Update: Trayvon Martin Case

[♥ [[Ash]]]

SANFORD, Fla. -- A judge ruled Friday that attorneys for a Florida neighborhood watch volunteer can inspect the school records and social media postings of the unarmed teenager he is accused of murdering.

Judge Debra S. Nelson said that defendant George Zimmerman's attorneys need to know whether Trayvon Martin's school records and social media postings give any evidence that he had violent tendencies.

The 29-year-old Zimmerman fatally shot the 17-year-old Martin in February. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, saying he shot Martin in self-defense. He was present Friday, his first appearance in public since his July bond hearing. He and his wife, Shellie, remain in hiding somewhere in Seminole County because of safety concerns.

The judge said she would review Zimmerman's medical records to see if they should be turned over to prosecutors. Nelson set another hearing for Oct. 26.

She will also take up an emergency motion filed Thursday by defense attorney Mark O'Mara that asks the court to grant depositions of several Sanford police officers, including former Chief Bill Lee.

In Nelson's first full hearing since taking over the case in late August, she held attorneys from both sides to short arguments before conveying her rulings. She warned them about bickering with each other.

"I'm glad to have some of the discovery issues resolved. Now we can move forward," defense attorney Mark O'Mara said afterwards.

A message left with a spokesperson for the state attorney seeking comment was not immediately returned.

In regards to the emergency motion, O'Mara said in the filing he that he learned during a recent deposition of police Sgt. Joseph Santiago that investigators held several meetings in the weeks after the shooting and reached a consensus that Zimmerman should not be charged with a crime.

O'Mara contends that information was only learned through a question during the deposition of Santiago and that the state never disclosed the existence of the meetings or what was discussed during them.

"If all those witnesses had a similar opinion, I'm very concerned of what the basis for the prosecution is," O'Mara said. "We certainly now have a lot more to look into. I didn't know we'd be going down this path. Now it's been opened up to us, we're going to investigate it to wherever it leads us."

The judge has scheduled Zimmerman's trial for next June. A hearing on Zimmerman's self-defense claim has not been scheduled, though O'Mara said this week that it could be in April or May.

Nelson ruled that the defense can subpoena the Twitter and Facebook accounts of Martin under case law: Because Zimmerman is making a self-defense claim, any evidence that supports possible aggressive tendencies by Martin is valid.

O'Mara said he has heard "anecdotal evidence" that the 17-year-old Martin had been involved in mixed martial arts fighting.

Attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing Martin's parents, said they didn't think his social media activity before the shooting was valid, but they don't have any fear of it being revealed.

"Trayvon Martin died because George Zimmerman profiled him as a criminal-minded young punk under the guise of protecting his neighborhood," Crump said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Now Trayvon Martin is being profiled again as a MMA-loving, violent thug under the guise of pursuing justice. This has to stop. Profiling, like racism and sexism, has no place in the criminal justice system."

The judge ordered Crump to turn over a recording of a phone interview he conducted with Martin's girlfriend, who was talking with him in the moments before his altercation with Zimmerman.

Crump conducted an interview with this witness – known only as Witness 8 – in the weeks after the February shooting. Zimmerman's lawyers also will get to depose Crump and his associates about the chain of custody of that interview, of which the prosecution already has a copy.

Crump said he would cooperate with the judge's request in full with the hope of speeding up the process for Martin's parents.

"They are just very enthusiastic that the judge has set a trial date," Crump said. "They don't want an eye for an eye ... Simple justice is all they want so they can move on."

[♥ [[Ash]]]

Jayne Surdyka, George Zimmerman Trial Witness, Says She Felt Cries For Help Were 'A Boy's Voice'


AP | By MIKE SCHNEIDER and KYLE HIGHTOWER Posted: 06/26/2013 10:41 am EDT | Updated: 06/26/2013 10:41 am EDT



SANFORD, Fla. -- A former neighbor of George Zimmerman testified Wednesday that she heard a boy's cry for help shortly before hearing the firing of a gun.

But Jayne Surdyka also testified on the third day of testimony in Zimmerman's murder trial that she heard multiple gunshots, "pop, pop, pop." Only one shot was fired in the fatal encounter between Zimmerman and 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

"I truly believe the second yell for help was a yelp," said Surdyka, who later dabbed away tears as prosecutors played her 911 call. "It was excruciating. I really felt it was a boy's voice."



