Father and son involved in Arbery's killing get life for hate crime; man who recorded gets 35 years

Travis McMichael looks on during the sentencing in his trial along with his father Greg McMichael and neighbor, William "Roddie" Bryan in the Glynn County Courthouse, on Jan. 7, 2022, in Brunswick, Ga. McMichael, the white man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery after chasing the 25-year-old Black man in a Georgia neighborhood, has been sentenced to life in prison on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, for committing a federal hate crime. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, Pool, File)

The white father and son convicted of murder in Ahmaud Arbery’s fatal shooting after they chased the 25-year-old Black man through a Georgia neighborhood were sentenced Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.

U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood handed down the sentences against Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Greg McMichael, 66, reiterating the gravity of the killing that shattered their Brunswick community and became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice.

“A young man is dead. Ahmaud Arbery will be forever 25. And what happened a jury found happened because he’s Black,” Wood said.