Men convicted in Ahmaud Arbery’s murder ask for new trial
Ahmaud Arbery, Courtesy Arbery family
(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — The three Georgia men convicted in the 2020 killing of 25-year-old jogger Ahmaud Arbery are in court Thursday to ask for a new trial in the murder case.
One of the men, Travis McMichael, claimed that he and his father suspected Arbery — who had been jogging through the neighborhood — had just burglarized a nearby home under construction. He testified that Arbery resisted a citizen’s arrest and attacked him after he, his father Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan chased him.
Travis McMichael, who delivered the deadly shot, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
He was convicted on all nine charges: malice murder, four counts of felony murder, aggravated assault with a shotgun, aggravated assault with a pickup truck, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.
Gregory McMichael was also sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The former Georgia police officer was found not guilty of malice murder but was convicted on the remaining charges, including the felony murder counts.
Bryan was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. He was found guilty of three of the felony murder counts as well as charges of aggravated assault with his pickup truck, false imprisonment and criminal intent to commit a felony.
The arrests came after a cellphone video Bryan took of the confrontation that captured part of the shooting and was heavily used by both prosecutors and defense attorneys during the trial was leaked to the media despite Bryan having turned it over to Glynn County police on the day of the killing.
The McMichaels and Bryan had all pleaded not guilty to a nine-count state indictment. ABC News has reached out for comment from their legal teams on the request for a new trial.
The three men also have been convicted and sentenced on federal hate crime charges. The McMichaels were sentenced to life in prison. Bryan was sentenced to 35 years.
Gregory McMichael apologized to Arbery’s family in court following the federal sentencing: “I’m sure my words mean very little to you but I want to assure you I never wanted any of this to happen,” he said. “There was no malice in my heart or my son’s heart that day.”
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to the report.
As of Wednesday morning, Trump surpassed the 270 electoral votes need to secure the presidency, and that could mean major changes to the health care landscape.
During his campaign, Trump vowed to make the Affordable Care Act “better” and to protect “women.” He also suggested that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would shape the public health agenda of his administration.
This is what a second Trump term would mean for health care policies including health insurance and reproductive rights.
Future of the ACA and Medicare
Trump has been inconsistent on what his plans are regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the landmark law signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama.
During his first term, Trump tried several times to repeal the ACA but was unsuccessful. In November 2023, he also vowed to replace it in a post on his social media planform, Truth Social.
Since then, he has shifted course. In March, Trump said is “not running to terminate” the ACA but said he wanted to make it “better” and “less expensive,” in a post on Truth Social.
During the September presidential debate, he said he had “concepts of a plan” and said it would be “better health care than Obamacare,” but offered few details.
There could also be changes to Medicare, a federal health insurance program for people aged 65 or older and younger people with disabilities.
Trump has promoted Medicare Advantage, which is run by commercial insurers. What’s more, Project 2025 — a plan of conservative policy proposals proposed by the Heritage Foundation and not endorsed by Trump — has proposed Medicare Advantage be the default option for Medicare coverage.
Experts have said this could privatize the program and prevent people from receiving care from doctors and hospitals that don’t accept Medicare Advantage.
Also at risk are those with pre-existing conditions. Under the ACA, insurers cannot charge more or deny coverage to someone or their child because of a pre-existing health condition. However, Vice President-elect JD Vance has suggested placing people with chronic conditions into separate risk pools, which could raise premiums for those with pre-existing conditions.
Kennedy vows to remove fluoride from drinking water, vaccine review
During a charity dinner last month in New York City, Trump pledged that Kennedy would “go wild on health.”
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer with no public health or medical background, has been vocal on certain health policies he would like to tackle including fluoride in drinking water and review of vaccines.
In an interview with NPR on Wednesday morning, Kennedy doubled down on his promise that the Trump administration will recommend that local governments remove fluoride from their water supplies.
He has claimed that fluoride in drinking water affects children’s neurological development and that other countries which have removed fluoride from their water supplies have not seen an increase in cavities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says fluoride prevents cavities and repairs damaged to teeth caused by bacteria in the mouth. Fluoride also replaces minerals lost from teeth due to acid breakdown, according to the agency.
Additionally, Kennedy told NPR he would work “immediately” to increase research into the safety of vaccines, though he insisted, “We’re not going to take vaccines away from anybody.”
“We are going to make sure that Americans have good information,” he said. “Right now, the science on vaccine safety, particularly, has huge deficits in it. We’re going to make sure those scientific studies are done, and that people can make informed choices about their vaccinations and their children’s vaccinations.”
Top U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials have said that FDA-approved vaccines are “high quality, effective, and safe.”