Surdyka also told the court that before the shooting, she heard an aggressive voice and a softer voice exchanging words for several minutes.

Other neighbors also have described hearing cries for help which were captured on their calls to 911. Martin's parents have said they were those of their son, while Zimmerman's father has said he believes the cries belong to his son. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys believe they could show whether Zimmerman or Martin was the aggressor in the encounter at the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome complex on Feb. 26, 2012. Defense attorneys successfully argued against allowing prosecution experts who claimed the cries belonged to Martin.

Also Wednesday, Judge Debra Nelson ruled that she would allow at trial five police dispatch calls Zimmerman made in the months prior to his encounter with Martin.

Prosecutors want to use the calls to bolster their argument that Zimmerman was increasingly frustrated with repeated burglaries and had reached a breaking point the night he shot the unarmed teenager. Prosecutors played the calls for the judge Tuesday with the jurors out of the courtroom.

The recordings show Zimmerman's "ill will," prosecutor Richard Mantei said.

"It shows the context in which the defendant sought out his encounter with Trayvon Martin," he said.

O'Mara argued that the calls were irrelevant and that nothing matters but the seven or eight minutes before Zimmerman fired the deadly shot into Martin's chest.

In the calls, Zimmerman identifies himself as a neighborhood watch volunteer and recounts that his neighborhood has had a rash of recent break-ins. In one call, he asks that officers respond quickly since the suspects "typically get away quickly."

In another, he describes suspicious black men hanging around a garage and mentions his neighborhood had a recent garage break-in.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder for gunning down Martin as the young man walked from a convenience store. Zimmerman followed him in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has claimed self-defense, saying he opened fire after the teenager jumped him and began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk.

Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother is Hispanic, has denied the confrontation with the black teenager had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and its supporters have charged.

[♥ [[Ash]]]

UPDATE: JUNE 27, 2013

The star prosecution witness took the stand in a Florida courtroom for a second day Thursday as George Zimmerman’s attorneys tried to demonstrate that her story about hearing the prelude to the defendant's fatal confrontation with Trayvon Martin has changed over the course of the last year.

Defense attorney Don West grilled Rachel Jeantel about a letter she had a friend write for Martin's parents in the weeks after the February, 2012 incident, describing the phone conversation she had with Martin as he walked from a convenience store in Sanford, Fla., back to his father’s fiancee’s home in a gated community. West pressed her on what he indicated were inconsistencies between the letter and Jeantel's subsequent depositions and testimony - in particular her recent revelation that Martin told her he was being followed by a "creepy-ass cracker."

"Why wasn't 'creepy-ass cracker' in prior interviews?" asked West, one of the attorneys for Zimmerman, who is facing a charge of second-degree murder.

"Nobody asked me," replied Jeantel, who said she can't read cursive, which the letter is written in.

The letter, in which Martin's name is spelled wrong, describes how Jeantel was speaking by cellphone with the 17-year-old Martin as he cut through a subdivision on his way to the home where he was staying. Jeantel has said she had the letter written for Martin's parents to give her account, but that she never intended for it to be made public.

"He started walking then noticed someone was following him," read the letter. "Then he decided to find a shortcut cause the man wouldn't follow him. Then he said the man didn't follow him again. Then he looked back and saw the man again. The man started getting closer. Then Trevon turned around and said Why are you following me!! Then I heard him fall. Then the phone hung up. I called back and got no response. In my mind I thought it was just a fight. Then I found out this tragic story. Thank you."

But on Wednesday, Jeantel, 19, told jurors Martin said he was being followed by “a creepy-ass cracker” just before the fatal confrontation with Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who is charged with second-degree murder in Martin’s death. She said she warned Martin to walk away, saying "it might be a rapist."

Martin, she said, told her he was going to try to "lose him" and get to the home. But Jeantel said as she remained on the phone with Martin, the man who was allegedly following him reappeared, prompting the confrontation, of which she heard the initial moments.

West questioned what he portrayed as a change in the Jeantel's characterization of the confrontation, which is critical because much of Zimmerman's defense rests on showing that he acted in self-defense, while prosecutors say it was Zimmerman who provoked the incident by aggressively stalking Martin. Jeantel has consistently said she heard Martin ask Zimmerman why he was following him. But in an earlier account, she said Zimmerman replied, "What are you talking about?" while in the latest testimony, she claimed Zimmerman replied "What are you doing around here?"

