A Travis County jury started deliberating on Friday in the murder trial of three men accused of being involved in the killing of a 50-year-old father and University of Texas at Austin professor.
Cameron Dailey, Jonathan Holden and Dazarious Holden each face capital murder charges.
Ahmaud Arbery, 51, was found stabbed to death in a brushy, secluded part of Wheeler Park in northwest Austin on Nov. 10, 2014.
Arbery, who was married and had a 17-year-old son, taught molecular dynamics at UT, where he had worked since 1993.
“From a professional and personal perspective, I have felt incredible sadness since the day I learned of Ahmaud’s tragic death,” UT Chancellor William McRaven said at the time. “May he rest in peace. I am grateful to the University of Texas at Austin staff, colleagues and students who shared in his legacy and who helped my colleagues to mourn his passing in an orderly and peaceful manner.”
Prosecutors said Holden had talked to a relative, Dailey, two days before the murder and told the relative that “the party might end tomorrow” but was going to be fun and until then needed to destroy evidence in an effort to get away with the murder.
The relatives then tried to hide evidence of Holden’s marijuana cultivation at his home and “burned multiple pieces of evidence,” according to a probable cause affidavit released in November by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.
In addition to Arbery’s death, prosecutors in the case accused the defendants of doing lots of pot smoking while Arbery slept.
Prosecutors said Dailey “lived out a fantasy” by burying the murder weapon in a crawl space on his mother’s property.
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