. This was a lynching. Modern-day lynching, and it looked like something that happened in the 1920s.

It's 2020. I miss the little kisses on the cheek. My mom was the kid that would just come in the house and just give me a hug. He was more than just a boyfriend. He was a friend. Very shy and quiet. But once you got Maude to kind of open up, oh, man. It's just all kind of love and goodness in there. His unofficial crime was jogging while black.

No one has been arrested or charged in the death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. The local authorities, the police department, they had no intentions of making arrests. And they didn't make an arrest. What were they doing? Telling lies, hoping I'd go away. Her pursuit for the truth is heroic. She was actively involved in investigating what happened to her son. My son was not committing a crime.

I had to keep pushing to get answers. She is relentless. I would not go away. She wasn't going to be pushing to get answers. She is relentless. I would not go away. She wasn't going to be turned back by anybody. Video has surfaced of an African-American man being chased down and killed. This murder in broad daylight was streamed into people's homes all across the country. I just think the world saw the way that he was killed but then there was no arrest two suspects a father and son are being held without bail tonight charged with murder and

aggravated Gregory and Travis McMichael deny any wrongdoing in the shooting death of the police say they have also arrested William Bryan, the man who recorded the video of the killing. It has nothing to do with racism. We think the right result will be an acquittal. If history is any guide, then it's more likely than not that these

men walked. They took my baby boy from me. I think they woke up a sleeping giant in Wanda Cooper. I want justice for Ahmaud so Ahmaud can rest in peace. Thank you. We know his name because of those last horrifying seconds of Ahmaud Arbery. Ahmaud Arbery. We know his name because of those last horrifying seconds of Ahmaud Arbery's life captured on video. But few of us knew him, a young man who was loved by many. Our story begins with his mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, a woman of quiet strength who made a promise to her son. Don't worry, son.

I promise you the day that I lay you to rest that I will get answers and I will get justice. What do you think he would tell you? Ma, I know you got my back. I haven't really grasped that Ahmaud is gone forever. Driving home from work, Wanda says she often passed Ahmaud finishing his daily jog. I look for him every time that I'm coming home.

He's just not, he's not there. She remembers their last moment together as she was leaving on a business trip. I'll be gone for a couple of days, and I love you it's the last words to me was I love you too. Then came the phone call she'll never forget that Sunday evening last winter, February 23rd. This gentleman identified himself as an investigator from Glynn County Police Department. She says the investigator told her that Ahmaud had broken into a house and was shot and killed. How could this happen? Is it real? Is it a bad dream? Ahmaud was just five years old when his parents split up. Wanda says she worked two jobs while raising him and his older siblings, Marcus Jr. and Jasmine. We were really close growing up.

He knew all my secrets. He defended me when I couldn't defend myself. He saw the best in people. Lifelong friend, Akeem Baker. He always saw the potential that his friends were capable of. First love Shanice Johnson. He was so handsome so I was like oh my gosh. Shanice and Ahmaud were just teenagers when they first met. She was working at McDonald's when she enticed Ahmaud with a frozen dessert.

I had made a McFlurry and he came up and got it. And I did. I got him with a McFlurry. They clicked right away, staying together for more than five years. He always spoke the right words to get me confident and, you know, not be so nervous. Shanice was nervous and a little homesick during her first year away at college. It was Ahmad, she says, who encouraged her to stay in school. And that told me a lot about him. Like, he really loves me.

I listened, and I got that degree. Ahmad was such a leader. Literally, the kids followed Ma. He showed leadership and grit on the gridiron, says high school football coach Jason Vaughn. Ma was so easy to love, and he just had a bright spirit about him. It was after high school when his bright spirit seemed to dim, says Wanda. I noticed he wasn't as talkative to me. After a year at technical college in 2013, Ahmad lost interest in school, says Jasmine.