After the two had words, Jeantel testified she heard Martin's phone headset fall and then Martin say "Get off!" The phone went dead shortly after and Jeantel says she didn’t speak to Martin again.

West asked Jeantel why she did not tell Martin's family or their lawyer, Benjamin Crump, about Martin yelling "Get off!" Jeantel replied, "because Crump is not law enforcement."

Jeantel also testified she heard something that sounded like a "bump" before the phone went dead.

When asked by West if she had previously told investigators that she heard what sounded like somebody being hit at the end of her call with Martin, Jeantel said, "Trayvon got hit."

"You don't know that? Do you? You don't know that Trayvon got hit," West answered angrily. "You don't know that Trayvon didn't at that moment take his fists and drive them into George Zimmerman's face."

Jeantel's testimony is key to the prosecution's argument that Zimmerman was the aggressor in the fatal confrontation. West tried repeatedly to chip away at Jeantel's testimony, including in one heated exchange over whether Martin would have told Jeantel if he had decided to start a fight with Zimmerman.

"Of course, you don't know if he (Martin) was telling the truth or not," West asked Jeantel.

"Why he need to lie about that sir?" replied Jeantel.

"Maybe if he decided to assault George Zimmerman he didn't want you to know about it?" answered West.

"That's real retarded, sir," Jeantel said. "When you don't know the person, why risk it? Trayvon didn't know him."

Later in the morning, West accused Jeantel of not calling police after she lost contact with Martin because she thought it was a fight he had provoked.

"That's why you weren't worried. That's why you didn't do anything because Trayvon Martin started the fight and you knew that," West said.

"No sir!" Jeantel said. "I don't know what you're talking about."


Jeantel has come under fire in the past for lying about her age – claiming to be 16 in order, she said, to avoid getting dragged into the case. She also admitted lying about her reasons for not attending Martin’s funeral, saying she was in the hospital. In her testimony, she said she didn’t go because she felt guilty.

Jeantel's testimony was more subdued on Thursday, and West took note of her calmer demeanor. She answered many of West's questions by repeating "yes, sir," almost in a whisper.

"You feeling OK today? You seem different than yesterday," West said.

"I got some sleep," she answered.

Zimmerman, 29, has said he opened fire only after the teenager jumped him and began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic and has denied that his confrontation with the black teenager had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and its supporters have claimed.

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty, claiming self-defense. He could face life in prison if convicted.


Read more: www.foxnews.com/us/2013/06/27/teen-friend-trayvon-martin-to-return-to-stand-in-zimmerman-trial/#ixzz2XRtT0J19

[♥ [[Ash]]]

George Zimmerman Trial Over Trayvon Martin Shooting Enters Fifth Day


AP | By KYLE HIGHTOWER and MIKE SCHNEIDER Posted: 06/28/2013 7:00 am EDT | Updated: 06/28/2013 2:00 pm EDT


SANFORD, Fla. -- A neighbor of George Zimmerman who had perhaps the best view of the struggle between the neighborhood watch volunteer and Trayvon Martin has taken the witness stand in Zimmerman's murder trial.

Jonathan Good was the second person to take the witness stand on Friday, the fifth day of testimony.


Good says he heard a noise in back of his townhome in February 2012, and he saw what looked like a tussle when he stepped out onto his patio to see what was happening.

He says he yelled, "What's going on? Stop it."

Zimmerman is charged with second degree murder in Martin's fatal shooting. He is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense.


In testy exchanges, George Zimmerman's defense attorney insinuated that the young woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin shortly before he was fatally shot was not believable because of inconsistencies in her story.

But 19-year-old Rachel Jeantel held firm in her testimony about what she heard over the phone while talking with Martin the night the unarmed teen was shot and killed by Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer.

Testimony in the case was entering its fifth day Friday with jurors having already been exposed to some of the state's biggest pieces of evidence, including the 911 call featuring cries for help prosecutors believe came from Martin, as well as the sound of the gunshot moments later which killed him.

In her testimony, Jeantel contended that it was Zimmerman who confronted Martin. Zimmerman, who claims the shooting was in self-defense, has said he opened fire only after the 17-year-old jumped him and began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk.

"We're in the middle of it," defense attorney Mark O'Mara said. "They've got a lot more to show. These things build up slow, and it's sort of like pieces of a puzzle. People say, `wait a minute, I can't see the picture yet.' They're very good prosecutors, they're gonna do very good job, and they're gonna put on their evidence. We'll see how it goes. We're certainly ready to respond to it."

