BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Shortly after a judge threw out a felony indictment against former Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson on Wednesday, ending her trial on charges that she abused her power by trying to protect the men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery in 2020, First Coast News spoke with Arbery’s mother and father about the judge’s decision.

“I’m in shock,” Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones told First Coast News. “The evidence was there and I really thought that we were winning because she took the stand on yesterday, she told myself, the jury, everyone in the courtroom what really happened. And what happened this morning, wasn’t because she wasn’t guilty, it was because of just case law.”

Nearly five years ago, on Feb. 23, 2020, Arbery, 25, was jogging in the Satilla Shores neighborhood in Brunswick when Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan chased him and trapped him, before Travis gunned him down in the middle of a street. The McMichaels and Bryan were all later convicted of murder and federal hate crimes.

Senior Judge John R. Turner ordered Johnson acquitted of a misdemeanor count of obstructing police on Monday. Turner ruled after prosecutors rested their case, declaring they failed to show “one scintilla of evidence” that Johnson had directed police investigators not to arrest Travis, who shot Arbery.

Then Wednesday, Turner struck down the one remaining charge against Johnson, a felony accusing her of violating her oath of office. This time, he granted a defense challenge that the indictment used to charge Johnson was fatally flawed by technical errors. Johnson was indicted on the two charges on Sept. 2, 2021.

“Frankly, this is a decision I didn’t want to make,” Turner told the courtroom Wednesday, adding that he felt the defense’s challenge to the indictment against Johnson “needs to be granted.”

However, Turner expressed sympathy for Cooper-Jones as she sat in the courtroom.

“I think that they were sincere, I really appreciate it,” Cooper-Jones said regarding Turner’s sympathetic comments made towards her. “Unfortunately, his sincereness don’t bring my son back, but I really appreciate it.”

In response to a question asking Cooper-Jones what she thought of Johnson being so emotional while testifying Tuesday, Cooper-Jones said: “This happened five years ago. Back in 2020, when I had first lost my son, Jackie Johnson called me not once. So, I couldn’t really understand why she was so emotional on yesterday.”

Cooper-Jones further told First Coast News after the trial was dismissed that she thought Johnson’s comments made Tuesday about Arbery’s death looking like a murder “was all fake.”

When First Coast News spoke with Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, he said he’s “hurt” and that the judge’s decision is “devastating.”

“It’s just bad that our elected people that hold that power like that don’t be accountable for what they do wrong,” Arbery said. “It was so much wrong in that trial, and lying and stuff. That lady lied and misled us. I went and talked to her face to face, and she said the shooting was justified. And just to throw us off so we wouldn’t come back to find the truth. And then when the video hit, she changed all that mess and [when] the community got involved, she tried to make it look like she done the right thing when she did all the wrong stuff. It’s just bad, you know, it’s just bad for our country.”

Arbery stated Johnson, Gregory McMichael and George Barnhill, a district attorney Johnson recommended the attorney general appoint to oversee the Arbery case, were “all in a clique together.”