Getting to a low point in life where he had gotten in trouble. December 2013, Ahmaud, just 19, was arrested for bringing a gun onto school grounds at Brunswick High. The judge gave him probation. Ahmaud was still living in my home, and he has a firearm, and I don't know. So I'm furious at this moment. Y'all come here for a second. All four of you. Four years later, in December 2017, Ahmaud was in trouble again, arrested for shoplifting.

Take a seat now. Stay seated. His probation was extended, and Wanda was worried. Her son's behavior, she says, was clearly changing. Lay on your stomach. You're under arrest. Were you worried that his run-ins with the law were going to follow him? Very worried. I mean, that's something that I carried every day. Raise the car.

And I reached out to his probation officer and said, hey, I've got some concerns. He's not acting right with me. Do you think that you can help me in getting him evaluated. December 2018, Ahmad was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but Jasmine says her brother was never dangerous. He didn't have episodes. He wasn't violent. And Ahmad even came up with his own effective therapy, running. He felt like he was in total control when he ran. Would you notice a difference after he ran?

Yeah, much calmer, much calmer. When Ahmaud made plans to return to school, Wanda felt her son had regained control of his life. I never gave up on Ahmaud. Ahmad. Ahmad was still my baby boy. We had our challenges, but we were working together to fix those. But then, his sudden, tragic death. I remember falling on the floor. It was a really big shock. Even that he was burglarized in the house, it just, that was a huge shock to me. Despite Ahmaud's personal struggles, no one who knew him believed that story. I knew that wasn't true.

Ahmaud ain't breaking into any houses. Like, nah, something's not right about this. I had to get answers to find out what exactly happened. Wanda says she pushed the police for more details, convinced they were not leveling with her. Shortly after Ahmaud was killed, her suspicions only grew when she picked up the local paper. It told us that Ahmaud was actually chased and trapped in and killed in the streets. Chased and killed in the street, not breaking into a home and committing a crime. The whole thing of him burglarizing the home was not true. Soon, Wanda saw their names in the newspaper, the men who were present when her son was shot to death. Gregory McMichael, his son Travis, and William Roddy Bryan.

Gregory McMichael, his son Travis, and William Roddy Bryan. What really stood out that they said that the older McMichael was a retired officer for the sheriff's office. That didn't sit well with you? It did not. So now Wanda Cooper Jones has started her investigation. Oh, yes. Yes. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park.

They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. What pictures do you keep on your phone of Ahmaud? All pictures.

It was middle of the day, middle of the neighborhood, middle of the street. The crime here was obvious. There's a dead man on the side of the street. The crime here was obvious. There's a dead man on the side of the road. First responders arrived within a few minutes of when Ahmaud Arbery died. Police later questioned and released the three men at the scene. William Roddy Bryan, a 50-year-old local mechanic. Travis McMichael, 34, a Coast Guard veteran.

McMichael's father, Gregory, 64, a retired law enforcement officer. Why wasn't anyone arrested immediately? You have a dead man on the floor. And the victim was black. The suspects were white. And this is South Georgia. Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney who represents Ahmaud's family, believes every bit of this investigation was affected by Ahmaud's race. And according to investigators, Gregory McMichael quickly made it clear he had friends in high

places. It was a close friend of the D.A. for the county. The elder McMichael had worked in DA Jackie Johnson's office. So what does that tell a responding officer? That this person is not going to be someone that you can arrest. They're above the law. They are the law. Ahmad's mother, Wanda, had doubted authorities' account of the shooting from the very start. I had to get answers to find out what exactly happened. So Wanda called D.A. Jackie Johnson's office.

Johnson had already recused herself because Gregory McMichael had worked with her. Johnson's replacement was a prosecutor from a nearby county, George Barnhill. So she called Barnhill's office too. I asked him, did you know what happened? And he said very nonchalantly that Ahmaud was shot more than once with a shotgun. She says Barnhill told her he was waiting to see if there were drugs and or alcohol in Ahmaud's system. The toxicology tests later came back clean. He was speaking to me like Ahmaud had did something wrong. The toxicology tests later came back clean.