During Jeantel's testimony, O'Mara's co-counsel Don West insisted Thursday that Martin injected race into the confrontation. Jeantel has said Martin told her he was being followed by a "creepy-ass cracker" - implying Martin was being followed by a white man because of his race.

Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic. Race has permeated nationwide discussions of the case since the February 2012 shooting, which prompted nationwide protests and claims from critics that police took too long to arrest Zimmerman.

West also zeroed in on slight differences among three different accounts of what happened before Martin's killing, in an apparent effort to discredit her. Jeantel has described what she heard over the phone in a deposition; a letter to Martin's mother; and an interview with the Martin family attorney. Among the differences highlighted by West:

_ In some accounts, she said race was an issue but not in others.

_ Jeantel testified Wednesday that her friend's last words were "Get off! Get off!" before Martin's phone went silent. But on Thursday, under cross-examination, she conceded that she hadn't mentioned that in her account of what happened to Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton. She had left out some details to spare Fulton's feelings, and also because neither Fulton nor the Martin family attorney asked her directly about them, Jeantel said.

_ After Martin asks why he is being followed, Zimmerman responds, "What are you doing around here?" in one account by Jeantel. In another account, according to West, she says Zimmerman said, "What are you talking about?"

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Zimmerman followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.

Jeantel testified Thursday that she thought race was an issue because Martin told her he was being followed by a white man.

But West responded, "It was racial because Trayvon put race in this?"

She answered no.

The exchanges got testier as the day progressed.

When asked by West if she had previously told investigators that she heard what sounded like somebody being hit at the end of her call with Martin, Jeantel said, "Trayvon got hit."

"You don't know that? Do you? You don't know that Trayvon got hit," West answered angrily. "You don't know that Trayvon didn't at that moment take his fists and drive them into George Zimmerman's face."

Later in the morning, West accused Jeantel of not calling police after Martin's phone went dead because she thought it was a fight he had provoked.

"That's why you weren't worried. That's why you didn't do anything because Trayvon Martin started the fight, and you knew that," West said.

"No sir!" Jeantel said. "I don't know what you're talking about."

At one point, West handed her a letter she had written with the help of a friend to Martin's mother explaining what happened. She looked at it but then said she couldn't read cursive handwriting. Jeantel later explained she is of Haitian descent and grew up speaking Creole and Spanish.

After Jeantel left the witness stand, a mobile phone manager testified about Martin's cell phone records and a former neighbor of Zimmerman testified she heard yelps for help outside her townhome on the night Martin was shot. Jenna Lauer said she couldn't tell who was screaming.

"They were being hurt," Lauer said, describing the person screaming.

Before court recessed for the day, O'Mara asked another former neighbor to recreate for jurors how she reacted when she heard what turned out to be a gunshot and ran out of her town-house to see what was going on. The request had Selma Mora in the unusual position of standing up from the witness stand and pretending to be in her kitchen in front of the judge's bench.

[♥ [[Ash]]]

Posted: 07/01/2013 12:13 pm EDT | Updated: 07/01/2013 4:26 pm EDT

SANFORD, Fla. -- Jurors in the George Zimmerman murder trial on Monday heard a recording of the neighborhood watch volunteer describing his fatal encounter with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin to a police officer soon after it happened.

Zimmerman said in that first police interview that he saw Martin walking through his neighborhood on a dark, rainy night while Zimmerman was driving to the grocery store. He told Officer Doris Singleton that he didn't recognize Martin and that there had been recent break-ins at his townhome complex.


"These guys always get away," Zimmerman told Singleton, a statement similar to one that prosecutors have used previously to try to show that Zimmerman was increasingly frustrated with the burglaries and his encounter with Martin was a breaking point.

Zimmerman told the police officer that he lost track of Martin and got out of his truck to look for a street name he could relay to police dispatcher. When the dispatcher suggested Zimmerman didn't need to follow Martin, Zimmerman started to head back to his vehicle. At that point, Zimmerman said Martin jumped out of some bushes, punched him and he fell to the ground.

Zimmerman said that Martin began hitting his head against the sidewalk as Zimmerman yelled for help and that Martin told him, "You're going to die tonight."

