Attorneys for Gregory McMichael informed the court that the prior plea agreement over hate crime charges is null and void, according to court documents filed Thursday in federal district court. Trial proceedings are slated to begin Monday. He has pleaded not guilty.
Travis McMichael had agreed to plead guilty to a single hate crime charge — interference with rights — in exchange for prosecutors recommending he serve 30 years in federal prison.
After completing the federal sentence, he would’ve been returned to Georgia to finish his sentence of life in prison without parole. Five of those final years would have counted toward his supervised release from federal prison.
Witnesses who spoke at Monday’s plea hearing included an FBI special agent, who testified that authorities searched Travis McMichael’s cell phone and social media accounts and found “frequent use of racial slurs” in reference to Black people.
US District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood said she was not comfortable with the sentencing guidelines. Arbery’s family also opposed the deal.
The Department of Justice respected the court’s decision to not accept the plea and had “entered the plea agreement only after the victims’ attorneys informed me that the family was not opposed to it,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a statement provided to CNN.
The judge had been expected to rule separately on the same plea deal for Gregory McMichael, but after the judge rejected Travis’ deal, attorneys for both McMichaels asked for more time to decide whether to change their pleas to guilty.
A third individual found responsible for Arbery’s murder, neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole and also faces federal hate crime charges.
CNN’s Alta Spells, Raja Razek, Maria Cartaya, Elliot C. McLaughlin, Angela Barajas and Melissa Alonso contributed to this report.