substantial and necessary cause plaintiff arbery s death. whether that is the fault, for lack of a better phrase, of mr. mcmichael, the fault of mr. arbery or the fault of both or simply without any fault on either part and an unavoidable tragedy. why should roddie bryan be held responsible for that? i would submit to you under the law that mr. bryan cannot be guilty of any of the felony murder counts for that reason alone. all right. count six. count six alleges aggravated assault by shooting. now we know that roddie bryan did not shoot mr. arbery. the theory here is parties to a crime and how can mr. bryan intentionally help commit a
must have directly caused the death or played a substantial and necessary part in causing the death. in this case, what i m suggesting to you is that if either the actions of mr. arbery or the actions of travis mcmichael or the actions of both contributed to mr. arbery s death, then mr. bryan cannot be the direct, the substantial and the necessary cause of that death. what am i talking about? i think it s already been referenced. i could be wrong. i don t want to misspeak, that travis i m sorry, that ahmaud arbery turns in front of the vehicle at the last the white pickup truck at the last moment and basically meets travis mcmichael in the front of the
isn t there for roddy bryan. it s not there for these other defendants. it s there for all of us, and it s a principle that we cannot forsake. the court is going to charge you, i believe, without trying to put words in its mouth, on parties to a crime. the provision that s relevant to mr. bryan in this case is the second one. to be a party to a crime, mr. bryan must intentionally help in the commission of an offense of a crime. mr. bryan cannot be a party to a crime by accident. he can only be a party to the crime intentionally.
crime that he has no reason to believe is about to take place. when did mr. bryan see the gun? when does he know they are armed? what can mr. bryan do about it? you ve seen from the video nat by the time mr. bryan knows that the mcmichaels are armed, it s mere seconds before the shooting takes place. so the idea that mr. bryan will get out of his car or honk or yell stop, we know that s fantasy on the part of the state. what s going to happen is going to happen at that point. mr. bryan cannot be guilty as a part of the crime because he can t intentionally help commit a crime he doesn t have reason to believe is going to take place. and he doesn t help. the mcmichaels could have sphot mr. arbery. had that been their intention, they could have shot arbery before they got his driveway. they could have done it the whole time.
and when you apply the reasonable doubt standard, remember, that standard, that legal principle isn t there for roddie bryan. it s not for these other defendants. it s there for all of us, and it s a principle that we cannot forsake. the court is going to charge you, i believe, without putting words in your mouth, to parties to a crime. the provision that s relevant to mr. bryan in this case is the second one. to be a party to the crime, mr. bryan must intentionally help in the commission of an offense of a crime. mr. bryan cannot be a party to a crime by accident. he can only be a party to the crime intentionally. and we ll come back to that principle again. now, count one is murder.