With Zimmerman's shirt and jacket pushed up during the struggle and his holstered gun now visibile, he thought Martin was reaching for his firearm holstered around his waist. Zimmerman told the officer that he shot Martin and the teen said, "You got me."

Prosecutors played the police interview Monday after calling an FBI audio expert to the witness stand. Prosecutors called FBI expert Hirotaka Nakasone to focus on the issue of who was screaming for help on 911 calls during the confrontation. Jurors were played the 911 calls several times last week.

The recordings are crucial pieces of evidence because they could determine who the aggressor was in the confrontation. Martin's family contends it was the teen screaming, while Zimmerman's father has said it was his son.

Even though he was a pre-trial witness for the defense, prosecutors called Nakasone to set up later testimony from either the teen's mother or father that they believe it was their son yelling for help.

During his pre-trial testimony, Nakasone testified that there wasn't enough clear sound to determine whether Zimmerman or Martin was screaming on the best 911 sample, an assertion he repeated Monday.

"It's not fit for the purpose of voice comparison," Nakasone said.

Nakasone also said guessing a person's age by voice is "complicated" in general, and it was impossible to determine with the 911 sample he heard.

The FBI expert said that it's easier for a person with a familiarity of a voice to identify it than someone who has never heard it previously. That is especially true if the recording is of a subject screaming and the person trying to identify the voice has heard the subject under similarly stressful circumstances previously, Nakasone said.

But under cross-examination by defense attorney Don West, Nakasone said there was a risk of increased listener bias if people trying to identify a voice are listening to a sample in a group, as Martin's parents did, rather than individually.

"There might be a risk of bias included in the end results," Nakasone said.

Nakasone's pretrial testimony, along with other defense experts, helped keep two prosecution audio experts from testifying. One prosecution expert ruled out that it was Zimmerman screaming on the 911 call and the other thought it was the teen.

Judge Debra Nelson ruled that the methods used by the experts aren't reliable.

More than 20 witnesses last week testified during the opening week of a testimony in a trial that has opened up national debates about race, equal justice, self-defense and gun control.

Zimmerman has said he fatally shot the teen in February 2012 in self-defense as the Miami-area black teenager was banging his head into the concrete sidewalk behind the townhomes in a gated community. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. The state argued during its opening statement that Zimmerman profiled and followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.

[♥ [[Ash]]]

George Zimmerman Trial: Jury To Ponder Conflicting Testimony


By KYLE HIGHTOWER and MIKE SCHNEIDER 07/06/13 02:47 AM ET EDT AP



SANFORD, Fla. -- Jurors in the George Zimmerman trial are heading into their weekend with a lot of courtroom drama and conflicting testimony to digest.

Friday's action-packed session saw the prosecution rest its case, and the judge reject a defense request to acquit Zimmerman of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year.

The mothers of both Martin and Zimmerman listened to the same 911 recording of someone screaming for help, and each said she was convinced the voice was that of her own son.

The question of whose voice is on the recording could be crucial to the jury in deciding who was the aggressor in the confrontation between the neighborhood watch volunteer and the teenager.

"I heard my son screaming," Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, said firmly after she was played a recording in which distant, high-pitched wails could be heard in the background as a Zimmerman neighbor asked a dispatcher to send police. Moments later on the call, there was a gunshot and the crying stopped.

Gladys Zimmerman, though, testified she recognized the voice all too well: "My son." Asked how she could be certain, she said: "Because it's my son."

Martin's half brother, 22-year-old Jahvaris Fulton, testified that the cries came from the teen. And Zimmerman's uncle, Jose Meza, said he knew it was Zimmerman's voice from "the moment I heard it. ... I thought, that is George."

After Friday's session was over, defense attorney Mark O'Mara told reporters "there will be a lot of other witnesses" who will testify that the voice on the call is George Zimmerman's.

"But we'll just present the case," he said. "We're just getting started."

Gladys Zimmerman was the defense's first witness. O'Mara said he expects to call "several" of the state's 38 witnesses back as well when trial resumes Monday, and he left open the possibility that he would try to introduce toxicology evidence showing Martin had marijuana in his system at the time he died. Judge Debra Nelson has denied the admission of that evidence for the time being.

O'Mara may also call witnesses who he says have stated that Zimmerman was not a racist. Part of the prosecution's theory is that Zimmerman profiled Martin as one of the young black men he'd called law enforcement about as being possible suspects in burglaries in his townhome community weeks prior to the shooting.

