The trial of the three men charged in the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery continued into its fifth day on Thursday, with jurors watching a nearly four-hour deposition from Larry English, the owner of the home under construction.
Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, face murder and other charges in the Feb. 23, 2020 shooting of the 25-year-old in the Satilla Shores neighborhood outside Brunswick. The three men contend they were trying to make a citizen’s arrest because they suspected Arbery of entering English’s vacant home following a string of neighborhood break-ins. State prosecutors have said while Arbery was seen inside the unsecured home on several occasions, he never stole anything or damaged any property.
Here’s the latest from inside the courtroom:
[4 p.m.]: Court has adjourned for the day.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski says the state’s next witness, Officer Robert Rash, could take a while.
“Given the jury has just spent seven hours looking at a video, I leave it to the court as to whether to proceed.”
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. Friday.
[3:55 p.m.]: In the deposition video, English tells Rubin that he never told any of his neighbors that the missing electronics may not have been stolen from his boat while it was stored in Satilla Shores.
“To your knowledge, they were left with knowledge that stuff had been stolen from your boat at 220 Satilla Drive,” Rubin said.
“I guess so,” English says.
[3:40 p.m.]: During a 15-minute break, one of the jurors passed a note expressing concerns about the information being released by the pool reporters inside the courtroom.
“How much can the media talk about or describe us?” the juror wrote.
Walmsley assured them that he issued an order limiting the amount of personal information that could be released by the media.
“As far as personally identifying information, that is not to be released under the court’s order,” the judge said. “There is obviously interest in this case and it’s being reported on.”
[2:55 p.m.]: English confirms he installed additional cameras and removed his off-shore boat from his property in mid-November 2019 because he was concerned about people coming into the vacant home.
“You were concerned,” Rubin told him. “Your house was being broken into, intruded upon by someone you didn’t know and hadn’t authorized to be there.”
English agrees.
Diego Perez, a neighbor who lives near English, told English to contact him if he spotted someone on his property.
Perez tells him he had tools stolen from his truck, and told English he could “keep an eye out and make the rounds in the evening before I go to bed.”
The deposition video included photos of their text message exchange.
“I have night vision goggles, and if they come around at a certain time, I may be able to intercept them or pen them up for the police,” Perez told him, according to Rubin. “I can’t stand thieves or people who disrespect property.”
“You have my permission,” English told him.
[2:35 p.m.]: English said he noticed his satellite system and fishing gear was missing from his boat sometime between Oct. 25, 2019, and Nov. 17, 2019, between his first and second 911 calls.
“They’re in the garage where stuff was stolen,” Rubin quoted him as telling the dispatcher when he saw the white couple walk into his home. “That’s what you knew.”
“At the time, that’s what I believed,” English said.
[2:15 p.m.]: English initially told police the items were taken from his boat while it was in Satilla Shores, but he told Rubin again that he wasn’t certain.
[2:04 p.m.]: Rubin asks English if he remembers calling 911 on two consecutive days in May 2020 during the widespread protests over Arbery’s death.
English said a group of demonstrators came onto his property and that one person did donuts outside his house.
[1:56 p.m.]: Attorney Bob Rubin, who represents Travis McMichael, is questioning Larry English in the deposition video.
“You’ve had a horrible couple years, health wise?,” Rubin asks him.
English says he was the subject of harassment and threats in the aftermath of Arbery’s death. He said he feared for the safety of himself and his family.
“You felt you yourself were being accused of something that you never did,” Rubin said. “When this thing blew up, you yourself became harrassed?”
English said he was.
He said he spoke with “two or three” GBI agents in the spring of 2020, shortly after the state agency took over the case.
[1:45 p.m.]: Court is back in session and the jury is being brought in to watch the remainder of English’s deposition.
[12:36 p.m.]: Court is in recess for lunch.
[12:26 p.m.]: English said he doesn’t remember showing the surveillance videos to any of his neighbors or posting the clips online.
He said he knows both Greg and Travis McMichael from the neighborhood, but never really spoke to them at length.
He said Greg McMichael approached him after Arbery had been killed.
“Some of it was talking about what had happened and he made the comment that he wished people wouldn’t be talking about it on social media,” English said.
[12:15 p.m.]: Arbery returned to the construction site on Feb. 23, 2020, minutes before being chased, shot and killed in the Satilla Shores neighborhood.
Jurors are being shown surveillance video of Arbery walking around the unfinished garage one final time, this time during the afternoon.
“I think this is the day that Mr. Arbery got shot,” English says in the deposition.
[12:05 p.m]: Additional surveillance video shows Arbery walking through the home on Feb. 11, 2020, just 12 days before the deadly shooting.
“Was anything taken from that night that you know of?” Camarillo asks.
“No.” English says.
“Anything damaged?”
“No,” he replied.
[12: 02 p.m.]: Jurors are shown additional surveillance footage from the night of Dec. 17, 2019, that appears to show Arbery walking around the the English living room before leaving.
“Was anything ever taken from the construction site itself?” Caramillo asks.