He was speaking to me like Ahmaud had did something wrong. The DA's office was giving her the runaround. Akeem says that's what Wanda believed when she went online in mid-March to learn for herself everything she could about Barnhill. It was on his Facebook page that she turned up some potentially explosive information. There was a Greg McMichael as a friend. A Facebook friendship between prosecutor George Barnhill and Gregory McMichael. Wanda Cooper Jones did her homework, found connections. Merritt says Wanda also discovered Barnhill's son had a connection to Gregory McMichael.

They had both worked together in D.A. Jackie Johnson's office. So I knew all these people were all connected together. By early April, more than 30 days had passed without an arrest in the Arbery shooting. And people who had known Ahmaud refused to let his death go unanswered. I'm not going to let them do it to Ahmaud refused to let his death go unanswered. I'm not going to let him do it Ahmaud. Convinced Ahmaud had been murdered in cold blood, Coach Vaughn and Akeem Baker encouraged the community to apply pressure. I'm talking about just a great kid. I need you to call and email. And it apparently had an effect. On April 7th, 42 days after the shooting, Barnhill became the second prosecutor

to recuse himself from the Arbery case. His written statements at the time could offer a clue about why there had been no arrests. He did everything that he could to make Ahmaud Arbery the vicious black villain that we've all been taught to fear. Pointing to Ahmad's two arrests, Barnhill referred to his apparent aggressive nature and argued he was the dangerous one that day. This was from the beginning, or almost immediately became a fight over the shotgun. Barbara initiated the fight.

Under Georgia law, McMichael was allowed to use deadly force to protect himself. I've seen this movie before where the victim is made out to be the assailant and the assailants are made out to be the victims. A week after Barnhill's recusal, Georgia's attorney general appointed D.A. Tom Durden from another nearby county to replace him. But there was still no indictments in the case. And I knew if I didn't fight, it would not be an arrest. But then on May 5th, something happened that seared the killing of Ahmaud Arbery into American history. Tonight, there are explosive new developments in a deadly shooting that's had racial tensions simmering in a Georgia community.

It turns out one of the men present at the shooting, Roddy Bryan, had been recording cell phone video. His footage mysteriously appeared online. Video has surfaced of an African-American man being chased down and killed while his family says he was just out jogging. We caution you, this video is hard to watch. It made me sick to my stomach. I called my mom crying. I was just hurt. It was one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen in my life. Wanda says Tom Durden, the third DA assigned to the case, was the first DA to offer his condolences. Durden immediately said he planned to seek indictments

and brought in agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Meanwhile, the outrage quickly spread. More than 100 people protested in Brunswick, Georgia last night. Make them give us justice! This is about corruption and cover-ups! Some famous voices started speaking out, too. We just finished our 2.6-mile walk for Ahmaud today. We weren't letting up.

On May 7th, 74 days after the shooting... Agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation effectuated an arrest on two individuals, Greg and Travis McMichaels. It was just two days after the video went viral. Charging them with both felony murder and aggravated assault. Days later, another widely shared video of Ahmaud surfaces from 2017. Lee Merritt says it's another example of racial profiling, the black man as criminal. He wanted to be alone in the park composing music. That was his goal.

You got an ID on your man? And police found him in the park and said he looked suspicious. I'm here to look for any kind of criminal activity. That's all I'm doing. Namaz understandably agitated by them sort of imputing this criminal element on him. I'm not going in your car. Back off! Burno, toss me, bro! He explains to them, look, if you can tell me what I did wrong, I'll either stop doing it or you can arrest me for it.

Otherwise, can I get back to what I was doing? Rapping, I rap. Okay. Another officer arrives and fires a taser at him. Down! Warning, down! It doesn't work, and the officers eventually let him go. You get what happened here.