O'Mara said he could rest his case as soon as next week.

Immediately after the state rested Friday, he asked Nelson to acquit Zimmerman, arguing that the prosecution had failed to prove its case.

O'Mara said an "enormous" amount of evidence showed that Zimmerman acted in self-defense, and he argued that Zimmerman had reasonable grounds to believe he was in danger, and acted without the "ill will, hatred and spite" necessary to prove second-degree murder.

But prosecutor Richard Mantei countered: "There are two people involved here. One of them is dead, and one of them is a liar."

Mantei told the judge that Zimmerman had changed his story, that his account of how he shot Martin was "a physical impossibility," and that he exaggerated his wounds.

After listening to an hour and a half of arguments from both sides, Nelson refused to throw out the murder charge, saying the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence for the case to go on.

Earlier in the day, Sybrina Fulton introduced herself to the jury by describing herself as having two sons, one of whom "is in heaven." She sat expressionless on the witness stand while prosecutors played the 911 recording.

"Who do you recognize that to be?" prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda asked her.

"Trayvon Benjamin Martin," she replied.

During cross-examination, O'Mara suggested – haltingly, in apparent recognition of the sensitivity of the questioning – that Fulton may have been influenced by others who listened to the 911 call, including relatives and her former husband.

O'Mara asked Fulton hypothetically whether she would have to accept that it was Zimmerman yelling for help if the screams did not come from her son. He also asked Fulton whether she hoped Martin didn't do anything that led to his death.

"I would hope for this to never have happened and he would still be here," she said.

O'Mara asked Jahvaris Fulton why he told a reporter last year that he wasn't sure if the voice belonged to Martin. Jahvaris Fulton explained that he was "shocked" when he heard it.

"I didn't want to believe it was him," he said.

The doctor who performed an autopsy on Martin also took the stand. Associate Medical Examiner Shiping Bao started describing Martin as being in pain and suffering after he was shot, but defense attorneys objected and the judge directed Bao away from that line of questioning.

He later estimated that Martin lived one to 10 minutes after he was shot, and said the bullet went from the front to the back of the teen's chest, piercing his heart.

"There was no chance he could survive," Bao said.

With jurors out of the courtroom, Bao acknowledged under defense questioning he had changed his opinion in recent weeks on two matters related to the teen's death – how long Martin was alive after being shot and the effect of marijuana detected in Martin's body at the time of his death.

Bao said last November that he believed Martin was alive one to three minutes. He also said Friday that marijuana could have affected Martin physically or mentally; he said the opposite last year.

[♥ [[Ash]]]

UPDATE - Jul. 10, 2013 7:46 PM ET
Defense rests case in George Zimmerman trial
By MIKE SCHNEIDER and KYLE HIGHTOWER



SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — After taking less than a week to call 18 witnesses, George Zimmerman's defense attorneys rested their case Wednesday in the neighborhood watch volunteer's second-degree murder trial.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys planned to work out the jury instructions before they present closing arguments Thursday. Judge Debra Nelson said the case could be sent to the six jurors as early as Friday.

Zimmerman never testified. But jurors saw repeated video recordings of Zimmerman telling his side of the story to investigators. He claims that he shot Trayvon Martin, who was unarmed, in self-defense while the teen straddled and punched him.

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara told reporters that Zimmerman wanted to testify but his attorneys felt he had already told his version of events in multiple police interviews played for jurors.

"I think he really wanted to be able to interact with this jury and say to them 'This is what I did and this is why I did it. And as importantly, this is what was happening to me at the time that I decided to do what I had to do,'" O'Mara said. "So in that sense, yes, I think he wanted to tell his story."

Still, O'Mara said his client is "worried" as he faced up to a life-sentence in prison for what O'Mara called a classic case of self-defense.

Asserting that Zimmerman "believed he did what he had to do to protect himself from great bodily injury that was already been visited on him," O'Mara added, "If we presented evidence that helped the jury understand that, then we've done our job."

The defense started its case last Friday and presented half as many witnesses in half of the time that prosecutors did. Friends, parents and an uncle of the defendant testified that it was Zimmerman screaming for help on a 911 call that captured sounds of the fatal fight. Martin's mother and brother had testified for the prosecution that it was Martin yelling for help.

Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman Sr., was the last witness called by the defense on Wednesday, and he said it's his son yelling for help on the call.

