Greetings!
So, while traveling for Thanksgiving, I’m hearing the verdicts from the Aubury case. It has me very confused.
It is my understanding that they were accused of shooting one person, but each defendant was charged with five counts of murder, four of which were “Felony Murder.” I thought each count of murder would be one killing? How did one murder become five counts of murder?
I was just listening to the verdicts being read and had the same question.
Poor judgment = prison time, even for the one who took the video but didn’t fire a single shot
I just watched “guns and gadgets” video of the trial…well, fast forwarded most of it, but from what I understand the defendants will serve the punishment from the most serious charge. Why a lot of charges look the same I don’t know…until I read the above link 
Ah. This explains it well. Thank you.
Excellent. Thanks.
4 counts of felony murder? And a total of 9 counts? I’m not questioning guilt or innocent, but just get the feelings that prosecutors bring multiple crimes for one total action, and hope one will stick as guilty? If they committed felony murder, how did they do it 4 times on the same victim?
@William317 Welcome to the community, we are glad to have you here. 
Read the article above, it may answer your question.
Whenever the law is trying to find someone guilty of a crime, they hedge their bets by filing charges for each step up to the final charge. It is similar to what other government agencies do. When there are laws on the books, serious charges nearly always show that a minor law was also broken, so the person is charged with all the lesser crimes as well. That way, the person who may be found “not guilty” or the greater crime can still be found guilty of the lesser one. It removes the stigma of the prosecutions case being a waste of time or money.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. It’s like duck hunting. Just flock shoot and hope you get one. Still not sure how soneone gets 4 counts of felony murder on just wictum?
Is there a lawyer in the house ? I have a vague understanding of multiple charges, but would need a clear explanation from legal counsel to be sure.
My understanding is that there was one charge of malice murder, and only the son was found guilty of that. The four felony murder charges come from the fact that 4 different felonies were committed resulting in death. One was for the use of the shotgun, one for the use of the vehicles, one for false imprisonment, and one for attempt to commit false imprisonment. Each of these resulted in a felony murder charge.
I’m not a lawyer, but this is what I gather from what I’ve read.
The posted article says that each of the Felony Murder counts was a felony that led to the killing.
Thanks for tagging me @fish Frankly, I thought these were confusing and wonder if some of those are going to go up on appeal. It is unusual to see a person hit with 5 murder charges for 1 death!
My understanding of the charges , particularly the felony murder charges, seem peculiar to Georgia but I am sure there are other states that may be similar. Without see the actual jury instructions, this is an educated guess.
Count 1 - Mailice murder is the intentional, premeditated and willful killing of a person. Travis McMichael is the only one found guilty as he actually pulled the trigger.
Counts 2-5 Felony murder is a killing that occurs in the commission of a crime. Each were charged with 4 counts, 2 each for the 2 aggravated assault charges, 1 for the false imprisonment and one for the criminal intent to commit a felony. Both McMichaels were found guilty of all 4 and, since Bryan was not found guilty of one of the aggravated assaults count 6, he was only found guilty of 3 felony murder charges.
Not being a lawyer, that makes a certain amount of sense, I guess. In the past, when I saw multiple charges for an offense, I just thought that the DA was filling the air with buckshot and hoping something would give him/her one in the “W” column that he could brag about in furtherance of his/her future political aspirations.