You know, I kind of cringed as I watched it. You're good to go. I'm going to talk to you. You're supposed to say yes, sir, no, sir, and hopefully survive the encounter. Ahmad survived this encounter with police. He did not survive his encounter with three men at Satilla Shores. his encounter with three men at Satilla Shores. Two weeks after the McMichaels were arrested, so was Roddy Bryant, and charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. But by then, the third DA, Tom Durden, had asked his superiors to replace him, saying his office didn't have enough resources to try the case.

Durden would not agree to an interview, neither would the two previous DAs or anyone in the Glynn County Police Department. With images of Ahmaud Arbery's final moments still haunting laptops and living rooms around America, the accused in this case will be heading for court. I was looking at Wanda. I wanted to make sure that she was okay. There's no words to really describe it. To know that that was his last moment instead. This evil. To be continued... a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario,

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most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify and listen to more Exhibit C True Crime shows early and ad-free right now. More than three months after Ahmaud Arbery is killed, Gregory and Travis McMichael appear via video at a preliminary court hearing, where they and William Roddy Bryan face charges for his murder.

If the judge rules there's enough evidence to go to trial, each could face a life sentence. There's yet another new prosecutor on the case, Jesse Evans, who begins by debriefing the state's lead investigator, Agent Richard Dial. Were you able to piece together a chronology of how Ahmaud Arbery came to be shot at Satilla Shores? Yes, sir, I have. Authority's chronology is partly based on Roddy Bryan's video. So far, Wanda has avoided watching it. But she is in court, hoping to learn more about that awful day. Was that the first time you were hearing details of your son's final moments? Yes, sir. You said Maude is running this way.

On February 23rd, Ahmaud's time would run out just two miles from the neighborhood he lived in. It happened here in Satilla Shores. He'd started his workout before 1 p.m. Why do you think everybody comes to run here? I mean, look at it. Satilla Shores is predominantly white. It was the other side of the tracks. Homes are gorgeous, beautiful moss-covered trees.

You could smell the honeysuckle. For a runner, it is a dream path. Many of the houses had security cameras, which later helped police piece together what happened. From the surveillance video, you see Mr. Aubrey going directly into the house. Soon after entering Satilla Shores, Ahmad stops at a construction site at 220 Satilla Drive, where an out-of-towner is building a home. While he's inside of the home, one of the neighbors notices. He saw Mr. Aubrey going in the house, so he calls 911. There's a guy in the house right now. Is the house under construction? It's 108 p.m. And he said someone's breaking into it right now?

No, it's all open. It's under construction. At the time, the house is still missing doors. There are no signs prohibiting entry. Some speculate Ahmaud goes inside for a sip of water, or only to quench his curiosity. He looks around, kind of a mire, what's going on. Maybe, you know, daydreaming about that one day being his home. He comes out of this front entrance way. That security footage picks up Ahmaud starting to run again,

apparently unaware that he is headed into a world of trouble. The neighbors are still watching. He's running right now. There he goes right now. And you said it was a male in a black T-shirt? A white T-shirt. Black guy, white t-shirt. And another neighbor has taken a special interest, Gregory McMichael. The McMichaels would later tell police they'd seen Ahmaud before. And though there is no evidence Ahmaud stole or damaged anything in the house,

this day they decide to follow him. Greg McMichael tells Travis that the guy's running down the road. They both grab their weapons. They follow Ahmaud in their truck down Satilla Drive onto Burford Road. The McMichaels are speeding towards him. They get behind him. They claim that they begin to yell at him, hey, pull over, stop. We want to talk to you. He doesn't respond. Why do you think Ahmaud kept running and didn't stop? So there were men pursuing him with guns. The McMichaels are still on Ahmaud's tail when he runs past Roddy Bryan's house.

Merritt says Bryan took it upon himself to join in. This is where things really escalate, because as he turns around to run the other direction, he's confronted with another truck. According to the suspect's statements to police, they continue chasing Ahmad through the neighborhood for about the next four minutes. Authorities say Ahmad's palm print, later found around a dent on Roddy Bryant's truck, suggests Bryant had used the truck to hit him. They're using the trucks to box him in, but he is able to run around them, and at that point, he takes off up here. But Bryant catches up with him again, and now he's filming with his phone.