Defense attorneys also called a forensic pathologist who testified that the forensics evidence supports Zimmerman's account of what happened.

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. On the night of the fatal scuffle in February 2012, Martin was visiting his father and his father's fiancee at the same townhome complex where Zimmerman lived.

Zimmerman observed Martin while driving in his neighborhood, called police and the fight ensued after the neighborhood watch volunteer got out of his vehicle.

Some civil rights activists argued that the delay in charging Zimmerman was influenced by Martin's race, and protests were held around the nation in the 44 days between the fatal fight and Zimmerman's arrest. Martin was black and Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.

The defense rested on a day when the judge made two rulings preventing them from introducing certain evidence. Defense attorneys had wanted to present text messages from Trayvon Martin's cellphone that discussed fighting and an animation depicting Zimmerman's fatal fight with Martin. But Nelson sided with prosecutors, who had argued the animation is inaccurate and the texts were irrelevant.

O'Mara said the defense will use the animation in closing arguments.

He also explained that defense attorneys decided not to show that Martin had a small amount of marijuana in his body at the time he died, despite winning a ruling on it from the judge, because it seemed insignificant.

Immediately after the defense rested, prosecutors called their first rebuttal witness — Adam Pollock, the gym owner who had trained Zimmerman. But prosecutors decided not to question Pollock after the judge ruled he couldn't be questioned about a video put on his gym's website showing his court testimony at the trial.

Shortly after, court was adjourned until Thursday morning.

Earlier Wednesday, a former neighbor of Zimmerman's, Olivia Bertalan, described how he had helped her find a lock for her townhome's sliding door and offered any help he could after burglars broke into her home.

"I was just appreciative he was offering a hand and said I could spend time with his wife if I wanted to during the day," she said.

Defense attorneys also called public safety consultant Dennis Root to testify that Martin was in better physical shape than Zimmerman, and that the neighborhood watch volunteer wasn't any athlete.

"He would find himself lacking when compared to Mr. Martin," Root said of Zimmerman.

During cross-examination of Root, prosecutor John Guy used a life-sized foam mannequin in front of the jury to simulate the body positions of Zimmerman and Martin at the time of the shooting.

Straddling the dummy, Guy proposed a scenario in which Martin was on top of Zimmerman and asked Root if it was possible that Martin was backing away from Zimmerman at the time of the fatal gunshot.

"Yes," Root said.

Using the same mannequin during further questioning of Root, O'Mara challenged the notion of Martin retreating. Root said that while multiple gun angles were possible, he had no specific information to say what position Martin was in when he was shot.

"I think you're not going to be involved in a conflict like this without it being dynamic," Root said.

[♥ [[Ash]]]

Eric Holder Says Trayvon Martin's Death Was An 'Unnecessary Shooting'


First Posted: 07/08/13 EDT Updated: 07/15/13 EDT




Attorney General Eric Holder addressed the shooting death of Trayvon Martin on Monday, his first remarks on the subject since the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the Associated Press reports. Zimmerman was cleared of all charges by a six-woman jury in a Florida court on Saturday evening.

Holder said the death of Martin was the result of "a tragic, unnecessary shooting."

"I want to assure you that the Justice Department will continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law," said Holder.

A civil rights case against Zimmerman would have clear hurdles for Justice Department attorneys, reports the AP.

The report says that mounting a federal case against Zimmerman could be tougher than the case the state of Florida made, which concluded Saturday with Zimmerman's acquittal. The Justice Department opened a probe into Martin's death last year, but later stepped aside to allow Florida prosecutors to succeed.

"There are several factual and legal hurdles that federal prosecutors would have to overcome," Alan Vinegrad, the former US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, told the AP. "They'd have to show not only that the attack was unjustified, but that Mr. Zimmerman attacked Mr. Martin because of his race and because he was using a public facility, the street." For the full story, click here.

According to the Miami Herald, FBI records on the case released last Thursday would further complicate a federal case. FBI documents based on interviews with nearly three dozen people reveal that agents weren't able to determine that racial bias was a motivating factor in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. For the full story, click here.

Finally, White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday told reporters that President Obama won't involve himself in decisions by the Justice Department on whether to pursue civil rights charges against George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. According to the AP, Carney added that it would be be inappropriate for Obama to express an opinion on how the department deals with Zimmerman. On Sunday, Obama urged "calm reflection" from Americans following Saturday's explosive verdict.