In an interview with NBC News, he also suggested firing many workers at the FDA’s nutrition department.
Uncertainty about the future of reproductive rights
Although Trump has taken credit for ending Roe v. Wade — which was overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 — he was hesitant during his campaign to state his stance on abortion.
During the presidential debate in September, he said he believed in exceptions for rape, incest and to save the mother’s life but declined to say if he would veto a national ban.
However, in October, he wrote on the social platform X that he would not support a federal abortion ban, and said abortions laws are up to the will of the voters in individual states.
Trump told CBS News in August he would not use the 150-year-old Comstock Act to ban mail delivery of medication abortion pills, which drew rebuke from some conservatives and anti-abortion advocates.
In September, during a rally in Pennsylvania, he said he would be a “protector” of women and that they “wouldn’t be thinking about abortion” if he were elected. He doubled down on these claims last month during a rally in Wisconsin, with Trump saying he would “protect” women “whether the women like it or not.”
He has not offered specifics on what being a “protector” means in this capacity.
ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A man in Altoona, Pennsylvania, was stopped with a fake New Jersey ID and is being held for questioning in connection with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The man had walked into a McDonald’s where a witness recognized him from the images circulated by police, sources said.
The man had a similar gun to the one used in Wednesday’s assassination-style killing outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the sources said. Altoona police also recovered a computer.
The NYPD is sending detectives to Altoona, the sources said. Altoona is in central Pennsylvania, about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Before the shooting, the suspected gunman checked into an Upper West Side hostel using a New Jersey license that wasn’t his own, police sources told ABC News.
Meanwhile, new video obtained by ABC News shows the killer waiting for Thompson moments before the shooting. The video shows others pass by, and then, when the masked gunman sees Thompson, he runs across the street and opens fire.
The video, which has not previously been seen publicly, appears to support the police narrative that the shooter targeted Thompson because he loitered while others wandered by.
Police haven’t established a motive but said they haven’t uncovered evidence that would show the killing had anything to do with Thompson’s private life.
On Wednesday morning, the masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson’s company was holding an investors conference. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as “brazen” and “targeted.”
Right after the shooting, the suspect fled by bike through Central Park to the Upper West Side. He then took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City, according to police.
NYPD officials released new images this weekend of the suspect in the back of a taxi, where he could be seen peering through the open slider in the partition between the seats. Another photo appeared to show the man walking by the window of a cab.
The FBI is assisting the nationwide manhunt, according to law enforcement sources.
NYPD detectives arrived this weekend in Georgia. Investigators have said the suspect arrived in New York on Nov. 24 on a bus that originated Atlanta, although it’s unclear if his travels began in Atlanta.
In New York on Sunday, members of the New York Police Department’s dive team searched underwater in Central Park near the Bethesda Fountain.
(LOS ANGELES) — Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is supporting the Menendez brothers’ new effort to petition California Gov. Gavin Newsom for clemency, which would reduce their sentence or grant a pardon, ABC News has learned.
Gascón plans to submit a letter to that effect by the end of the day Wednesday.
Lyle and Erik Menendez were sentenced in 1996 to two consecutive terms of life without parole.
While prosecutors alleged they killed their parents for money, the defense argued the brothers acted in self-defense following years of sexual abuse by their father.
Besides the new clemency route, the brothers have two other possible tracks to freedom.
One path is through resentencing.
Gascón announced last week that he was recommending the brothers’ sentence of life without the possibility of parole be removed, and they should instead be sentenced for murder, which would be a sentence of 50 years to life.
Because both brothers were under 26 at the time of the crimes, with the new sentence, they would be eligible for parole immediately, Gascón said.
“We appreciate what they did while they were in prison,” Gascón said at a news conference of the brothers. “While I disapprove of the way they handled their abuse, we hope that they not only have learned — which appears that they have — but that if they get reintegrated into our community, that they continue to do public good.”
Gascón’s recommendation will go before a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, and if the judge agrees, the decision will next be in the hands of a parole board.
The second possible track for release is the habeas corpus petition filed last year for a review of new evidence not presented at trial.
One piece of evidence is allegations from a former member of the boy band Menudo, who is alleging he was sexually abused by music executive Jose Menendez.
The second piece of evidence is a letter Erik Menendez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detailing his alleged abuse. The cousin testified about the alleged abuse at trial, but the letter — which would have corroborated the cousin’s testimony — wasn’t unearthed until several years ago, according to the brothers’ attorney, Mark Geragos.
Through this petition, the court could reverse the convictions or reopen proceedings.
Officials in the DA’s office told ABC News they are “keeping an open mind” to reducing the conviction to a lesser charge based on the new evidence.