Meanwhile, investigators say the McMichaels have taken another route to get in front of Ahmaud. They're waiting for him near the corner of Satilla Drive and Holmes Road. They're waiting for him near the corner of Satilla Drive and Holmes Road. By this point, the father, Gregory McMichael, is in the truck bed with a.357 Magnum. At about 1.15 p.m., he calls 911. I'm out here at Satilla Shores. It's a black male running down the street. Satilla, where at Satilla Shores? I don't know what street we're on.

Stop right there, damn it. Stop. McMichael's son, Travis, is standing near the driver's door, shotgun in hand. Mr. Aubrey changed the direction to go around the passenger side of the vehicle. Ma literally tries to do a football move, and go around. When Coach Vaughn watches the video, he says he imagines changing the ending. And so I just kept watching it like, Maude, like, go, like, go, Maude, like, go. After a Maude changes direction, Travis McMichael meets him by the front bumper. You don't try to outrun a bullet. He had to engage at that point.

You know, he had to fight for his life. From this point, who did what to whom and why is hotly contested. You hear a shot. The first shot actually strikes Ahmad in the chest. They were engaged in a physical confrontation at this point. They go off the screen. Travis lifts up that gun a second time and shoots him in his hand. Ahmaud and Travis McMichael quickly come back into view.

Then you see a third shot occur. You see Ahmaud stumble. He collapses. Ahmaud Arbery is pronounced dead at the scene. The cause was gunshot wound, manner was homicide. What was your reaction when you're hearing from an investigator? It gave me a little bit of closure on what happened on that day. But Wanda says there's something else about that day she may never understand. Turns out Roddy Bryan gave a copy of his video to the authorities the day

Ahmaud died. They have had it all along. The Glynn County Police Department had a chance to see the video before it became public and made no arrests. Bryan also later tells authorities something else Wanda is still grappling with, that as Ahmaud lies on the ground, Travis McMichael adds insult to injury. Can you please articulate for the court what Mr. Bryan said he heard Travis McMichael say? Yes, Mr. Bryan said that he heard Travis Michael make the statement, I became very numb. Wanda is haunted by the possibility her son was still alive at that moment. I mean, it was my baby's last couple of

seconds of his life, and those were the last words he heard. Racism was the basis of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. But defense attorneys disagree. The video doesn't tell the story. I don't believe that Gregory McMichael is a racist. Gregory McMichael's attorneys, Laura and Frank Hogue, insist this case is not about race. It's not just two white men out there hunting down, trapping and executing a black man as the prosecution characterized it. That is not what happened. They say their client is being unfairly judged by 30 seconds of video. You're looking through the knothole of a fence, and that's what you see is that little piece of video that Roddy Bryan shot.

But they say the true testament to his character is his 30-year career in law enforcement. He would jump in and go above and beyond to erase crime. They say he also jumped in 44 years ago during his early service in the Navy to save a fellow sailor's life. Greg paddled out into the surf and was able to get this distressed sailor up onto the surfboard and got him to the beach. And the sailor he saved was an African-American sailor. Attorneys Jason Sheffield and Bob Rubin tell a similar story about Travis McMichael. Travis McMichael saved his first life when he was 17 years old,

when a black young man fell into the pool and was drowning. Travis went on to have a long career in the Coast Guard. He saved numerous other lives while serving in the Coast Guard. Like the Hoags, they also insist this isn't a case about race. This case is about a good man who had to defend himself on February 23rd, 2020, when he was in a terrible situation. The defense contends the McMichaels were only trying to stop Ahmaud that day because they suspected him of burglary.

