‘We could not be involved,’ former DA says of Ahmaud Arbery murder case

But the trial has gone well for Johnson so far, and the presiding judge on Monday dismissed one of the two charges she faced.

Johnson said on the stand that she immediately recused her office from the case involving Arbery’s Feb. 23, 2020 killing after learning it involved Greg McMichael, who previously worked as an investigator in her office.

“We could not be involved because of who it was,” Johnson said.

She detailed a volley of phone calls between her and members of her office that afternoon as word of the 25-year-old Black man’s killing made the rounds.

Johnson said she did not want to be involved in the case at all, and that she said as much to staff members who were calling her phone that afternoon.

She had been told the shooting involved a burglary, she said, and that McMichael’s son, Travis, shot and killed Arbery during a struggle over a shotgun.

Credit: Pool photos

Credit: Pool photos

Glynn County police investigators were trying to determine whether the shooting was justified, so they called one of Johnson’s assistant DA’s trying to get legal advice.

“Based on the fact that someone was dead, we could not help them and I needed to do something to try to get them some help,” Johnson testified.

So she contacted George E. Barnhill, then DA of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit, and asked if he would be willing to meet with police and answer their questions, she said.

She said she called Barnhill because he was the closest to Glynn County. His office was located less than an hour from Brunswick.

“Did you believe you had the duty to have the police officer’s questions answered?” Johnson’s defense attorney, Brian Steel asked his client.

“Yes,” Johnson replied.

“And that is why you called the neighboring district attorney?” Steel asked.

“Correct.” she said. “I didn’t know Travis McMichael but I did know his father.”

Johnson said during her roughly 22-minute phone call with Barnhill that afternoon, she never instructed him to protect either of the McMichaels. She never told him that he should tell the police that the shooting was done in self-defense, she said.

A few days later, her office sent an official recusal letter to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office informing them they would have to find another prosecutor to handle the case.

Greg McMichael had called his former boss about an hour after he, his son and a neighbor armed themselves, jumped in pickup trucks and pursued Arbery through their Glynn County neighborhood for approximately five minutes.

Johnson returned his call the following day, phone records show.

“I called him and I told him I heard his son had almost gotten killed and I hoped he and his son were OK,” Johnson said. “I intentionally didn’t talk to him about any facts of the case.”

She said the men were “pretty shooken up,” and that she suggested they seek counseling.

She said Greg McMichael called her again a couple weeks later on March 8 after it was announced in the Brunswick paper that she would face competition in her re-election bid.

Credit: Terry Dickson/ The Brunswick News

Credit: Terry Dickson/ The Brunswick News

Call logs introduced by the prosecution showed the two called each other back and forth more than a dozen times in the weeks leading up to Greg McMichael’s arrest.

The McMichaels and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan were charged by the GBI in May 2020 after the Bryan’s cellphone video of Arbery’s killing was leaked online, prompting worldwide outrage.

All three men were convicted of Arbery’s murder following a high-profile trial held in Glynn County courthouse in the fall of 2021. The following year, the men were convicted of hate crimes at the nearby federal courthouse for targeting Arbery because of his race.

Johnson’s testimony is set to resume after lunch.