“Not that I know of,” English replied.
English says the video from his front yard shows “the gentleman leaving the house and jogging down the street.”
[11:43 a.m.]: The following day, English called 911 again to report another person inside his vacant home. It appeared to be Arbery.
English said he was driving when he was alerted to the movement inside his house.
“There’s somebody back there again on my property tonight,” he tells the dispatcher. “Tonight, it’s a black male not wearing a shirt and he’s got tattoos on his arms ... It’s the same guy that was over there about a week and a half, two weeks ago”
“Can you tell what he’s doing?” the dispatcher asks
He’s just wandering around under the carport looking in the boat,” English tells the woman. “It was a white male and a female last night.”
He told the dispatcher that “it looked like he was up to no good,” Camarillo noted. English also said the man had been spotted “on three other people’s cameras.”
Asked whether the man had taken anything or damaged any property that evening, English said he did not. He also told the prosecutor he hadn’t recently looked at any of his neighbor’s surveillance cameras.
[11:20 a.m.]: In one of the 911 calls, English said he realized some electronics and fishing gear had been stolen from his boat about a week and a half earlier.
Questioned by Paul Camarillo, English said he wasn’t certain when those items were taken. English brought his boat back and forth between Brunswick and Douglas, he said in the deposition, but he acknowledged those items may have been taken while his boat was stored in Coffee County.
[11:07 a.m.]: English’s deposition resumes following a 15-minute break.
“They have a tool bag. I think they may be trying to steal electronics
[10:42 a.m.]: English called 911 at least four times on Nov. 17, 2019, after his camera system alerted him to a white man and woman entering his home with a bag.
In the third call, English said the couple had a “large tool bag” and raised concerns the “intruders” were going to steal some of his belongings.
“They may be trying to steal electronics from the big boat in the garage area,” he said.
[10:36 a.m.]: Camarillo played audio of an emergency call English made on Oct. 25, 2019, from his home in Douglas after being alerted to Arbery wandering around on the dock behind the house.
”I got a trespasser there. He’s a colored guy, got real curly-looking hair,” English tells the dispatcher. He’s tattooed down both arms.”
He said the way the man was acting it looked like maybe “he’s drunk or on drugs.”
But when questioned by Camarillo during the deposition, English said the man may have just been staggering because it was dark. While the video of the scene looks like a light is on, it’s because English’s security cameras have infrared lights. It’s actually pitch black dark, which main explain why Arbery had unsure footing.
On the phone, English asked police and asked them to send someone out because he didn’t want anyone on his property. It was the first time he had ever seen Arbery on his surveillance system. English tells the 911 dispatcher it looks like the person on his property is “plundering around.”
But when asked by Camarillo what he meant by that, English said, “He was just looking around, checking things out.”
”Did you ever see that person take anything that night?” Camarillo asked.
“No,” English replied.
[10:15 a.m.]: The deposition includes a photo of the home at 220 Satilla Drive, two doors down from where the McMichaels live. English tells Camarillo he hoped to finish the home himself, but said he was delayed by health issues.
The home had no doors. There was no fence around the property and no “no trespassing” signs posted, English said. There is a dock behind the home on the river that runs through the Satilla Shores neighborhood, he said.
English installed his motion-activated security cameras in 2019 when he learned youth in the neighborhood were playing behind his house. The battery-operated cameras notified him on his cellphone in Douglas.
There were fewer than 10 cameras installed on the property, including two that faced the dock, he said.
“I could actually look at it manually at any point in time or it would give me a notification on the phone if activity was going on on the property.”
English said he would shut off the phone notifications while contractors worked on the property, but and would sometimes forget to turn them back on for a “couple of days.”
Jurors were also shown surveillance videos of what appeared to be two children on bicycles playing outside the home. English said the children had taken plywood from the home under construction, but that he never really worried about the supplies.
[9:46 a.m.]: Jurors are being shown the video deposition.
A deposition is essentially testimony given under oath and where a witness is questioned by attorneys from both sides. English’s deposition was taken, in private, at the Glynn County courthouse several weeks ago and was presided over the Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley. English is not testifying at the trial in person because of his poor health and also because he may need transplant surgery. For that reason, he agreed to sit for a videotaped deposition.
In the video, recorded Sept. 24, English was interviewed by Prosecutor Paul Camarillo. Both men are wearing facemasks in the recording being shown to jurors.
[9:33 a.m.]: The jury is being brought in.
Arbery was spotted inside the English home several times in the weeks leading up to the shooting. He ran from the home that on that Sunday afternoon as a neighbor called the police. As he ran farther into the neighborhood, he was pursued by the McMichaels and Bryan and ultimately killed during a struggle over Travis’ shotgun in the middle of the road.
The home under construction was unsecured and had no doors. English, who lives about 100 miles in the city of Douglas, had installed motion-activated security cameras around his second home because teens regularly visited his dock, and he believed more than $2,000 worth of electronics equipment had been stolen from his boat behind the house.
[9:05 a.m.]: Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley has taken the bench. Court is in session.