And they say Gregory McMichael recognized him from a neighbor's security footage. The only reason the gun came into play is because Ahmaud Arbery attacked Travis McMichael. According to the police report about the shooting, the McMichaels said they were yelling at Ahmaud to stop running. When Travis pulled over and got out of the truck armed with his weapon, Ahmaud, quote, began to violently attack Travis and the two men then started fighting over the shotgun, end quote. He's being attacked and overwhelmed by Ahmaud Arbery's strength, and he has to either fire that gun or lose his life at that point. That's going to be

your defense. That's what happened. The defense says Travis was afraid of Ahmaud. Even though Travis has a gun and a vehicle and Ahmaud Arbery has two legs. You still can be afraid while you have possession of a firearm. Cobb County Prosecutor Jesse Evans puts the blame squarely with the McMichaels. Clearly the people that started this were Greg and Travis McMichael. When they make that choice that they're going to grab guns and take the law into their own hands, that's when this crime starts. It doesn't start at the end of this whole progression out in the middle of the street.

At their preliminary hearing, Is there anything about the mental history that could have played a role? the defense brought up Ahmaud's mental illness. It ultimately goes to the question of whether this was a case of self-defense. If it turns out that those problems can't explain why he acted the way he acted. Then it might be relevant. But Evans says Ahmad's mental health had nothing to do with the shooting. The defense wants to create a narrative that's a little bit different than what we all see on video.

But it seems the McMichaels were so sure they were justified, they're the ones who arranged to have the video leaked. Do you believe that this video establishes his innocence? Yes, I do. But not just the video. You need more. They don't know what happened before that day, the week before, the month before that, and the months before that. And in the months leading up to the shooting, Satilla Shores was on edge. And there was a buzz around the neighborhood about all the property crimes that were occurring.

Things taken from cars and trucks, trespassing, suspicions of burglary. We was concerned. I had already heard of two or three different situations. We was concerned. I had already heard of two or three different situations. Larry English was building a home at 220 Satilla Drive, just down the street from the McMichaels. English had installed security cameras and reported several trespassers on his property. Four, five, maybe six different times. English's attorney, Elizabeth Grady, says he reported them all. He called when the white couple trespassed and even when the children trespassed in the daytime. One of these trespassers is believed to be Ahmaud, who's seen more than once on English's security footage.

Ahmaud Arbery didn't commit any crimes in that house. He didn't take a single thing. But Ahmaud's presence at that construction site was causing suspicion among some neighbors. A lot of people began to impute the criminality on the black person that was coming onto the property. Two months before the shooting, Larry English received a text from a police officer suggesting he call Greg McMichael if he had any more trespassers. The officer wrote, Greg is retired law enforcement and also a retired investigator from the DA's office. He said, please call him day or night when you get action on your camera. English never replied to the message.

Larry English has made it clear that he did not want and that he did not ask for the McMichaels to look over his home for him. They took it upon themselves anyway. Less than two weeks before the McMichaels admit chasing Ahmaud, Travis McMichael had called 911, reporting an intruder at Larry English's house. I just caught a guy running into a house being built, two houses down from me. What did he look like? It's a black male, shirt white shorts this is 12 days before the event so this neighborhood's on edge and the

mcmichaels are right at the center of it according to court testimony from the gbi's lead investigator on february 23rd gregrd, Gregory McMichael told police he was operating on a hunch when he decided to go after the black man they'd seen on English's property. He was trying to intercept someone. He had a thought, a feeling, a gut instinct, I think it was Agent Dyle's word. The McMichaels' defense says they had every right to pursue Ahmaud. As citizens in the state of Georgia, like many other states, they have a right to detain others where they have probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. There is absolutely no legal right for a person to stop somebody merely on a hutch or a gut feeling,

which is exactly what Greg McMichaels said that he had. Is a reasonable suspicion enough? Absolutely not. Prosecutor Jesse Evans says there's no justification for any of the choices the suspects made that led to Ahmaud Arbery being shot and killed. Any single shot was too much. Merely pointing that shotgun at somebody was too much. Getting in pickup trucks and chasing Ahmaud Arbery down was too much. This whole case is too much. And as much as the McMichaels' defense insists that race had nothing to do with their actions that day, the prosecution intends to introduce texts and social media evidence to the contrary. In court, the GBI agent noted that material found on Travis' phone showed him repeatedly using the N-word.

