Nohilly, a Glynn County police criminal investigator at the time, spoke with Gregory McMichael the evening after the shooting at police department headquarters. On Wednesday he read from a transcript of his recorded interview with the elder McMichael.

According to his transcript, Nohilly asked McMichael, “Did this guy break into a house today?”

“Well that’s just it. I don’t know,” McMichael responded, according to the transcript.

“I told what’s her name out there. I said, ‘Listen, you might want to go knock on doors down there because this guy had just done something that he was fleeing from,” McMichael says, referring to a female Glynn County police officer he spoke with about the shooting. “He might have gone in somebody else’s house.”

On Wednesday, Nohilly testified that he further questioned McMichael about whether he’d seen Arbery before.

“No, I’d never laid eyes on on the guy,” McMichael says in the transcript.

Under questioning from a defense attorney, Nohilly read a portion of the transcript in which McMichael said Arbery matched the description of the person in the previous surveillance video at the construction site.

Bryan, who recorded the cell phone video, allegedly hit Arbery with his truck after he joined the McMichaels in chasing Arbery. The three men were allowed to leave the scene and weren’t arrested until the video became public.

The McMichaels and Bryan are charged with malice and felony murder in connection with the killing. They also face charges of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. All have pleaded not guilty.

‘He was trapped like a rat,’ Gregory McMichael said, according to interview transcript

On Wednesday, prosecutor Linda Dunikoski directed Nohilly to read from the transcript about his questioning of McMichael, regarding the pursuit of Arbery and what McMichael speculated to be going through his mind.

“He was trapped like a rat,” McMichael said, according to the transcript. “I think he was wanting to flee and he realized that something, you know, he was not going to get away.”

Nohilly asked, “Yeah, but he (Arbery) could have run around your son, right?” Nohilly followed up by asking, “But I can tell in the video, I mean, the whole road is there,” according to the transcript.

Prior to his interview with McMichael, Nohilly saw the cell phone video of the shooting, he said.

McMichael responded, “Oh, yeah, yeah. And he was much faster than Travis would ever be. He had the opportunity to flee further,” according to the transcript.

McMichael went on to say, according to the transcript: “We had chased him around the neighborhood a bit, but he wasn’t winded at all. I mean, this guy was he was in good shape.”

Franklin Hogue, attorney for Gregory McMichael, asked Nohilly to recall a portion of the interview with his client where McMichael indicated he believed Arbery was a threat.

Hogue read what McMichael said from Nohilly’s transcript: “And there was no hesitation on his part when he came to Travis. I mean, it was, I think he was, his intention was to grab that gun and probably shoot Travis. That’s in my mind. That’s what I saw.”

McMicahel went on to say, “If he’d had gotten that shotgun, and there was no separation between Travis and him, I was going to cap his ass,” according to the transcript.

Benjamin Crump, attorney for the Arbery family, entered the courtroom with Marcus Arbery Sr., Ahmaud Arbery’s father, during the cross-examination.

Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother, and Leigh McMichael, mother and wife of Travis and Gregory McMichael, were also in the courtroom Wednesday.

What prosecution and defense have said led up to the shooting

A neighbor who saw Arbery enter the site on the day of the shooting had reported Arbery’s presence to authorities on a nonemergency phone line, the prosecution says.

Travis McMichael called 911 in that instance and said the person he encountered had reached into his pocket, according to audio of the call Rubin played in court. This gave Travis McMichael the belief Arbery could be armed, the attorney said.

Arbery had no weapon when he was killed, authorities said.