Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski delivered her rebuttal early Tuesday, emphasizing to the jury Arbery was accused of no crime and the defendants told police they knew of no crime he'd committed.

All of the underlying felonies played a substantial and necessary part in causing the death of Ahmaud Arbery."

Claims that they were protecting their neighborhood appear spurious, Dunikoski said, when you consider the property owner never accused Arbery of any crime -- aside from entering the property without incident -- and nothing had been stolen there in the months prior to Arbery's fatal shooting.

Dunikoski has also said the defendants can't claim self-defense when Arbery, unarmed and on foot, tried for five minutes to elude three men, two of them armed, chasing him in a pair of pickup trucks.

She asked the jury: Why, if this was about stopping crime, did the McMichaels never mention a specific crime or citizen's arrest to the police at the scene?

Following Dunikoski's rebuttal, Judge Timothy Walmsley gave jurors instructions and said, for Bryan, he'd permit them to consider simple assault, reckless conduct or reckless driving in lieu of aggravated assault with a truck.

Judge denies motion for mistrial

Defense lawyers made remarks Monday that legal experts felt were racially insensitive, and Dunikoski has insisted the defendants targeted Arbery "because he was a Black man running down the street."

Travis McMichael testified he never saw Arbery armed, never heard Arbery threaten him and Arbery showed no interest in conversing with McMichael.

The men acted on "assumptions and driveway decisions," Dunikoski has said, and they had no immediate knowledge Arbery committed a crime, a key factor in claiming citizen's arrest.

The trio say they pursued Arbery only after suspecting him of burglary.

Travis McMichael testified he shot Arbery in self-defense after Arbery grabbed his gun.

The owner of the property never said Arbery committed a crime, just that he was caught on camera at the site.

If Arbery committed a crime, Dunikoski said, it was criminal trespass, or maybe prowling or loitering, all misdemeanors -- none meeting the prerequisite for citizen's arrest.

Arbery, and therefore they don't get to claim self-defense."

During jury instructions, Walmsley told jurors in a citizen's arrest, the person making the arrest must have witnessed the crime with her or his own senses or the perpetrator must've admitted a crime.

It is not legal to make a citizen's arrest based on "unsupported statements of others alone," and the person making the arrest -- either after the crime, or in the case of a felony, during an escape -- must exact the arrest immediately, the judge said.

Hogue told the jury they needed only to consider two questions.

"Did Greg McMichael have reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion to believe that Ahmaud Arbery had committed a burglary ...

Because all three men committed felonies before Travis McMichael shot Arbery, they are parties to the crime, she said.