Have you seen any other evidence that he has used that horrible N-word anywhere else? Yes, for many times. And then there's Roddy Bryan's damning statement that Travis used the N-word standing over Ahmad's body. The defense says it never happened. Do you think Roddy made that up? I think that Roddy Bryan is incredibly motivated to keep himself from becoming a defendant in a murder trial. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand,

lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still avert it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story

that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction.

Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Mr. Bryan, can you hear're entering a not guilty plea, is that correct? That is correct. Bryan's attorney, Kevin Goff, told us his client was minding his own business at home that day when he saw a truck he recognized chasing a man he didn't.

He got into his truck and began following. Why did he record it? Why not? Goff insists Bryan's actions don't implicate him in any way. He's never been more than a witness to this shooting. Did he call 911? I'm not going to get into the evidence. Jesse Evans says Brian never called 911. And he says there's plenty of damning evidence about what Brian did do.

We think he's an active participant. So active, Evans contends, that in trying to box Ahmad in, Brian actually hit him with his truck. There's dents on the truck. There is no evidence that Mr. Brian did anything improper with his vehicle. Goff goes so far as to claim Ahmaud may have dented the truck while trying to steal it. One of the things the state's going to have to address is, isn't that evidence more consistent with a carjacking or attempted carjacking than Mr. Bryan engaging in any improper conduct? Kevin, do you think a jury's going to buy that?

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not the prosecutor. But for the actions of Mr. Bryan, it's reasonably foreseeable that Ahmaud Arbery could have exited that neighborhood. It's reasonably foreseeable that Ahmaud Arbery could have exited that neighborhood. But like the McMichaels' defense, Kevin Goff seems to be counting on the jury to see Ahmaud as the aggressor that day. The simplest explanation for what went on here is that Mr. Arbery charged Travis McMichael. And Goff insists Roddy Bryan did witness Travis standing over Ahmaud and using a racial slur. Roddy did hear Travis McMichael say those words. That's what he told the police. And I'm confident that what he told the police was true.

What about your client? Does Roddy use language like that? I'm sorry? Is Roddy Bryant a racist? He's not. Roddy Bryant doesn't have a hateful bone in his body. But investigators found Bryant's phone full of racist texts. It's not just once or twice.

Again on Martin Luther King, he says, I bet y'all are having a monkey parade over there. Wouldn't this kind of paint him that he is a racist? I don't think so. paint him that he is a racist? I don't think so. I've got multiple pages of him using the N-word, and that doesn't make him a racist. No, sir.

Goff says the texts are being taken out of context. Do you use that word? I mean, feel free to use it on national TV right now, Kevin, if you think it can be used in a proper context. It's not a word I would use. But I'm not Roddy Bryan. Was it a hate crime in your mind? Absolutely, without a doubt. If it wasn't for the complexion of his skin, he would still be alive today.

And to Ahmad's family and friends, his name belongs on a list that's already far too long. Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner. Mike Brown. Kendrick Johnson. And Breonna and George and so many other names. Still, Wanda is determined. Some good will come out of this eventually. This is a marathon. It's not a sprint.

And Ahmaud's lifelong friend, Akeem Baker, says the road to racial justice may be long, but it's not a dead end. So I continue to run until we get justice for Ahmaud Arbery. I love you, bro. The Department of Justice is considering federal hate crime charges in the Ahmaud Arbery case. Next time on the FBI Declassified. These folks literally were the spies next door. Russian spies living as Americans. Their goal was to be like everyone else, to blend in. Could they be your neighbors?

The risks were astronomical. How the FBI stopped a potential threat to national security. The FBI Declassified, Tuesday at 10, 9 central on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Tuesday at 10, 9 central on CBS.