Prosecutor John Fowler makes his opening statement to the jury Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Brunswick, Ga., in the trial of former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson who is accused of obstruction of justice and violating her oath of office. (Terry Dickson/The Brunswick News via AP, Pool)

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Attorneys clashed before a trial jury Tuesday over whether a former prosecutor abused her power to try to protect the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in the streets of a quiet Georgia neighborhood nearly five years ago.

Jackie Johnson served as district attorney for coastal Glynn County when Arbery was pursued by white men in pickup trucks who saw him running in their neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020, and wrongly assumed the 25-year-old Black man was a thief. The chase ended when one of the three men fatally shot Arbery at close range with a shotgun.

More than two months passed without arrests in Arbery's death, until cellphone video of the shooting leaked online. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police and Arbery's pursuers were all charged and later convicted of murder.

Johnson was also charged in 2021 with violating her oath of office, a felony, as well as a misdemeanor count of hindering the police investigation of Arbery's death.

A jury was seated for her trial Tuesday and heard nearly two hours of opening statements from a prosecutor from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr's office and from Johnson's lead defense attorney.

Prosecutor John Fowler told jurors that police initially told Arbery’s mother that her son was shot while committing a home invasion, which was false. As Arbery's family tried in vain to learn more from authorities, he said, Johnson was focused on helping the man who started the deadly pursuit.

Greg McMichael had retired the previous year from his job as an investigator in Johnson's office. It was his son who fired the fatal shotgun blasts. An hour later, McMichael left a message on Johnson's cellphone asking her for help.

“She put the interest of her former chief investigator and her longtime friend ahead of a victim," Fowler said.

Johnson's lead attorney, Brian Steel, insisted she's innocent. He said the only advice she gave to McMichael after the shooting was: “Get a lawyer.”

Steel said that Johnson immediately recused herself and handed the case to a outside prosecutor. He also blamed local police for jumping to the false conclusion that Arbery had been caught committing a crime and was shot in self-defense.

“Jackie has done nothing to put her finger on the scales of justice,” Steel said.

He told the jury that Johnson assumed Arbery was a burglar because that's what police had told her, and she was stunned two months later to see the leaked video that told a very different story.

Senior Judge John R. Turner seated a jury of 12 plus three alternate jurors at the Glynn County courthouse a week after jury selection began in the port city of Brunswick. It was delayed by a rare winter storm that left the coastal community coated in snow and ice.

The judge said he expects Johnson's trial to last two weeks or more. It's being held at the same courthouse where Arbery’s assailants were convicted of murder in 2021. They were also convicted of federal hate crimes in a separate trial the following year.

Greg McMichael and his son Travis McMichael armed themselves and chased Arbery in a pickup truck after seeing him run past their house. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of the shooting.

“My son and I have been involved in a shooting, and I need some advice right away,” Greg McMichael said in a voicemail left on Johnson's cellphone after the shooting and later included in court records.

Prosecutors say Johnson abused her power by getting the attorney general to appoint an outside prosecutor whom Johnson knew had already advised police against making arrests. Fowler said Johnson never disclosed that George Barnhill, the first of three outside prosecutors assigned to the case, had concluded Arbery's killing wasn't a crime.

“She intentionally withheld information so that nobody would know that George Barnhill had already decided the case,” Fowler said.

Steel said that Johnson had enlisted Barnhill the day after the shooting to advise police because her relationship with Greg McMichael posed a conflict of interest. But he denied that Johnson recommended Barnhill when she later asked the attorney general to appoint an outside prosecutor.

“Jackie doesn't recommend anybody,” Steel told the jury. "You’ll see the letter.”

Johnson was also charged in a September 2021 indictment with hindering police by “directing" them to not arrest Travis McMichael.

Fowler in his opening statement made no reference to Johnson telling police not to arrest anyone. Steel said the jury will later hear recorded interviews with police investigators saying they received no such directive from Johnson.

Johnson was voted out of office in November 2020 after 10 years as district attorney for the five-county Brunswick Judicial Circuit. She largely blamed her defeat on controversy over the case, which erupted months earlier.

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