Men accused in coastal Georgia shooting hire attorneys

ATLANTA (AP) — A defense attorney hired by one of two white men in Georgia accused of pursuing and killing a black man is cautioning against a “rush to judgment" in a case that has drawn national attention and an outcry over its handling.

Gregory and Travis McMichael, a father and son, are charged with aggravated assault and felony murder in the Feb. 23 death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. The case drew national attention and outrage after a video of Arbery's final moments surfaced online last week. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to take over the seemingly stalled investigation and the McMichaels were arrested less than 48 hours later.

Laura and Frank Hogue, a husband and wife criminal defense team based in Macon, said they have been hired to represent 64-year-old Gregory McMichael.

“So often the public accepts a narrative driven by an incomplete set of facts, one that vilifies a good person, based on a rush to judgment, which has happened in this case,” Laura Hogue said in a statement released Thursday.

The Hogues said more of the truth will be revealed at a preliminary hearing that they plan to schedule soon. The statement says they also plan to ask the court to set bail.

Travis McMichael, 34, has hired attorney Bob Rubin, who said in an email that he planned to hold a news conference Thursday afternoon at his office in Decatur, an Atlanta suburb.

Less than two weeks before Arbery was shot, Travis McMichael sounded on edge the night of Feb. 11 when he called 911 to report a possible trespasser inside a house under construction in his subdivision.

“We’ve had a string of burglaries,” Travis McMichael says on the 911 recording. “I was leaving the neighborhood and I just caught a guy running into a house being built two houses down...