ABC News has been given a photograph that might make the difference between life in prison and a walk. For weeks, we have been discussing the case and the application of the Stand Your Ground law. As discussed earlier, I think the case was over-charged and I remain doubtful of a conviction. This picture will likely be the single most important piece of evidence in the case. It shows Zimmerman with significant blood on the back of his head — an image that supports accounts from the scene and will be used to corroborate Zimmerman’s account of a struggle with Trayvon Martin where he feared serious bodily injury. [UPDATE: Zimmerman granted bond].
Unlike the photos of Zimmerman at the police station, this photo was taken a few minutes after the fight. Zimmerman’s shaved head could prove Godsend for Zimmerman. Had he had longer hair, the injury would have not appeared so stark.
The photo shows both cuts and a contusion — injuries that would normally be defined as serious bodily injury by many courts in torts cases where head injuries are treated as inherently potentially serious. The original police report said that he was bleeding from the nose and head and that his clothes looked like he had been in a fight. Zimmerman claims that it was Martin who jumped him, punched him, and pounded his head on to the concrete sidewalk.
The prosecutors can still argue that they do not contest the fight but that Zimmerman started it. However, with this photo, the charge of second-degree murder appears even more excessive and undermines Special Prosecutor Angela Corey’s claim that she was not affected by the political pressure to charge Zimmerman. I can understand a manslaughter charge, even with the photo, but no reasonable prosecutor would consider the second-degree murder charge as based on this evidence. Corey clearly must have seen this photo and the reports before her charging of Zimmerman.
The photo should also assist Zimmerman in his efforts to get bail.
Zimmerman, 28, is still being held on charges of second-degree murder of Martin, 17. In my view, a denial of bail would be an abuse and unwarranted given the fact that Zimmerman cooperated at the scene and voluntarily turned himself in.
Source: ABC
And now people here will discount the fact that Martin was a young man too. “newer photos have been released. Martin, while not a child, was certainly not a large man”.
You know that for fact do you? 6’3″ 140-160lbs(based on the autopsy report) is a decent sized young MAN.
The head bleeds like a stuck pig even when slight cuts happen. They were not treated with band-aids or the like. The blood was washed off by the paramedics with no doctor treatment required. They didn’t need further attention.
Martin, since he was not doing any crime, had the right to resist Zimmerman who was pursuing him even after an authority (911 dispatcher) told him not to.
Bosco,
You wrote:
Regarding bias Elaine, just based on your own words of comparisons to the shooting alone…
“If my teenage child– not to follow my child, –who killed my child.”
Your also insinuating that Martin was a ‘child’ . Of course you would be correct is the only pictures released of Martin were very RECENT to the time of his death. They are NOT. Martin was a young man .That is a biased point of view on yours and others part here.
**********
Yes, I wrote my child because Trayvon Martin was someone’s child. We all are. What should I have written?
I’d feel the same way if my ADULT child were killed by a neighborhood watchman and allowed to go free without any charges being brought against him.
Are you a parent? Do you have a child/children? Are they not still our children no matter how old they are?
OK LInda,,so firstly everyone like you were making the statements..’look at that video, he has NO injuries -everyone is lying’
Now that there is the first photo showing Zimmerman’s head right after the incident in which he WAS injured and now you would discount it.
Linda,,where you there as one of the acting EMTs to inspect and treat his injuries ? Do you know first hand how bad the injuries were?,,first its ‘he never was hurt’,,next ‘oh that injury was only a scratch’ Its amazing how people can be.
Linda Oleksa – I, as an EMT, have seen a SERIOUS injury to the top of somones head. There was a lot of blood on him and on the ground but at the time we got on scene the bleeding had, for the most part, stopped. How serious of an injury was it? When we got to the ER they laid him on the table and pulled the skin back and you could, literally, see the top of the actual skull. In my opinion with the picture, absolutely that is a serious injury. Any injury to the head is a serious one due to the fact of symptoms it can cause that Elaine M. posted at 10:27 this morning up above.
Bosco, newer photos have been released. Martin, while not a child, was certainly not a large man.
Matt,
You’re putting words in my mouth. I never said Zimmerman walked up to Trayvon and confronted him. That’s your perception of what I wrote.
You lean toward Zimmerman because he had injuries–the seriousness of which we do not know yet–and not to Trayvon Martin who was a teenager who was shot with a gun and killed by Zimmerman when he was walking home.
READ the police report filed by Officer Ayala the night of the crime. It says that they came, they saw Martin on the ground face-down, they told Zimmerman to give up his gun and he did, he mentioned calling for help and nobody helping, etc. etc. etc. in lots of detail. NOT ONE WORD ABOUT PHOTOS HAVING BEEN TAKEN ON THE SCENE. IF this is evidence — IF — IF this is evidence, I am not sure what it is evidence OF. It doesn’t prove ANYTHING to me. Zimmerman immediately started talking “self-defense” that night — but would he not do that in any circumstance? More important to me than the condition of Zimmerman’s head is the entire record of what went down that night and no, I don’t think injuries to an aggressor while he is killing somebody mitigate his crime. Furthermore, I think that Angela Corey, who is obviously a very smart prosecutor, would have had the affidavit DEAL WITH THIS PHOTO if it were really part of the evidence that had been presented to her during her investigation. THink about it: She dealt with the “punks” allegation; she would have dealt with this as well. What does the official report of the EMT on the scene say? Let’s figure THIS one out: Was any of Zimmerman’s blood on Trayvon’s body?
