BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The trial of a former Georgia district attorney charged with illegally interfering with police investigating the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery begins Tuesday in Glynn County District Court.
Jury selection is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Jackie Johnson made her first court appearance in December 2024 after more than three years after being indicted by a grand jury.
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Johnson spent a decade as the state’s top prosecutor for the coastal Brunswick Judicial Circuit. She’s charged with violating her oath of office and hindering police as they investigated Arbery’s death.
The 25-year-old Black man was fatally shot on Feb. 23, 2020, as he ran from armed white men in a pickup truck who wrongly suspected Arbery was a thief. Greg McMichael, who initiated the deadly chase, was a retired investigator for Johnson’s office. His son, Travis McMichael, killed Arbery with a shotgun. Their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the father and son in the chase recording the entire incident on his cellphone.
Prosecutors for state Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said in Johnson’s Dec. 11, 2024 pretrial hearing that she used her position to protect Greg McMichael and to urge police not to arrest Travis McMichael.
Johnson has denied wrongdoing and said she immediately recused her office from handling the case. Regardless, she was voted out of office months later amid outrage over Arbery’s killing. In September 2021, a grand jury indicted her on a felony count of violating her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of hindering a police officer.
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During the pretrial hearing, lead defense attorney Brian Steel said he plans to present evidence during Johnson’s trial that she was focused on seeking a high-profile indictment against a police chief when Arbery was killed.
“She didn’t know what was going on with Ahmaud Arbery’s case,” Steel told the court.
Prosecutors have said in court filings there were 16 calls between phone numbers for Johnson and Greg McMichael in the days and weeks after the shooting. Greg McMichael left Johnson a voice message the day Arbery was killed.
Both McMichaels were convicted of murder and federal hate crimes in Arbery’s death as was Bryan, the neighbor. All three were charged after Bryan’s video leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. Each is serving a life prison sentence.
After Johnson was charged in 2021, she reported to jail for booking and was released without having to post bond. Her attorneys waived a formal reading of the charges in court.
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