EVIDENCE, EVIDENCE. If I were Corey, I would take this to trial and I would plan on winning. If I were Corey, I would have seen this photograph before I brought Murder 2 charges in a career-making or career-breaking case. And if I were Corey, I would be ambitious. Check it out.
Regarding bias Elaine, just based on your own words of comparisons to the shooting alone…
“If my teenage child– not to follow my child, –who killed my child.”
Your also insinuating that Martin was a ‘child’ . Of course you would be correct is the only pictures released of Martin were very RECENT to the time of his death. They are NOT. Martin was a young man .That is a biased point of view on yours and others part here.
This photo does not show a “serious injury” on his head. It shows some scrapes. If this was taken three minutes after the incident and the blood hasn’t even trickled down past his collar, there’s not that much blood to begin with. Anyone who’s ever had or seen a scalp wound knows how much they bleed.
I’m not much for stunt reporting, but I’d actually love for some reporter to shave his head and show on camera how shallow these wounds must be. Geraldo, I’m looking at you — you owe us one.
Elaine – you are also assuming that Trayvons’ “girlfriend” was telling the truth 100%. Again, you can’t use her words because that’s hear-say. Do you really think the girlfriend of any person is going to say something that would “incriminate” their significant other? Answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT or in my worlds….HELL NO! lol
Elaine – “You simply don’t get to pursue a child, and then use deadly force when the child gets justifiably scared enough to defend himself.” I agree with Bosco, he was NOT a child. If he had commited a crime he would not have been “child” in the courts eyes. Also, he did not walk up, start to talk to the guy and then shoot him. There was a fight that broke out. Who threw the first punch? Who knows besides Zimmerman and Trayvon, but I lean more towards Zimmerman due to his injuries. You make it sound like Zimmerman walked up and confronted him and then just shot him because he didn’t like him.
Bosco,
You’re claiming I’m biased BECAUSE I want the truth to come out in a trial. If Zimmerman had never been charged, we would never know the truth. We’d just have his side of th story. Let’s hope the trial will bring the truth to light.
Matt,
There was nothing wrong with Trayvon Martin walking home to the house where he was staying in the gated community. There was nothing wrong with his asking Zimmerman–a stranger–why he was following him.
If some stranger were following me as I walked home, I’d be frightened. I’d think the person following me was a “suspicious” person.
Thanks for the story Darren, good way to highlight the importance of knowing the full story.
This brings up a lot of questions…
But the biggest one, in my mind, is the blood trails.
Did he never stand up straight after getting cut? If he had, would the blood not have bleed straight down the base of his skull? The upper/left cut mainly bleeds towards his left ear, while the cut on the right mainly runs to the right…just not the blood trails I would expect to see from someone who’s been in a scuffle, had his head ‘slammed’ into the concrete, waited around for the police.
I just don’t see how the blood could run in opposite directions if he was in any position other than the sitting/kneeling with head down position he is shown in the photo.
Not to mention concrete doesn’t give you small cuts, it causes scrapes and abrasions…. These just don’t look consistent with the story.
I also wonder why, after only 4 hours, he shows up at the station without any bandages and being totally cleaned up? (If you’ve ever had a bloody cut, you know it takes a serious scrubbing to get the dried blood off)
Where are the mug shots? I’d think they’d show definitive evidence of a broken nose. I’d also assume in the case of someone claiming self-defense that the police would have taken a lot of evidence photos after he was cleaned up…they always do.
Something about this picture just does not compute with everything else we’ve seen/heard.
Is it biased to want ALL the FACTS to come out BEFORE we JUDGE anyone?
Amazing how people here can and do paint a biased picture by slanting the overall facts contradictory to how we know them to be.
“You simply don’t get to pursue a child, and then use deadly force when the child gets justifiably scared enough to defend himself.”
On top of the obvious ASSUMPTIONS to this statement, Martin at the time of his unfortunate death was NOT a ‘child’ . He was a YOUNG MAN at 6’3″ and approx between 140-160lbs. Not as he was in the ONLY photos released of him when he was a child.
Bosco,
It seems to me you that YOU are the one with a biased and slanted point of view.
Bosco – I agree with that also, we tend to agree. lol
SlingTrebuchet – Zimmerman was also going through schooling to become a police officer (criminal justice). I am not saying that gives him the ability or right to “act as a police officer.” Zimmerman was not actually part of a neighborhood watch program, he was a self appointed, so the rules you posted do not apply per-se. In the eyes of the state of Florida (as with ohio for me) believe that he was all the right in the world to carry a gun. There are a lot of steps involved in getting a license to carry a gun, including a VERY extensive background check that is sent through the FBI, the same background check that is used to enter into the military (I know because I was in the military also). He was not in the wrong for carrying the gun because he was a licensed individual, or else the police would have arrested him that night.
Elaine M. – Again I state, there was nothing wrong or illegal with Zimmerman following Trayvon, I would have done the same thing if I saw someone who I thought was “suspicious” walking through my neighborhood. You don’t know for a FACT that Zimmerman instigated or brought the confrontation upon himself.
PollyAnna, I’ve had a few instances of reaction, reading this blog, where legalities and legalisms trump everything, and I don’t like it, but it’s their (legal beagles) show. If you want to get a taste for being blinded by the light — in this case from the strictly defense attorney pov — take a trip to “Talkleft” and watch Jeralyn slobber everytime there’s an opportunity to get some heinous deeandant off the hook. You may already be familiar.